BA English and History
Royal Holloway, University of London
About this course
BA in English Language and Literature and History, a joint honours programme combining literary study with historical inquiry. Core topics include Research Methods, Historical Research, and Critical & Analytical Thinking. History in the Making serves as the first-year foundation module, assessed through a group poster project and presentation. Creative Writing is available as an optional module.
Written by AI from the university's course page and module list. It can get details wrong, so check the official course page before you rely on it.
Entry requirements
A level: ABB-BBB (Required subjects: A Level B in an essay-based subject We require English Language and Mathematics GCSE at grade 4 (C)) IB: 6,5,5 at Higher level or 32 points overall. Including a 5 in an essay-based subject at Higher Level
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Real offers for this course
Applicants have posted 1 UCAS decision for BA English and History (QV31) at Royal Holloway, University of London for 2027 entry so far. The published offer is ABB at A level.
What students say
Based on about 12 final-year students who answered (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 95%
- Learning opportunities: 92%
- Assessment and feedback: 99%
- Academic support: 97%
- Organisation and management: 97%
- Learning resources: 94%
- Student voice: 96%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 15 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 95%
- Left higher education: 5%
What graduates do next
Based on about 17 graduates who answered (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 45%
- Working and studying: 10%
- Further study: 20%
- Unemployed: 10%
Most common jobs
- Business and public service associate professionals: 30%
- Administrative occupations: 20%
- Sales occupations: 20%
- Media Professionals: 10%
- Elementary occupations: 10%
- Find their work meaningful: 75%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 45%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 25%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 275 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North East: 1%
- North West: 1%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 2%
- East Midlands: 1%
- West Midlands: 3%
- East of England: 12%
- London: 33%
- South East: 37%
- South West: 7%
- Wales: 2%
Who gets in
Based on about 10 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 90%
- Baccalaureate: 10%
Accreditation & quality ratings
TEF 2023 (whole university): Silver overall, Silver for student experience, Silver for student outcomes.
Modules
- Encountering Medieval Literature: From Beowulf to Chaucer
- Shakespeare
- Literature and Crisis
- History in the Making
- Gods, Men and Power: An Introduction to the Ancient World, from Homer to Mohammed
- Republics, Kings and People: The Foundations of European Political Thought from Plato to Rousseau
- From Renaissance to Revolutions: Europe and the World, 1500-1800
- Conflict and Identity in Modern Europe, c. 1770 to 2000
- From Mao to Bin Laden: Twentieth-Century Leaders in the Non-Western World
- Rome to Renaissance: An Introduction to the Middle Ages
- Middle English Poetry
- Tolkien's Roots
- Medieval Dream and Vision
- Strange Fictions: Romance in the Middle Ages
- Renaissance Literature
- Intensive Shakespeare: Comedy, History, Tragedy
- Drama and Witchcraft
- Early Modern Bodies
- Literature after the Conquest: 1066-1340
- Victorian Literature
- Romanticisms
- Creative Writing: Structure and Style
- Literature of the Fin de Siècle, 1883-1903
- Contemporary Debates in Literary and Critical Theory
- Modernisms
- The British and the World: 1763-1900
- The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic
- The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1000-1250
- The Dark Continent: Europe, 1914-1948
- The Tudor Monarchy 1485-1603
- The Birth of Europe, 400-900
- The Ottomans: The Muslim Empire in the Early Modern World, 1453-1789
- Apocalypse Postponed: The Global Cold War 1945-98
- Virtue and Power: Political Thought from Cicero to Machiavelli
- Everyday Life in the Italian Renaissance
- Vice, Virtue and the Victorians: British History 1837-1901
- The United States in the Twentieth Century
- The Holy Man: Sanctity and the Sacred in Historical Research
- Mutiny to Modi: the Indian subcontinent from the C19th to the present
- Rome and its Empire from Augustus to Commodus
- Religion, Culture and Society in Europe, 1000-1250
- The Sacred and Profane: Cultural Life in Renaissance Europe
- Killing the King: England in an Age of Revolution, 1603-1714
- Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the Americas, 1450-1650
- Byzantine Twilight, 1200-1460
- Safe European Home? Europe 1945-2000
- Gorgeous Georgians?: Society, Culture and Crime, 1714-1830
- The Shock of the New: European Culture and Society 1789-1905
- The Making of the Modern Middle East, 1789-1939
- American Economic Hegemony: Its Rise and Fall, 1941-2012
- Modern British History 1914-1973
- An Empire of Liberty? History of the USA 1787-1877
- The Later Roman Empire
- Byzantium and its Neighbours, 641-1081
- London Urban Society, 1400-1600
- Tudor Queenship: Mary I and Elizabeth I, 1553-1603
- The Crusades and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1291
- Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Freedom Struggle
- Modern Girls: Women in Twentieth-Century Britain
- The Pursuit of Power: the Russian Empire in the Age of Reform and Revolution
- Borderlands: Coexistence and Conflict, Democracy and Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe, 1912-1945
- Modern Political Ideas
- The Devil's Decade: Britain, America and the Great Slump, 1929-41
- Genocide: A Global History
- A History of Terrorism
- Justice, Power and Religion in the Muslim World
- Entangled Histories: The Interconnected Atlantic World, 1500-1800
- Despots and Mullahs: Development and Popular Resistance in the Muslim World, 1910-1980
- Waging Armageddon: WW1 in British Experience and Memory
- The Vietnam War and the Cold War in Southeast Asia
- Children of the Revolution? France from 1789 to the Great War
- Art, Architecture & Power in the Roman World
- The Age of Thatcher
- From Mussolini to Trump: Nationalism, Far Right and Identity Politics in Europe and America, 1919-2016
- Literature and the Digital
- Independent Research Project
- Ideas in Contemporary Fiction
- On Murder
- Advanced Shakespeare: The Problem Plays
- Literature and Philosophy
- Brexit, Literature and Discipline of English
- James Joyce: Revolutions of the Word
- Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Reading Like a Victorian
- First World War Literature
- The Girl in the Book
- Children's Literature
- The Post-Colonial Novel
- Poetic Practice
- Violence, Sex and Magic in Medieval Literature
- Visual and Verbal in the Long Nineteenth Century
- The New York Schools: Poetry, Painting, Composition
- The 1930s British Fiction and the Road to War
- Special Author: Virginia Woolf
- Special Author: Chaucer
- Special Author: Charles Dickens
- Special Author: Herman Melville
- Reading the Waste Land
- Creative Writing Special Focus (Term 1)
- English Dissertation
- Literature, the Digital and the Creative Industries
- The City and the Conqueror: The Fall of Constantinople (1453)
- Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, c.1140 to c.1300
- The Origins of Environmentalism: Critics of Modernity in Britain
- Berlin: A European Metropolis in the Twentieth Century
- A Clash of Powers: The United States, China and the Cold War
- Stalinism
- Christians and Pagans from Constantine to Augustine (AD 306-430)
- Representations of Rule: Authority and Image from Henry VII to Charles II 1485-1660
- Victorian Babylon: Life, Work and People in London, c.1840 to 1890
- The Age of Terror: Terrorism from 1945 - Present
- Britain on Camera: Photography, Film and Society, 1840-1965
- Malcolm X: Islam and Black Protest in America
- The Bomb - A History: Atomic Weaponry and Society in the 20th Century
- Villa, Domus and Palace: Domestic Space and Social Identity in the Roman World
- A Nation Torn Asunder: Civil War America
- The Death of God: From the Enlightenment to Psychoanalysis
- Reformers and Revolutionaries: Monasteries and Society in Europe, c.1050 – 1150
- Explorers and Inventors in Classical and Late Antiquity
- From Inverts to Perverts: Queer Life and Identity in Modern Britain
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA English and History at Royal Holloway, University of London earn?
The median salary is £27,000 after 15 months, £25,500 after 3 years, £31,000 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £25,000 and £40,000. The £31,000 median after five years is £3,000 more than the UK median for Literature in English.
What do graduates of BA English and History at Royal Holloway, University of London do next?
75% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA English and History at Royal Holloway, University of London?
95% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA English and History at Royal Holloway, University of London?
The typical offer is ABB at A level, or 32 points in the IB. The average entrant had 129 UCAS points.
Does BA English and History at Royal Holloway, University of London include a placement year or year abroad?
The course has an optional placement year and an optional year abroad.
How many students continue on BA English and History at Royal Holloway, University of London?
95% of students continued into their second year, and 5% left higher education.