Program Overview

 Address some of the contemporary world's most pressing problems and explore their roots in the past with our BA History and Politics.

Discover a thousand years of history while experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The Department of History's expertise covers a wide and diverse range of regions, from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East. 100% of our research is of international standing (REF 2021, combining 4*, 3* and 2* submissions – History).

In your first year, your core modules will explore people, politics and revolution – finding out how people struggled for power in past societies – and the culture and concepts those societies developed. We will teach you the skills you need to study and research history through an individual project of your choice. This joint degree enables you to address contemporary issues and trace them back to their historical roots.

The University of Reading ranks in the top 100 for Arts and Humanities globally (=92 in QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2025), in the top 125 universities in the world offering History, Philosophy and Theology (Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject, 2025) and 5th in the UK for politics (the Daily Mail University Guide 2025).

97% of our research outputs are rated ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, meaning that the University of Reading is 6th highest in the UK for research outputs (Times Higher Education analysis of the latest REF 2021 – Politics and International Studies, when scoring by GPA Output).

By studying undergraduate politics, you will acquire a strong grounding in the fundamental elements of the subject such as political ideas and democratic processes. You can study a wide range of specialist core and optional modules, which cover topics such as British government and politics, European political integration, and political thinking.

You will be taught in small interactive seminar groups, encouraging discussion and debate with teaching staff and fellow students. We place a great deal of importance on employability skills in both sides of your degree, and our modules History Education, Discovering Archives and Collections, and Going Public all offer students short work placements and act as an introduction to possible career paths. In the National Student Survey 2024, 98% of our students said teaching staff are good at explaining things (National Student Survey 2024, 97.73% of responders from the Department of History). 

You have the option to apply to study abroad on this joint degree. Some of the universities we have links with include University of Maastricht, Netherlands; University of Georgia, USA; and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.