BA Ancient and Medieval History

About the Course

If you are interested in the ancient and medieval worlds, their history, society and culture, then the BA in Ancient and Medieval History is the degree for you. A degree in Ancient and Medieval history at Trinity Saint David offers a wide range of subjects from myth to knighthood and from Homeric Greece to end of the medieval period. It trains you to use a variety of source materials from both periods, with opportunities to learn how to use both ancient inscriptions and medieval manuscripts.

The first year aims to provide the necessary basis of knowledge on the history of the ancient and medieval worlds and an introduction to ancient and medieval societies and cultures. In the second and third years, you will have the opportunity to widen your studies into a variety of different areas of interest from the Homeric world to the Cistercians, and specialise in areas of your choice. Options are also available to study selected modules in the wider Faculty of Humanities, for example in Egyptology and medieval Literature. The culmination of the degree, and a module in which these specialisms can especially be combined, is the dissertation, where you are free to pursue a topic of your choice in line with our range of research and publication specialisms. Students are also given the opportunity to participate in the wider research community and are always welcome at our weekly research seminar series, which feature speakers from around the world.

Incorporated into our Ancient and Medieval History degree are opportunities for study abroad with our partners at Bologna (Italy), Tarragona (Spain) and Hobart and William Smith (USA). Whilst on the Lampeter campus, you will be taught by staff from the School of Classics as well as from the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology, making sure that you always have expert support and access to the latest research in the field. Smaller than average group sizes means that classes are always friendly and are never intimidating. The small size also allows staff in the two Schools to get to know most, if not all, of their students on a first name basis.

This collegial atmosphere is reinforced through the offering of an excellent and rigorous student support network - every student has a personal tutor, and both Schools’ dedicated First Year Tutors and Welfare Officers are always on hand should extra support be required.

We also support the very active student-led Medieval Re-enactment and Ancient Civilisations societies. Check out their facebook pages for more information.

Award
BA (Single Honours)

UCAS Code
V115

Course Length
3 years full-time; part-time study available

Entry Requirements

Our general offer ranges from 240-260 UCAS points, usually over 3 A levels, with at least a C in a historically based subject. However, each individual case is taken on merit. Of greater importance are your personal statements, references and your potential. You may be invited to interview to help us better assess this.

Career Opportunities

  • Teaching
  • Heritage (library, archives,museum, tourism)
  • Postgraduate research
  • General administrative and management posts
  • Business and commerce

Employment details

There is no one path for our Ancient and Medieval History graduates. The traditional routes of teaching, museum and heritage and research – governmental, academic and media – are still pursued by our graduating cohort. However, the programme of embedded employability offered by the School of Classics and the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at Trinity Saint David and the benefit of gaining skills from two separate academic schools ensures that you have a broad skills set and the confidence to utilise it.

Our graduates have explored options from the civil service to the creative arts, from journalism to the business world, with a good selection of entrepreneurial spirits applying what they have learnt to the creation of their own companies. Taking all that they have gained from studying Ancient and Medieval History with us and combining it with a dedicated Careers Service, Ancient and Medieval History graduates from Trinity Saint David are equipped to follow their passions wherever they may lead.

Campus

Lampeter Campus

Typical modules

  • Introduction to Medieval Studies
  • Defenders, Conquerors, Vanquished: Greek and Hellenistic History
  • Medieval Europe: from Charlemagne to the 100yrs War
  • Sparta: an Extraordinary City
  • Wars of the Roses
  • The City of Rome: People, Power and Politics

Key Features

  • Opportunity to study the history of two popular periods
  • Participate in fieldwork at important local historical sites
  • Study manuscripts in our nationally acclaimed Special Collections
  • Teaching in small groups

Further Information

Assessment methods

A degree in Ancient and Medieval History involves a wide range of assessment methods. In addition to traditional gobbet work, essays and exams, you will be assessed through bibliographic exercises, presentations – oral and powerpoint based, at both individual and group level – creation of abstracts, document reports, book reviews, in-house conference papers, article reviews, group wikis, reflective reports, take home exams and, of course, the dissertation. This breadth of assessment type creates variety in the student experience, allowing you to explore the subject in different ways, and also embeds within the Ancient and Medieval History programme the specific employability skills desired, indeed required, by employers today.

Learning and Teaching methods

Providing our students with a range of learning opportunities and excellent teaching is the primary aim of the School of Classics. We employ innovative methods and approaches that enhance our students’ learning throughout their studies.

All our degrees are modular. Full-time students are required to take 120 credits at each level of study. A full-time student will normally take 6 modules a year, each worth 20 credits – 3 per semester. Part-time students are required to take between 40 and 60 credits a year.

All our undergraduate modules are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops. Lectures offer students the opportunity to be introduced to specific aspects of a module. Seminars are opportunities for group-discussion and debate. Workshops allow students to explore aspects of a module in an autonomous fashion, often in a practical manner, under the lecturer’s supervision. On average undergraduate students spend about 12 hours per week in class and about 30 hours per week in class and assignment preparation.

Our students enjoy the use of an excellent suite of subject-specific resources, both electronic and hard-copy at the Learning Resources Centre. All our modules are taught with the support of innovative e-learning techniques via our Virtual Learning Environment. The School of Classics makes great use of its VLE: we podcast and/or vidcast every lecture, post all powerpoints and handouts and utilise the space for links, discussions and group work. Our VLE is a live forum through which students and staff can interact, through which students are able better to revise and explore difficult topics and through which students are better able to access the electronic resources available in the virtual world.

All our modules are taught by specialists and active researchers. The influence of our research on our teaching offers our students the opportunity to learn from the best in the subject and follow the latest scholarly trends and discoveries, whilst our independent study modules allow you to explore your passion in its entirety. There are also opportunities for study abroad.

Studying Ancient and Medieval History with us here at Trinity Saint David means research-led teaching and research-active learning in an environment that allows for both full use of the virtual world and the personal approach of expert tuition.