BA Ancient History

About the Course

If you want to know about the history of Greek and Roman societies, then a degree in Ancient History is for you. At Trinity Saint David, our Ancient History scheme allows you to study a wide range of modules covering not only fascinating figures like Alexander the Great, but also basic aspects of everyday life, such as warfare and the economy. We welcome students both with and without prior knowledge of the ancient world on this degree.

In the first year, modules can be taken on a wide range of periods and themes; in the second and third years, the School offers specialised modules on all aspects of Greco-Roman history so that you can gain in-depth knowledge in areas of particular interest to you. Options are also available to study select modules in the wider Faculty of Humanities, for example in Egyptology, Chinese History or Theology. The culmination of the degree is the dissertation, where you are free to pursue a topic of your choice in line with our range of research and publication specialisms.

The School is proud of the wide range of assessment methods used on the course, such as essays, presentations, wikis, web pages and examinations, so that the assessment reflects the student’s performance as a whole. 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 History degree are opportunities for field trips, both locally and to the Mediterranean, as well as opportunities for study abroad with our partners at Bologna (Italy), Tarragona (Spain) and Hobart and William Smith (USA).

We are one of the largest Schools on campus but this does not mean that you will get lost in the crowd - there is a strong sense of community amongst our students and staff. The ratio of staff to students is such that students can have ready and easy access to all their lecturers. Smaller than average group sizes mean that classes are always friendly and are never intimidating. They also allow staff 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 the School’s dedicated First Year Tutor and Welfare Officer are always on hand should extra support be required.

We also support very active student-led Classics and Ancient Civilisations societies, which have organised movie nights and theatre trips and put on plays themselves. Check out their facebook pages for more information.

Award
BA (Single Honours)

UCAS Code
V110

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

Entry Requirements

Whilst our general offer ranges from 240-260 UCAS points, usually over 3 A levels, 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

• Media and Publishing
• Business and Commerce
• Teaching
• Library and Information Services
• Further Study

There is no one path for our Ancient History graduates. The traditional routes of teaching, museum and heritage, the civil service 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 at Trinity Saint David ensures that our Ancient History graduates have the skills set and confidence to explore a wide variety of career paths.

Indeed, our graduating students have explored options from outdoors sports instructors to prison superintendents, from the Armed Forces to careers in the medical environment, 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 History with us and combining it with a dedicated Careers Service, Ancient History graduates from Trinity Saint David are equipped to follow their passions wherever they may lead.

Department

School of Classics

Campus

Lampeter Campus

Typical modules

• Defenders, Conquerors, Vanquished: Greek and Hellenistic History
• From Village to Empire: An Introduction to the History of Rome
• Rise of Rome: Studies in Roman Imperialism
• Sparta: An Extraordinary City
• Armies and Navies: Studies in Ancient Warfare
• Religions in Antiquity

Key Features

• Opportunity to study the political, military, social and cultural history of the ancient world
• Modules ranging from archaic Greece to Late Antiquity
• Local and international fieldtrips
• Innovative teaching methods
• The opportunity to develop your own research project

Programme Specification

Programme Specification ANCIENT HISTORY

Further Information

Joint Routes Available:

BA Ancient History and Anthropology - LV61

The BA Joint Honours Ancient History and Anthropology combines two connected disciplines. Anthropology provides the ancient historian with the opportunity to study different peoples around the world and experience cultures and ideas that can inform one’s study of the ancient world.

BA Ancient History and Classical Studies - QVW1

The BA Joint Honours Ancient History and Classical Studies is the best degree scheme for the student that wants to take a holistic approach to the ancient world, concentrating equally on the political and military history and on the cultures and literatures of the ancient world.

BA Ancient History and Greek - QVT1

The BA Joint Honours Ancient History and Greek is the perfect joint honours combination for the student that has a definite interest in the Greeks. Learning Ancient Greek, which you can do from complete beginners’ level, will give you the opportunity to explore the ancient Greek texts, drama, history, philosophy and others, in considerable depth without the distance of translation.

BA Ancient History and History - V112

The BA Joint Honours Ancient History and History is for the student that wants to pursue the comparisons between the ancient world and today’s societies.

BA Ancient History and Latin - QVQ1

The BA Joint Honours Ancient History and Latin is the most appropriate Joint Honours combination for the student that has a definite interest in the Romans, their history and culture. Learning Latin, which you can do from beginners’ level, will give you the opportunity to study Latin texts in the original without the hindrance of a translation.


Assessment methods

A degree in Ancient 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, reflective reports, in-house conference papers, article reviews, take home exams, group wikis, creation of project plans 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 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 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.