BA History and Economics

With our BA History and Economics you can understand the cultures and societies that shaped the past and explore the critical economic issues that influence the world today.
Discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The History Department's expertise covers a wide and diverse range of regions – from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East – and periods, with module choices ranging from the Crusades to the 1960s, slavery in America to Tudor monarchy, and Cold War Berlin to medieval magic.
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.
In economics, you will study practical issues and explore the relationship between economics and society. This course places less emphasis on mathematical and statistical content, and instead you will focus on the relevance of these techniques to applied problems. You will still learn necessary maths skills in your core modules, but extensive support is available should you need it. Your core modules span a number of topics including business, policy, economic history and even the economics of climate change.
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 Going Public all offer students short work placements and act as an introduction to possible career paths. In economics, students can take a year out to complete a paid placement.
You can study abroad for a term in your second year at one of the University's partner institutions, including those in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.