Undergraduate Study
INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS
About the Department
The Department includes a blend of youthful and experienced staff, all of them committed to delivering excellent and enthusiastic teaching. Geographically, course offerings spread out from Scotland and Europe to encompass America, Asia and Africa. Chronologically students are offered a coherent series of courses ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day. At the honours level, students may opt to specialise in a particular area (such as Scotland, Ireland or America), in a particular period (medieval, early modern or modern), or in a particular theme (such as political history, imperial history or economic history). Alternatively there is no obstacle to combining a broad range of subjects from European to Japanese, or from medical to gender history. Aberdeen University offers excellent facilities for history students in the Queen Mother Library and the University's Archives and Special Libraries. The Department received the highest ranking of any History Department in Scotland in the 2008 Research Asessment Exercise.
History is one of the broadest disciplines which one can study at university. The subject involves examining all aspects of human activity in the past - political, social, economic and cultural - and the past may be studied at the level of the individual, the locality, the nation, the continent or the world. Historians seek explanations for individual and group behaviour. The intellectual discipline required to make sense of these complexities of the past involves acquiring, evaluating and processing evidence so as to produce rational explanations in clearly expressed form.
How often do I meet with a member of staff?
All Aberdeen courses are taught by full members of staff. Some tutorials at first and second year a taken by postgraduate students studying for a PhD but this has never been for more than 30% of the department’s tutorials.
Is that the only contact with staff?
No, the Aberdeen history department operates both an open-door policy (we’ll try to make time for you if you stop by) and has regular office hours (for most staff that’s 2-3 hours per week when we guarantee we’ll be there to chat with you).
Who marks my work?
At Aberdeen, course work is marked by the course co-ordinator (a full member of staff) and tutorial work by tutors (who are occasionally PhD students). All exam work and work in third and fourth year is marked by a full member of staff.
What kind of feedback can I expect on my work so I can do better the next time?
Staff in the Aberdeen history department return work personally so that you can be sure that you’ll have some one-to-one meetings with staff to discuss your work, the course, and anything else you might feel like asking about.
What are the class sizes?
At Aberdeen in first and second year, tutorials are no more than 14 students; third year classes are capped at 24 students and the fourth year special subject has no more than 14 students in a class.
What limitation is there on my course choice?
Aberdeen history courses have no prerequisites so you don’t have to worry that taking a specific course at first year will limit your choices in later years.
How many courses can I choose from in each year?
At Aberdeen, we offer three courses per semester at first and second year and roughly two dozen third-year courses and about a dozen special subjects in fourth year.
I want to do a mix of history courses, some Scottish and some non-Scottish, can I?
At Aberdeen, Scottish history is fully integrated into the entire history department. You can chose how much or how little you want to do.
I want to do some medieval and some modern history, can I?
As a single history ‘department’, rather than a number of ‘departments’ in a ‘school’ all Aberdeen history courses are open to every history student.
I want to do Scottish history and mostly Scottish history before 1800, can I?
Here at Aberdeen we let YOU construct your own degree from the whole menu of courses on offer in any given year. You can specialise (or not) to suit your interests.
What if I want a more thematic approach with less emphasis on a period (say, early modern) or place (for example, Europe)?
Of course, history at Aberdeen offers a range of thematic options relating to: culture (we even have a whole degree in Cultural History!), gender (with a degree programme in Gender Studies), imperialism, medical history, etc. Again, the programme you construct is only limited by what we can offer in a given year – and we always aim to provide the widest possible balance and range of courses.
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