Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Philosophy and English Language

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

This degree is accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS). Students who complete an IBMS portfolio during the placement year, which is successfully verified, receive the award of Applied Biomedical Science. With a career in biomedical science, you could help improve the lives of millions of people suffering from a wide range of diseases. You’ll study the causes, diagnosis and treatments of major diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, blood disorders, respiratory diseases, biochemical and endocrine disorders, and infectious diseases. Once you’ve developed a fundamental understanding of biology and chemistry, you’ll move on to specialised areas such as pathophysiology, molecular biology, haematology, clinical microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, histopathology and transfusion science. You’ll also have the exciting opportunity to study abroad or take a year-long work placement in industry. This degree is accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science and the Royal Society of Biology.

• Biomedical Science involves the study of disease, drugs and other topics related to human health.
• The biomedical sciences are made up of the following disciplines; biochemistry, haematology, immunology, microbiology, histology, cytology, bacteriology and transfusion (blood) technologies.
• In the UK the term 'biomedical scientist' is a protected title used by professionals working within the pathology department of a hospital. This group of healthcare professionals is the second largest profession registered by the Health Professions Council but not all students who study biomedical sciences end up working as biomedical scientists. Many graduates continue in pharmaceutical companies or other research institutes.

Literature can offer new perspectives on familiar themes, as well as open doors to unfamiliar ideas and cultures which are temporally or spatially remote from your own. It is an ideal source for philosophical reflection, exploring and challenging the assumptions that frame the way we think, act and see the world around us.

Our BA Philosophy and English Literature degree encourages you to expand your imaginative capacities and to critically reflect on possibilities for how the world could be, by engaging with a wide variety of perspectives. You will gain skills in understanding how to read and interpret in context, and in how to formulate your own arguments, to arrive at your own conclusions.

In your first year, you might choose to study international and American literature or revisit Shakespeare and consider his cultural relevance today through fictional, cinematic and TV adaptations. In Philosophy, you might explore questions which lie at the heart of much literature, such as whether anything can give meaning to life, and whether our striving to achieve anything of significance is ultimately futile, even ridiculous. The philosophy of film and literature module addresses the assumption that anything is possible in fiction and considers the extent to which that is true.

All our English Literature and Philosophy lecturers are active researchers, so you’ll share the excitement of doing original work in a supportive and highly-rated academic community. Our Philosophy team is in the top 15 in the Guardian League Table 2019 and rates as one of the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide in the 2017 QS rankings.

In your second year, you’ll focus on period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards and gain an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama, via Augustan poetry and the emergence of the novel in the 18th century, to the radical transformations of the Victorian age, and the emergence of modernity in the 20th century. In Philosophy, you’ll choose from a variety of topics, which includes a module on the nature of art, expression and representation (in literary as well as visual art), and modules on influential texts in philosophy, such as Plato’s Republic.

The final year allows for even more opportunity to tailor your degree to reflect your own interests. On the literature side, themed options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, Renaissance tragedy, 21 st century American literature, European crime fiction, literary adaptations and the culture of print in the 18th century. A wide variety of Philosophy modules are available, including modules on feminist philosophy, the nature of language and meaning, and a module on Nietzsche, who is well-known for his literary style.

• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
• An exceptional academic team, conducting internationally renowned research
• Stimulating, innovative courses that allow you to make rewarding connections between two disciplines
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities

Our Politics and History programme gives you the opportunity to study current challenges in national and international politics while gaining an understanding of the wider historical context of our modern world. 

The course brings together the two naturally close disciplines of Politics and History through a focus on political history. Studying history and politics in tandem will develop your ability to understand how people lived and thought in the past, and the ways in which they act politically in the present.

You’ll study with a top history department – we’re ranked first in the country for the social and cultural impact of our research - and be taught by political historians working at the cutting edge of their research disciplines.

Alongside core politics modules in your first year introducing you to contemporary British politics and international relations theory, you’ll study history modules that will give you an insight into the making of the modern world, such as campaigns for freedom and equality and America from Hamilton to Trump. 

Modules devised for this joint degree such as Political History: Milestones, Change and Continuity provide a bridge between history and politics. In your second year you’ll continue this interdisciplinary approach with a module on Nation and Identity, which examines the growth of new states and the political landscape of interwar Europe.

Just as an historical approach brings breadth and depth to your study of politics, the theories of political science you’ll study in our core politics modules will give you the analytical tools to explore the implications of major historical events, alongside their socio, economic and political impacts. 

In your final year, you demonstrate your research skills by producing a dissertation on a topic of your choosing. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad, while others have worked on women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th -century London. You’ll also have the option to follow an oral history project, or study modules ranging from the challenges and opportunities of Brexit, to terrorism and security, to the politics of gender.

Indicative course structure

A business degree is a powerful, career-launching qualification, and if you’re interested in a career in business, combining two subjects will give you sought-after skills, exciting experiences and a whole world of future career opportunities.

This degree gives you an in-depth understanding of today’s business world. You’ll explore accounting, marketing and human resources, as well as the fast- moving international financial sector – from financial markets and investments to banking and economics. It’s an ideal choice if you know you’d like a respected business degree and you’re interested in finance but perhaps not yet sure where you’d like to specialise. It enables you to bring both disciplines together, and to understand how they interact and impact on society.

• Strengthen your knowledge on how to smoothly combine business and finance.
• Dive straight into understanding how business operates.
• Benefit from our links with local industry and commerce.
• Enhance your experience through a work placement or study abroad year.

Indicative course structure

Economics drives business, informs policy and affects everyone’s lives. With its applied business focus, this course emphasises the economic analysis of key business functions and the industrial structure of market economies and the global environment. It will give you a detailed understanding of the principles of economics and teach you how to apply these principles to support decision making. As well as developing an understanding of the nature of pricing, investment, employment and many other decisions businesses have to take, you’ll have the option to study modules in marketing, accounting finance and human resource management.

You can also study a language with this course. You can be awarded the degree ‘with language’ in the title if you choose to study a foreign language in all years of study. 

• To receive a broad intellectual learning experience by studying economic issues within the wider political and social environment;
• to develop a critical understanding of the principles of economic theory;
• for an appreciation of different approaches to economic problems and their relevance for real life circumstances; 
• to develop the ability to apply the theories of economics to a range of decision making problems in business;
• to become equipped with a set of subject specific and transferable skills needed to pursue a successful career.

This course is ideal for students who wish to focus through the lens of broadcast and live event support. Practical techniques are developed within a range of different spaces to suit differing audiences, and students on this award pathway and you'll have a number of opportunities to apply their learning within live contexts.You'll also engage with the latest light-projection mapping systems, as well as design and specify venue-based audio systems and solutions. Core modules studied alongside live sound and lighting technology alongside practice modules develop your techniques and approaches using a range of sound technologies. They'll also foster professional and industrial contextual immersion and awareness, and experience with specialisms within connected audio and sound-related fields.

Indicative course structure

A business degree is a powerful, career-launching qualification, and if you’re interested in a career in business, combining two subjects will give you sought-after skills, exciting experiences and a whole world of future career opportunities.

This degree gives you an in-depth understanding of today’s business world. You’ll explore accounting, marketing and human resources, as well as the fast- moving international financial sector – from financial markets and investments to banking and economics. It’s an ideal choice if you know you’d like a respected business degree and you’re interested in finance but perhaps not yet sure where you’d like to specialise. It enables you to bring both disciplines together, and to understand how they interact and impact on society.  

• Strengthen your knowledge on how to smoothly combine business and finance.
• Dive straight into understanding how business operates.
• Benefit from our links with local industry and commerce.
• Enhance your experience through a work placement or study abroad year.

The course offers a coherent and intellectual learning experience, providing you with a critical understanding of the subject and enabling you to employ the tools of analysis used by a wide range of finance and investment banking professionals.

This course will Provide:

• Provide students with an intellectually challenging programme of study leading to an awareness of issues, themes and applications within the field of finance and investment banking and associated subject fields
• Provide students with an opportunity to undertake an one-year work placement of full time work experience
• Provide students with the knowledge and practical skills to identify suitable tools for the investigation of issues in areas such as investment analysis, fund/asset management, economics analysis and financial reporting;
• Provide students with the necessary IT analytical skills which reinforce the theoretical and empirical underpinning of the programme. The students will learn quantitative methodology, to carry out quantitative analyses of relevant financial and economic problems

Our BA History and English Literature gives you the opportunity to study two subjects that speak closely to each other.

Just as poems, plays and novels can offer historians different ways to look at the past, historical documents can also be read as texts to be interpreted as works of narrative.

For both English Literature and History we have modernized and diversified our curriculum to reflect our changing world. Within our research-led courses you’ll study canonical texts and periods of history familiar to a traditional English or History degree but also voices and histories that reflect our modern, globalized 21 st century experiences.

You’ll start this joint degree with a core module that will teach you the skills of close analysis of literary texts. Reflecting on poetry by Danez Smith and Sylvia Plath, Caryl Churchill’s play Cloud 9 as well as work by Shakespeare and Zadie Smith, you’ll discover new ways of thinking about what literature is, and how to read it.

Also in your first year you’ll work through the Historian’s Toolkit, which helps you make the transition from school to university-level study. You will be introduced to an array of primary sources. You’ll also gain insights into historiography, to understand what influences historians, why they write the way they do and how they interact with one another.

Throughout your course, the common link between the two disciplines will be your analysis and interpretation of texts. The skills you’ve learned in your close reading of fiction are in many respects the same as those you will apply to your analysis of historical documents.

One of your second-year core English Literature modules is period-based, focusing on the 18th century, and offers a good example of how English and History are complementary. Your study of 18th century print culture and the emergence of the novel will be enhanced by your understanding of the politics of the day.

In your final year your courses will cover themes aligned to our academics’ research interests. You’ll have the chance to follow your interests and shape your studies, which could include African American literature, young adult fiction, or literary adaptations. Your History modules may focus on a particular region, such as Europe, or period, such as the 20th century.

We give you: 

• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
• Exceptional academic teams, conducting world-leading research
• Stimulating, innovative courses that allow you to make rewarding connections between two disciplines
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities
• Teaching rated excellent by 92.14% of our English students in the 2018 National Student Survey, with our History students reporting almost 94% overall satisfaction with their course

Study with a top History department and be taught from the cutting edge of historical research. Explore the English language, its uses and development.

Through our diverse and inclusive History curriculum you will learn about an array of cultures and identities. What links our work is our focus on people’s history and everyday lives. This is represented strongly in our first year programme, which will give you an insight into the making of the modern world through exploration of faith, magic and medicine, campaigns for freedom and equality, Africa and the world, and America from Hamilton to Trump.

The mix of modules in English Language focuses on the language itself; its sounds, words and structure; the development of the language; and how it is used to communicate.

Throughout your degree, the common link between the two disciplines will be effective communication. As historians you will learn to analyse historical documents and debates among historians and unpack their meaning, while in English Language you’ll learn about communicating in different scenarios – to explain, inspire, persuade and effect change.

Written communication is particularly important for history students, and, over the skills that you develop over the course of your studies will benefit you in the final year of History if you choose to write a dissertation. This extended piece of work will grow out of a topic that interests you. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad, while others have worked on the history of jiu jitsu, women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th -century London. You could also choose to blend your programme of study, writing for example, on an aspect of propaganda as a form of communication.

We give you: 

• An exceptional History team, conducting world-leading research (REF 2014),
• Stimulating, innovative courses - our History students reported almost 94% overall satisfaction with their course (2018 National Student Survey)
• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting and the scope to write a History dissertation on a topic about which you are passionate
• The option to study abroad after your second year
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities