History and International Relations
UCAS Code: LVF1
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Access to HE Diploma
106 - 96 UCAS Tariff points including a minimum of 15 Level 3 credits at Distinction
GCSE/National 4/National 5
GCSE English Language at grade C (or 4).
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
At Keele University, we’re different. Nestled in 600 acres of countryside in the heart of the UK, we have a big campus but a small and cosmopolitan community. We’re proud to be ‘University of the Year for Student Experience’ in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017, in addition to having been ranked No.1 in the National Student Survey 2014-2016. This is because it’s more than green and lovely, it’s a place of research and academic excellence too.
At Keele, studying a combined honours degree will include some modules from both of the single honours degrees. In this case, your programme will be made up of a combination of modules from both History and International Relations.
A key component of engaging with the world around us is understanding how humans have tried to organise their lives, societies and states. Such an appreciation of the past is essential to understanding where we are today and how we are attempting to shape the future.
History and International Relations covers key historical understandings and patterns in order to explain the social and political organisation of the past, today and tomorrow. You will learn the skills of a historian as you deepen your understanding of past eras, continents and cultures from political, social and religious perspectives. You will also learn the skills of political analysis as you examine and explain the social, political, economic structures that have shaped the global arena and continue to impact on our daily lives. You will develop an understanding of the different approaches to both disciplines and the range of theories and methods used. History and International Relations encompasses a broad range of topics, from societies in the very distant past to contemporary migration, conflict, gender, security, and the EU, in order to understand how social and political organisation today comes from that of yesterday.
The History and International Relations degree encourages you to develop as a pragmatic, analytical, and creative thinker – skills which are useful and highly valued in a large number of careers. Because of this, the careers record of Keele History and International Relations graduates is excellent. Some of the common destinations of graduates include political research, think-tanks, journalism, education, management, the civil service, local government and the voluntary sector, as well as in the preservation, archival and museum sectors. Many of our graduatesgo on to postgraduate study with many choosing to stay at Keele.
Tuition fees
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Keele University
Keele (Central)

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See your living costsWhat students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
History
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Politics
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
History
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
What do graduate employment figures really tell you?History is a very popular subject (although numbers have fallen of late) — in 2015, over 10,000 UK students graduated in a history-related course. Obviously, there aren't 11,000 jobs as historians available every year, but history is a good, flexible degree that allows graduates to go into a wide range of different jobs, and consequently history graduates have an unemployment rate comparable to the national graduate average. Many — probably most — jobs for graduates don't ask for a particular degree to go into them and history graduates are well set to take advantage. That's why so many go into jobs in the finance industry, human resources, marketing, PR and events management, as well as the more obvious roles in education, welfare and the arts. Around one in five history graduates went into further study last year. History and teaching were the most popular further study subjects for history graduates, but law, journalism, and politics were also popular postgraduate courses.
Politics
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
What do graduate employment figures really tell you?The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Sorry, no information to show
This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.
International relations
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£17k
£21k
£23k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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