Do you want to develop a deep understanding of human experience in Europe and its associated cultures from earliest times to the very present? Do you want to explore issues of memory, truth, curiosity and understanding that have fascinated people at all times and at all places? This programme will bring students to the heart of vital questions about society, history, culture and life itself, and deep into the array of texts that are the result of millennia of lives lived.
Study Abroad
Scholarships Available
- Duration:
- 4 Year(s)
- Next Intake:
- 2024/2025 September
- General Entry Requirements (A-Level)
CCC
- General Entry Requirements (IB)
24
- Country Specific Entry Requirements:
- Visit the UCD Global Undergraduate Entry Requirements webpage.
Curricular information is subject to change.
Knowing what happened and why is essential in life. Studying History at UCD provides you with the skills necessary to understand the world we live in. Explore the past, examining a wide range of periods and topics that cover many parts of the globe. Study controversies and different ways that the past can be understood. Learn how to research, use evidence and think critically, and develop the transferrable skills desired by employers.
About this Course
Students will not only encounter written words but gain key skills in interpreting evidence of every kind – material, oral, visual and aural – through dynamic lectures and small group tuition. Key modules from the three cognate subjects of Classics, English and History will be consolidated by small-group tuition in thematic cross-disciplinary modules on issues such as cultural transmission, intertextuality, history of ideas and political thought.
First Year
You will take a dedicated inter-disciplinary module, Interpreting Evidence, and you will choose from the full range of modules in Classics, English and History, including:
- Classical Greece
- Age of Augustus
- War and the Hero (Homer and Virgil)
- Classical Myth
- Contemporary Irish Writing
- Literary Genre
- How to Read Poetry
- Writing the Body
- Critical Reading/Creative Writing
- Modern Europe
- Creating History
- Modern Ireland
- Rome To Renaissance.
Second Year
You will take an interdisciplinary core module based in UCD Special Collections and choose from the full range of modules in Classics, English and History, including:
- Alexander the Great
- Greek Tragedy
- Heracles the Hero
- Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians
- The Oedipus Myth
- Pompeii
- Eating and Drinking in Antiquity
- Magic in the Ancient World
- Reading Medieval Literature
- Irish Literature in English
- Modern American Literature
- Renaissance Literature
- Romanticism
- Victorian to Modern Literature
- Twentieth-Century Drama
- History Today
- French Revolution
- Islam & Christianity
- Northern Ireland
- Early Modern Europe.
For detailed information on subject content click here.
Third Year
You will choose from a range of options that will enable you to broaden your horizons and enrich your academic experience:
- Apply for a competitive internship in an area that interests you and/or relates to your area of study.
- Study abroad for a trimester/year to develop your language skills and immerse yourself in a new culture.
- Deepen your knowledge by studying a full range of Classics, English and History modules.
Fourth Year
Undertake a research dissertation drawing on the disciplines studied and choose from a range of modules including:
- Modern Japan
- Orwell’s Twentieth Century
- Making Shakespeare
- Apocalypse Then: Old English Literature
- Magic in the Ancient World
- Pompeii
Below is a list of all modules offered for this degree in the current academic year. Click on the module to discover what you will learn in the module, how you will learn and assessment feedback profile amongst other information.
Incoming Stage 1 undergraduates can usually select an Elective in the Spring Trimester. Most continuing undergraduate students can select up to two Elective modules (10 Credits) per stage. There is also the possibility to take up to 10 extra Elective credits.
You may apply to study abroad for either a trimester or a year through the Erasmus programme or on a non-EU exchange. UCD has over 200 Erasmus partners in Europe and an increasing number of non-EU exchange agreements with universities in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and elsewhere.
Please click here to visit the Erasmus section of the UCD Global website.
The year abroad takes place when you have accumulated at least 110 credits and satisfied any subject prerequisites, adding a fourth year to the BA programme and turning it into a BA International.
Opportunities currently include:
- University of Vienna, Austria
- Université de Rouen, France
- Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
- University of Pisa, Italy
- University of Bergen, Norway
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
- University of New South Wales, Australia
A strong focus on the fluent articulation and analysis of ideas means students on this course will gain numerous transferrable skills, highly valued by employers.
This programme prepares students for graduate study in many areas, including: Classics, English, History, Film, Drama, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Education, Archives.
Graduates can find employment in:
- Broadcasting and Journalism
- Business
- Civil Service
- Law
- Publishing
- Public Relations
- Politics
- Research
- Teaching
- Marketing
- Policymaking
- Tourism
- Heritage
Graduates are also eligible to apply for UCD MA programmes in History, which include specialisms in Irish, European, International and Medieval History, Public History and History of Medicine.
Non-EU Undergraduate Fee information can be found here.
UCD offers a number of competitive undergraduate scholarships for full-time, self-funding international students, holding an offer of a place on a UCD undergraduate degree programme. For information on Undergraduate Scholarships, please see the UCD International Scholarships webpage.
“Classics, English & History at UCD was a fantastic choice for me. I had always been interested in these subjects and now I get to study each of them in depth, as well as interdisciplinary modules to really analyse how they impact each other. I have gained research and critical thinking skills and learned about a wide range of topics from each discipline. I also spent a trimester on an internship in the Little Museum of Dublin gaining hands-on professional experience. The academic, professional and personal growth opportunities I’ve been able to explore over my time in UCD have made my learning experience here so enriching.”
Niamh Scully, Student
BA Humanities Classics, English & History (DN530/CAS2)
Undergraduate (Level 8 NFQ, Credits 240)