Bachelor of Arts in History
The History programme delivers historians with a research-oriented attitude and a broad view on the world. Infinitely more than mere memory work or the enumeration of historical facts, the study of history requires a critical attitude vis-à-vis historical sources and academic insight into the why and wherefore, and the coherence of historical events.
What
As student of History, you will learn to ask the right questions, to identify relevant sources, and which methods to use to disclose useful information from those sources. Then you will learn to analyse, evaluate and synthesise these historical data. Our History programme delivers historians with an in-depth knowledge of the past and a broad understanding of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our graduates are equipped with a research-oriented attitude, a broad lookout on the world and a critical understanding of social processes and structures - past and present. As an academic historian you will conduct independent historical research, be able to present your research findings orally as well as in writing to a broad audience, and be able to participate in today’s public debate.
For whom
You are fascinated by ‘all things history’, for the sake of the past and its intrinsic value but also for a better understanding of the structures of your own times. History students are interested not only in what happened, but also in why something happened. You look forward to gaining an understanding of the coherence and meaning of historical events. Last but not least, you have an inquiring mind. Historical work has much in common with detective work: it is all about asking questions, searching, analysing, interpreting! An aptitude for and interest in foreign languages is certainly an asset when consulting and processing sources and historical literature meticulously. A talent for critical writing is another welcome asset. Prior knowledge of Latin and/or Greek can come in handy if you choose classical antiquity or the Middle Ages as your area of specialisation.
Structure
Bachelor
The Bachelor’s curriculum contains three types of course units. The course units focusing on knowledge and understanding units provide overviews of major historical periods and themes; the historical seminars are supervised exercises, during which you learn to set up and conduct independent research; the non-historical course units contain introductions to the Humanities and Social Sciences. We apply a combination of such teaching methods as lectures, seminars and supervised independent work. In the course of the Bachelor’s curriculum, the amount of lectures is reduced in favour of seminars and your own independent work, which ultimately culminates in an independent piece of research, the Bachelor’s paper.
The first year comprises a number of general course units: i.e. essential introductory Humanities course units and two fundamental History course units. The curriculum also contains programme-specific course units, in particular six general historical introductions. We also introduce you to a number of aspects of historical research. Finally, you learn to consult foreign-language sources: while French is a mandatory module, you have a set of six other foreign languages to choose from as your second foreign language.
The second-year curriculum leaves more room for electives, as well as course units to foster your understanding of methodology.
The third-year curriculum offers a choice of course units from a thematic cluster and a methodology cluster. There are also three practice-oriented tracks to choose from: Public History, Archival Studies, or Education. The Education Track is the perfect stepping stone towards the Master of Science in Teaching (in Dutch). If you are not too keen on the practice-oriented track, you might want to consider the minor track. It offers you a chance to look beyond your own discipline and adopt an interdisciplinary approach to specific historical problem statements. If you are not keen on the practice-oriented or the minor track, the advanced clusters track might be more up your sleeve: it allows for an additional choice of course units from the clusters mentioned above. Last but not least, the third year culminates in a Bachelor’s paper, the crowning achievement of the Bachelor's programme.
Master
The Master’s programme contains the actual discipline-specific expertise. In the context of your research project, you choose a specific period (e.g. the Middle Ages), a specific topic (e.g. urban history) or a specific region (e.g. African History). At the heart of our programme is the Master’s dissertation, your independent graduation work. Your course units and seminars tie into the approach you choose for your Master's dissertation.
Labour Market
The study programme’s broad scope and academic depth gives our History graduates access to various professional contexts (in Dutch). History graduates can be found in all sectors of civic life: education, academic research, the culture sector, (government) administration, journalism, diplomacy, the social sector, publishing, and the banks and insurance sector. Historians also do rather well in a number of advanced studies, such as Cultural Studies, Archival Sciences, Communication Studies or Social Sciences. This is a clear advantage of our study programme’s polyvalent, flexible and critical character. Take a look at interesting testimonials by some of our alumni at www.durfdenken.be (in Dutch).
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- A broad range of specialisations: the History programme covers Western history, from Antiquity up until the present, in a context of world history. It offers opportunities for an in-depth study of historical periods (Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Early Modern Times, Modern Times and Contemporary Times) as well as regions (African history) and themes (urban history, economic and ecological history).
- Public history: we offer a range of modules on public history, focusing on the role of history and the historian outside the academic world, including the possibility of an work placement. We organise an annual project week for all students, “The Past Week” (in Dutch: de Verleden Week), in which Bachelor’s and Master’s students work together on a specific theme from public history.
- Curricular freedom: students have extensive freedom to put together their own curriculum, with a choice from a range of specialised historical as well as elective modules.
- Focus on research: the different modules we offer promote interdisciplinary approaches based on the study of sources. In the Master’s curriculum, the Master’s dissertation takes centre stage, allowing students to demonstrate their research skills on a topic of their choice. We offer guidance on the improvement of oral and written communication skills and writing skills.
- Transferable skills: our students acquire a wide range of skills that will be of use to them in their future career, also beyond the field of History: critical, analytical and synthetical thought; independence and team work; presentation and communication skills.
Strengths
- Student satisfaction: students give highly positive feedback on our programme, especially in terms of content, methods and approaches.
- Excellent research: our lecturers’ internationally renowned research feeds into the curriculum, and stimulates our students’ critical thought.
- Quality assurance: we encourage our students to participate in the Programme Committee. We also consult with our students regularly in order to detect points of improvement, which we then follow up closely.
- Diversity: we focus on diversity in the curriculum. By means of English-taught course units (among other things) we introduce international research into the programme.
Challenges
- Wider focus on non-Western history: we want to broaden our offer of course units on non-Western history by collaborating with other departments, among other things.
- Monitoring the workload: we set high demands vis-à-vis our students, but at the same time we monitor our students’ workload closely by co-ordinating the deadlines in the various modules.
- International and intercultural skills: we want to render the international dimension of the History programme more visible to our students and want to teach our students how to deal with cultural differences in as many course units as possible. We also intend to offer a coherent offer of English-taught course units.
- Career prospects: strengthening our ties with academic and non-academic partners should allow us to strike a proper balance between the academic study programme that we are, and the preparation for the manifold career prospects we want to offer our students.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 01/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.