History (Graduate Certificate) - 2013/2014 entry

Undertaking your own historical research is exciting, thought-provoking and sometimes revelatory. This programme guides you in the skills needed for this kind of work, with taught and closely supervised study in the first term leading to supported independent research in the second and third terms.

Find out more about studying in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

• Provides the opportunity for you to do independent study and research related to your own interests.
• Can be used as a conversion course if you want to go on to study history at postgraduate level but have a degree in another subject.
• Watch our video: Professor Catharine Edwards talks about studying in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

To gain the Graduate Certificate, you must successfully complete modules worth 60 credits.

Take the module Foundations of History: Sources and Debates (worth 30 credits), and then choose either:

• Research route: work towards a dissertation of 7000 words (worth 30 credits), or
• Taught route: take one undergraduate module from those on offer by the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology (worth 30 credits).

You will find the British Museum and the British Library just a few minutes' walk from Birkbeck. Other nearby specialist centres of research include the Institute of Archaeology, the Insitute of Classical Studies and the Institute of Historical Research, all of which offer regular seminars on research areas covered by the department. 

Birkbeck also has active history and archaeology societies.

This course is designed for students with a first degree (BA/BSc) in a significantly different discipline who plan to study history at Master’s level. For students choosing this path, the Graduate Certificate represents a conversion year to help make the adjustment to specialised historical study.

Graduates go on to careers as researchers, as archivists, in museums and galleries, in education, and as journalists.