About the Programme

History provides graduates with a wide range of transferable skills. Principally, students develop the ability to understand and analyse issues and events to a high level of competence. Other marketable skills include:

• a talent for clear expression, both oral and written;
• putting forward ideas and arguments in a concise manner;
• gathering, investigating and assessing materials
• basing conclusions on research and generating ideas; acquiring a broad range of historical knowledge and understanding, including a sense of development over time, and an appreciation of the culture and attitudes of societies other than our own;
• organising material in a logical and coherent way.

To employers who recruit graduates in any discipline, these skills will be more important than the actual subject.

What Will I Study?

Because humans are rooted in time, people do by one means or another pick up ideas about the past and its linkages with the present, even if these ideas are sketchy or uninformed or outright mythological. But it is best to gain access to the ideas and evidence of History as an integral part of normal education. The broad span of human experience, viewed both in depth and longitudinally over time, is the subject of History as a field of study.

Career Opportunities

Skills  of the Historian include: research, critical thinking, problem solving, oral and written communication. Careers can be found in areas such as: 

• Museums, libraries and heritage sites: Cultural and heritage manager,Archivist, Museum education officer, Archaeologist, Curator, Tour guide, Historic preservation specialist, Librarian

 

• Business and Commerce: Corporate historian, Social media manager, Content editor, HR manager, Public relations officer, Marketing officer, Communications officer, Records manager, Office manager, Administrative assistant, Event planner, Supply chain manager

 

• Researcher: Genealogical research, Research assistant, Research analyst, Media researcher

 

• Writer: Author, Editor, Script writer, Documentary producer, Public advocate, Contract historian, Journalist

 

• Politics and Government: Political campaign manager, Records manager, Diplomat, Public affairs specialist, Policy advisor, Intelligence officer, Teacher, Cultural resource manager

 
See professionals – regional and international – with History degrees [PDF] »

Additional Information

To obtain the MA degree:

• Students must complete six(6) semester-long courses.
• All students must complete a Research Paper between 10,000 and 15,000 words (exclusive of bibliography and notes), on a topic within their area of specialisation and approved by the Department. See Thesis guide

Also, see Faculty Regulations for more information.

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