Undergraduate History 2001

There is a buoyant mood in many of Britain’s history departments, despite concern at the impending closure or threatened merger of some. People who have been predicting that history overall will follow the way to dusty death of classics or lose out to ‘sexier’ subjects like media studies may have to think again. Applications to study history have risen by seven per cent this year, history graduates are succeeding in the job market, and league tables are introducing a potentially healthy degree of competition between departments. On the other hand, the need for students to work to support themselves through college is impinging more and more, and complaints about lecturers’ workload, and students’ lack of general knowledge, language skills and obsession with Hitler have not gone away. Is this a renaissance? Our recent questionnaire provides the evidence.

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