The Cambridge University Course
The BA degree in History is a three-year course. It is divided into two parts. In Part I, which stretches over the first two years, students take a sequence of five outline papers. These cover fields in British history, European history, American history, global history and the history of political thought. Students also pursue papers known as Themes and Sources, which, as the title suggests, cover wide-ranging themes in history on the basis of original source material. At the end of the second year, students are examined on each of their outline papers. Themes and Sources is examined on the basis of long-essay course work. The combination of these six marks makes up your Part I result.
In the final year of the History degree, Part II, students pursue four possible lines of study. All students choose a special subject. These are highly specialized papers, designed to give students a feel for the practice of historical research at the cutting edge of the field. These papers cover subjects as diverse as the ‘Diplomacy of World War II’, ‘European integration’ and ‘Laughter and politics in 18th-century Britain’. They are taught on the basis of a close reading of a substantial quantity of original source material. Many of these sources will be available in print, but in many cases Special subjects involve work on actual archival material held in Cambridge or in digitized form on the web. In addition to their special subject, all students do at least one specified paper, most students take two. The specified papers are similar to outline papers in organization but cover more specialized fields of research, often from a comparative or thematic perspective. All students also take a paper called Historical Argument and Practice, which deals with the methodological and theoretical issues that are inextricably involved in the pursuit of history. Finally, an increasingly large number of students opt to substitute a dissertation for one of their specified papers. Dissertations are substantial pieces of original research, done under the supervision of an expert, using original source material. Many students choose to undertake research abroad, particularly in the United States. You are limited only by your language skills and your imagination in locating interesting sources.
The History Faculty of the University of Cambridge is the biggest and the best in the country, as measured by every system of assessment the government has devised. We pride ourselves on being able to offer teaching of all kinds in virtually every area of history from the ancient history of Europe, to the recent history of Africa, from diplomatic and political history to cultural and intellectual, social history, economic history, demography and the history of the body itself. We do insist that all students should do some British and European history. We also require that students take some early history papers and some from the more modern period. However, within these basic parameters, students are given a virtually free choice to assemble their degree to suit their interests. And the supervision system adds even more flexibility. In History, the basic system of teaching remains the weekly, one-on-one supervision. Having chosen your combination of papers, you follow a series of eight supervisions in each paper. These are organized by your College Director of Studies, but will be provided by the best available supervisor from across the University. For each supervision, you write an essay, which you then discuss in your weekly supervision. This gives you the opportunity to tailor not only your choice of papers, but also your choice of weekly essay work to suit your personal interests. For further information on the Faculty and on the papers currently on offer at Cambridge, please visit the website of the Cambridge History Faculty at: http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/.