BA Art History and History / Course details

BA Art History and History brings together expertise from two subject areas to give you a wider breadth of study. 

Art history provides grounding in European and North American art and architecture, from the Ancient Greek world to the present day, as well as subjects in global art history. 

You can also choose pathways of study in history to suit your interests, from Ancient, Medieval, Modern History, Economic and Social History, to History of Science, Technology and Medicine. 

The emphasis is on flexibility and choice within this joint degree, which also offers opportunities for field trips and museum and gallery visits. 

In addition, our curriculum includes a pathway devoted to curating and gallery studies. 

Topics covered include the museum as institution, collecting, practical aspects of curating and making exhibitions, and art writing. 

A work placement module in Year 3 allows you to gain credits towards your degree whilst getting hands-on gallery experience at the Whitworth or other cultural institutions in the city.

Placement year option

Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals and build your external networks.

Overseas opportunities

We offer two unique summer internships at the world-famous Venice Peggy Guggenheim Collection. In your second year you'll go on a five-day field trip to a European city, such as Paris, Rome, Barcelona or Berlin. The trip combines guided tours and talks with independent research and culminates in an extended essay on your return to the UK.

You may also apply to spend one semester studying abroad during the second year of your degree. Exchange partners are offered in Europe via the Worldwide Exchange scheme, in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore.

Extracurricular opportunities

Join student societies including the Manchester Art Group, which curates events, talks, exhibitions and trips, and Arts Emergency, which aims to encourage the production of a new generation of thinkers by highlighting the reversal of decades of social and educational access to arts and humanities.

The Whitworth Young Contemporaries Student Society brings together students who have an interest in the arts, culture and creativity to make the Whitworth part of students' academic, cultural and social life, while the History Society organises trips (in the UK and on the continent), hosts social events, and coordinates the student magazine, The Manchester Historian .

Teaching takes place in a variety of formats, including lectures, small seminar groups, workshops, gallery visits, and one-to-one tutorials. 

Seminars are normally very interactive - you may be given reading in advance that will form the basis of a class discussion and you will be expected to contribute occasional oral presentations, building your skills and confidence in presentation techniques. 

Some course units feature group projects culminating in online content development or a physical exhibition/display. 

Classroom time is frequently supplemented by new media, such as the virtual learning environment, Blackboard. 

You will also have access to other digital resources to support your learning. 

Many of our courses include fieldwork visits to galleries or special exhibitions throughout the UK. 

This means regular classes in Manchester at places like HOME, the City Art Gallery and the University's own Whitworth Art Gallery. 

You can also experience credited placement opportunities as part of your learning. 

We offer several travel bursaries through the Lady Chorley Fund to assist final-year students with their dissertation research. 

You will spend approximately 12 hours a week in formal study sessions. 

For every hour spent at University, you will be expected to complete a further two to three hours of independent study. 

You will also need to study during the holiday periods. 

The individual study component could be spent reading, producing written work, or revising for examinations.

You will be assessed in various ways, including:

• written and oral examinations;
• coursework essays;
• research reports;
• practical tests;
• learning logs;
• web contributions;
• seminar presentations and participation.

Many course units are assessed through a mixture of techniques.

In your final year, you can write a dissertation.

Written feedback is provided in the form of essay and exam cover sheets and, in the case of orally delivered seminar papers, a verbal report from the tutor. We provide feedback on both the content of your writing and the construction and clarity of the argument posed.

As a student here you'll gain both academic writing skills and insight into the development of arts-specific composition, such as catalogue entries, gallery interpretation, exhibition reviews and journalistic articles.

Course tutors are available without appointment in their office hours twice a week outside scheduled teaching hours, allowing you to gain advice and feedback on your work.

The University of Manchester owns the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and Tabley House, giving you unique access to outstanding cultural and historical resources. 

The rich cultural heritage and attractions of Manchester and the north-west are within easy reach. 

The Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery offer unique access to the environment of the working museum and art gallery, as well as to important works of art. 

The Whitworth is a major resource, and its outstanding collections of paintings, prints, textiles and wallpapers are used extensively in our teaching. 

You can also explore original art in the city's famous galleries, such as the Lowry, Manchester Art Gallery and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art. 

The main library provision is the University Library, one of the UK's top university libraries with arguably the best access to electronic resources of any library in Europe. 

This is one of the largest academic libraries in Britain and houses a Special Collections Department on Deansgate which contains a superb and diverse collection of manuscripts, illustrated books and other material relevant to Art History. 

Art History students also enjoy a discipline-specific library in the same building as our department. 

It provides a pleasant and quiet working environment for students, with access to the most used publications.

A convenient and comfortable study environment, it also houses a very large, well-organised slide, video and computer-based image collection. 

Learn more on the Facilities page.