BA History and Philosophy

Year 3

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:
1. Demonstrate coherent and detailed knowledge of:
- recent historical scholarship in the student's chosen historical specialisms
- chronological continuity and change
- how people have existed, acted and thought in a range of societies and cultures
- techniques for close work on sources, both primary and/or secondary

2. Apply accurately standard techniques of historical analysis and enquiry.
3. Demonstrate their conceptual understanding through sustained argument.
4. Make appropriate use of scholarly reviews and primary sources.
5. Describe and comment on relevant aspects of recent scholarship.
6. Appreciate the uncertainty, ambiguity and limitations of knowledge in history.
7. Conform to professional standards and norms of ethics, presentation and communication of information.
8. Prove an ability to initiate, research and complete an extended historical project.
9. Engage in independent philosophical analysis and construction of arguments.
10. Demonstrate a developed understanding of and critical engagement with a broad range of concepts, theories, arguments, topics/writers in contemporary theory and/or the history of philosophy.
11. Demonstrate the ability to specialise and so attain a more advanced understanding of, and critical engagement with, a narrower range of concepts, theories, arguments, topics or writers.
12. Engage in informed reflection on their own lives and place in the world.
13. Identify and reflect on the presuppositions of specific disciplines and practices, such as art, politics, the physical, life and social sciences, as part of more focused study.

Transferable (key) skills

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
> Qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment (communication both written and verbal, problem solving, teamwork, ability to assess arguments, ability to construct and defend their own view, ability to work independently and to deadlines, and use of IT);
> Skills necessary for the exercising of personal responsibility (learning to learn, self-management, awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses, strategies to improve their skills).

Assessment

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:
1. Demonstrating the ability in relation to history to apply a broad range of aspects of the discipline, draw on a wide variety of material, evaluate and criticise received opinion;
2. Demonstrating an advanced ability to apply the skills of argument analysis and philosophical methodology to their own philosophical view and that of others;
3. Demonstrating a developed understanding of, and critical engagement with, a range of concepts, theories, arguments, topics/writers in contemporary philosophical theory and/or the history of philosophy;
4. Demonstrating the ability to specialise and so attain a more advanced understanding of, and critical engagement with, a focused range of concepts, theories, arguments, topics or writers in philosophy and history;
5. Demonstrating the ability to reflect upon the implications of philosophy for their own lives and the world around them;
6. Demonstrating the ability for in-depth, independent research in Philosophy and/or History.