This is a guest blog post from current student Josephine Grognet, studying BA (Hons) History.

Why study history at BU? well if the beach hasn’t sold it enough for you I don’t know what will…

Aside from the beach, this course offers something that no other university does. We have the privilege of being in the media department which allows us to have access to different equipment, enriching our learning in ways you may not have initially thought. During the second year of the course, one of our assignments is to complete an interview to then add to an output of our choice. This can be through a website, podcast or maybe even a short film on the topic of your choice. Part of this assignment is to make sure that we fill out equipment forms correctly. This helps us in our studies at BU (or maybe even further down the line) as we will not only be able to use the equipment correctly but do the paperwork that goes along with it.

A second huge thing that drew me into the course, was the staff. Now everyone everywhere will always say that their staff are the best, but I truly believe that the teaching staff are some of the best and supportive people I have ever met.  It is very clear that they have a huge wealth of information about the subject. The passion behind their work inspires students to put the same passion into our own work. Sometimes this can be difficult to emulate but after a quick email back and forth between the relevant lecturer you will soon be inspired.

During Open Days and the initial day of the first year, I found it was very clear that the staff and university as a whole care about their students. They make you feel welcome and the smaller cohort on the history course helps to really make you feel like everyone cares and wants to listen to you. The smaller cohort on this course could be a bit of a shock to some, as for me I went to numerous open days before deciding on wanting to attend BU, and again a hugely influential factor was the smaller numbers. To me, this meant that the support I had craved for so long would be there, and I was right. For me, this idea of care and listening to students was important, as I often struggle with feeling like I’m being heard. Studying history at BU has not only helped me in my academic career but in my personal life: the level of support there is within the course and university, is something that I have never really experienced before, and it is something I am grateful to have here at BU.

History at BU is something you won’t find anywhere else, as not many other courses are able to look at history through the lens of media and culture, this is not a traditional history course. The assignments are not all essays and the units do not necessarily focus on monarchs. This helps to make this history course special, as on other courses would you get the opportunity to make an exhibition? interview people within the community? make a website? make a newspaper? Of course you will have the standard essays to complete but these are not as common as you may think; along with a couple of exams and assessments.

To anyone who is considering studying history at BU, I cannot stress enough at how much you will not regret your choice. The integration of the media in this course makes it so much easier to understand what it is like to be a historian in the technological age, and why certain aspects of the profession are under threat.

Find out more about studying BA (Hons) History at BU.