Personalise your degree
At Plymouth, your degree really is what you make it. Choose to study optional modules from across the school.
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Careers with this subject
Key features
Course details
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Year 1
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In your first year, we’ll introduce you to the discipline of art history. You’ll investigate the development of museums and galleries across the world, engaging in fieldwork using outstanding local examples. You’ll explore popular periods of art history, including 19th century French art and the Renaissance. To round off the year, you’ll analyse contemporary critical writings on art and develop your own critical skills.
Core modules
ARH4001
Lives and Afterlives of Renaissance Artists 20 creditsThis module will introduce stage one students to the major artists and themes of the Italian Renaissance through the lens of the crucial early modern source, Vasari’s Lives. Designed as a primer for the higher level Renaissance modules to be taken at stage two or three, it will also ask students to think about Renaissance artists’ changing reputations since the period.
100% Coursework
ARH4002
Modernisms and Modernities 20 creditsFrench art of the later nineteenth century has probably been more popular with the general public, in the past three or four decades, than any other kind of art. This module is designed to offer both an introduction to the art made in France between about 1855 and 1900 and an introduction to the current concerns that make the art of this period so important.
100% Coursework
ARH4003
Introduction to Art History and Visual Culture 20 creditsThis module provides Art History students with a comprehensive understanding of the paradigms of Art History and their methodological implications for visual culture. Basic research literacy will be developed in a number of exercises and group-based activities.
100% Coursework
ARH4005
Cultural Practices in Context 20 creditsThis module is geared toward fieldwork and independent study in a museum and/or gallery context. Following a Fieldtrip to public collections in London and/or the Southwest students complete an Object Report on an object of their choice seen in situ. This module will include 2, 2 hour talks that introduce our School and programme level employability related opportunities and support, including details of the optional placement year.
100% Coursework
HIS4006
History and Heritage 20 creditsThis module introduces students to the field of heritage studies. It directs attention to how historians do heritage (and history) for an external audience. It aims to explore the materials and methods used and how they apply to how we understand, interpret and shape how we live with the past today. Students will study a specific topic in history and heritage individually and/or in small groups through problem based learning with an assessment geared towards public engagement.
100% Coursework
HIS4007
Hands on History: War and SocietyThis module will prepare students in the History, Art History, English & Creative Writing, and Politics & International Relations cluster for Level 6 dissertation research. Lectures and workshops will explore key approaches to sources, and practical and theoretical aspects to research. Students will complete an independent research project. Lectures include some choice, and cover a range of topics including, but not limited to, research in archives / local studies/ digital resources, creative practice, and literary analysis.
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Year 2
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In your second year, you’ll visit a major European city - a trip designed to complement your second year modules and give you the chance to get hands-on with fieldwork. Previous destinations include Rome, Vienna and Paris. You’ll also hone your critical skills by investigating critical art theory.
Core modules
ARH5001
Collecting and Exhibiting Cultures in the 19th and 20th Centuries 20 creditsThis module examines historical and contemporary cultures of collection, exhibition, and display. Drawing on interdisciplinary debates, students will learn to discuss and analyse the politics and ethics of art ownership, theft, looting, and repatriation.
100% Coursework
ARH5005
International Field Trip 20 creditsThe module is an intensive 1-week period of study of painting, sculpture, architecture and environments which are not available in this country. The emphasis is upon sustained first-hand study of artefacts and buildings, through staff-led visits and group-work, introducing students to advanced fieldwork skills.
100% Coursework
ARH5004
Decolonizing Modernism: Art 1890 - 1940This module aims to explore the history of the beginnings of modern art across Europe and/or the United States, incorporating its theory, practice and reception, through an analysis of the development of selected moments, schools and individuals central to the Modernist tradition. The module also addresses the impact of colonial structures on the creation, distribution and consumption of art.
ARH5006
Victorian ValuesThis module examines the visual culture of the Victorian age, Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism and British Impressionism. Aside from enabling us to reconsider modern stereotypes about 'Victorian Values', this module raises questions about the definitive role of social principles in the art of this period, and explores historical debates about art and beauty as independent realms of meaning and value.
HEP5000
Preparing for Dissertation ResearchThis module will prepare students in the History, Art History, ECW, and PIR cluster for Level 6 dissertation research. Lectures and workshops will explore key approaches to sources, and practical and theoretical aspects to research. Students will complete an independent research project. Lectures include some choice, and cover a range of topics including, but not limited to, research in archives / local studies/ digital resources, creative practice, and literary analysis.
Optional modules
ARH5002MX
Imagery in Online and Offline Worlds: Film, Television and Video Games 20 creditsThis module provides students with a comprehensive understanding of current approaches towards mass media and visual culture. Particular emphasis will be put on medium-specificity, content analysis and audience studies.
100% Coursework
SSC500
Stage 2 Professional Development, Placement Preparation and Identifying Opportunities 0 creditsThis module is for students in the School of Society and Culture who are interested in undertaking an optional placement in the third year of their programme. It supports students in their search, application, and preparation for the placement, including developing interview techniques and effective application materials (e.g. CVs , portfolios, and cover letters).
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Optional placement year
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Gain valuable on-the-job experience through our optional placement year. We will support you in your second year in deciding whether to take this opportunity, and assist you in finding a placement and being prepared for it.
Core modules
SSC601
School of Society and Culture Placement YearStudents have the opportunity to gain work experience that will set them apart in the job market when they graduate by undertaking an optional flexible placement year. The placement must be a minimum of 24-weeks (which can be split between a maximum of two different placement providers) and up to a maximum of 48-weeks over the course of the academic year. The placement is flexible and can be undertaken virtually, part or full time and either paid or voluntary. Students will have the option to undertake their placement year abroad. This year allows them to apply and hone the knowledge and skills acquired from the previous years of their programme in the real world.
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Final year
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In your final year, you’ll continue to prepare for your career in the arts with further training in art historical research methods, as well as giving you dedicated career guidance. You’ll have the chance to study optional modules, including power patronage and ideology and studies in 20th century European art. You’ll write a substantial dissertation on the topic of your choice, previous topics include the representation of Salome in French Symbolism, and the sculpture of Barbara Hepworth.
Core modules
ARH6001
Art History Dissertation 40 creditsOn this module students research and write a dissertation on a topic of their own choosing, negotiated in consultation with Art History staff.
100% Coursework
HIS6014
Heritage and Public History 20 creditsThis module will examine the theory and practice of the presentation of the past to a range of audiences, specialist and non-. Students will examine the creation, nature, use and understanding of heritage and public history, nationally and internationally. They will examine these issues in case studies of historical ‘sites’ of different types, to gain a critical awareness and understanding of the theories and controversies surrounding heritage and public history. This is a work facing module, where students will consider the theory and practice of ‘using’ ‘sites’ of heritage and public history from the point of view of a range of stake holders.
100% Coursework
ARH6004
Decolonizing Modernism: Art 1890 - 1940 20 creditsThis module aims to explore the history of the beginnings of modern art across Europe and/or the United States, incorporating its theory, practice and reception, through an analysis of the development of selected moments, schools and individuals central to the Modernist tradition. The module also addresses the impact of colonial structures on the creation, distribution and consumption of art.
100% Coursework
ARH6006
Victorian ValuesThis module examines the visual culture of the Victorian age, Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism and British Impressionism, say, to question modern stereotypes about ‘Victorian Values’ both moral and cultural. We will not only consider the definitive role of social principles in the art of this period, but also debates about art and beauty as independent realms of meaning and value.
Optional modules
ARH6002MX
Questions in Contemporary Art 20 creditsThe module introduces and examines selected questions raised in the last three decades in contemporary art. Case studies drawn from art history, critical and cultural theory, and where appropriate related disciplines, will be examined.
100% Coursework
LAW6018MX
Law, Literature and the ScreenTo introduce students to fictional and factional representations of the legal order in prose, film and TV, and to examine the inter-connections between law, literature and the screen.
PIR6009MX
Mao to Now: the Politics of Modern ChinaThis module introduces students to politics in China. It provides them with the analytical skills and historical understanding to examine the structure of the contemporary Chinese state, looking in particular at Maoist legacies, nationalism and ideology, the relationships between party, law, state and market, and China’s involvement in international affairs.
Personalise your degree
Art History with Anthropology
Modules
ANT5008MX
Brave New Worlds: Ethnography of/on Online and Digital Worlds
20 credits
This module teaches students how to use ethnographic methods to make sense of the internet, which we now increasingly inhabit. Students learn how to navigate and analyse platforms such as Facebook or TikTok. They study how these technologies transform our relationships, identities, and ideas of truth. The module also examines the socio-cultural and ethical aspects of digital worlds (e.g. Second life).
100% Coursework
ANT6008MX
Coastal Cultures: Marine Anthropology in the age of climate change and mass extinction.
20 credits
Using ethnography, we analyse how coastal communities use the sea – not only as a source of livelihood, but as a key ingredient in the construction of their identity and place in world. Drawing on a range of cases from across the world – from Polynesian sorcerers, to Japanese whale mourners, to Cornish surfers – we study how coastal communities are responding to climate change, sea level rise, pollution, and extinction.
100% Coursework
Art History with Creative Writing
Modules
ENG5010MX
Writing Creative Nonfiction: Autobiography, Travel Writing, Reportage
20 credits
This module introduces students to the key concepts and issues in contemporary works of creative nonfiction, or 'life writing'. Included in our readings will be works of memoir and autobiography, travel writing, personal essays and reportage. The module is entirely taught in workshops where we experiment with producing our own works of creative nonfiction and learning to refine them, as well as critically evaluate and contextualise them.
100% Coursework
ENG6008MX
Features Journalism Workshop
20 credits
This module offers students an in-depth experience of professional writing. We will explore technique in features and literary journalism; music reviews, opinion columns and longer immersion features as well as other contemporary works of non-fiction feature writing, both short- and long-form, from sub-genres including profiles and interviews, autobiography and columns, travel writing, and reportage. We will learn to research and produce our own works of professional nonfiction and critically evaluate them.
100% Coursework
Art History with English
Modules
ENG5002MX
Gothic Fictions: Villains, Virgins and Vampires
20 credits
This module looks at eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels to trace the variety and scope of literary contributions to the Gothic. It begins by discussing the origins of the Gothic novel, then moves to the heyday of the genre in the revolutionary 1790s, on to authors writing in the early and mid-nineteenth century, through to the decadence of the 1890s.
100% Coursework
ENG6005MX
American Crime Writing
20 credits
This module considers the development of twentieth-century American crime fiction from hard-boiled detectives, to myths of the mafia, and postmodern reinventions of the genre. This module will explore the cultural contexts of American crime writing, prevailing conventions of the genre, as well as challenges to those conventions.
100% Coursework
Art History with History
Modules
HIS5009MX
Middle Kingdoms: Themes in Early Modern Asia
20 credits
This module introduces the history of early modern Japan (c.16th-19th centuries). At one level, it explores key questions shaping the histories of the late Sengoku (‘Warring States’) and Tokugawa Japan. Building on these questions, it then situates the Japanese experience in a trans-regional perspective with reference to early modern China, Korea, Ryukyu, as well as Europe.
Explore this module100% Coursework
HIS5014MX
Dunkirk to D Day: The Second World War in Europe
20 credits
The module examines the Second World War in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean from 1940 to late 1944.
Explore this module100% Coursework
HIS6002MX
Piracy and Privateering, c.1560-1816
20 credits
This module explores piracy and privateering activity in the seas around the British Isles and further afield from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the second Barbary War in 1816. This course focuses on the social history of piracy and privateering, the organisation of pirate society, and the economic impact of piracy and privateering.
Explore this module100% Coursework
HIS6006MX
America, the United Nations and International Relations 1945 to the present
20 credits
This module provides a detailed examination of the relationship between the United States of America and the United Nations in the management of international relations from 1945 to the present.
Explore this module100% Coursework
Art History with Criminology
Modules
CRM5003MX
Harm in the 21st Century
20 credits
This module explores the global challenges of harmful behaviours and activities in contemporary society by considering specific areas of concern for criminologists. By drawing on real-world examples in everyday life, the module examines how social problems and issues have arisen due to processes of globalisation that have changed the social, political and economic landscape of the 21st century.
100% Coursework
CRM5009MX
Crime, Harm and Culture
20 credits
The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.
100% Coursework
CRM6011MX
Security Management
20 credits
This module provides students with a critical insight into the professional domain of security management. It provides an overview of the theories, policies, procedures and practices that underpin the work of the security manager, and focuses upon a career-relevant knowledge and understanding of this significant area of expertise.
70% Coursework
30% Tests
Art History with International Relations
Modules
PIR6007MX
Global Environmental Politics
20 credits
This module examines the problem of environmental degradation and its implications for our global political economy. It discusses the major debates in political thought around the primary causes of environmental degradation. The module outlines the major attempts to build international regimes for global environmental governance, and the difficulties and obstacles that such attempts have encountered. A range of ideas, critiques, policy proposals, innovations in governance, and templates for political activism within the environmental movement are critically evaluated.
100% Coursework
PIR5009MX
Refugee Studies
20 credits
This module focuses on the political, economic and social context of forced migration and considers the complex and varied nature of global refugee populations. It analyses responses at international, national and regional level and engages with a range of challenging questions around international co-operation, the framework of international protection, humanitarianism and the causes of displacement.
100% Coursework
Art History with Politics
Modules
PIR5013MX
Politics Beyond Parliaments
20 credits
This module analyses the role of civil society and the public sphere in democratic governance and in democratization from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
100% Coursework
Art History with Sociology
Modules
SOC5005MX
Globalisation and Social Justice
20 credits
This module investigates the key debates of globalisation and critically evaluates, in terms of its economic, political, socio-cultural and legal dimensions, the causes and consequences of a globalising world. It furthermore explores a range of international social justice issues to examine the relationships (causative and ameliorative) between policies and (in)justice
60% Coursework
40% Practicals
SOC6004MX
Health, Medical Power and Social Justice
20 credits
This module considers a range of issues concerning health, illness and medical power in contemporary society. The module seeks to develop an understanding of the impact of ‘medicalisation’ on everyday life, as well as the importance of social divisions, such as age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. There will be a focus on a range of sociological perspectives on health with an opportunity to focus upon areas of particular interest.
100% Coursework
Art History with Law
Modules
LAW6012MX
Public International Law
20 credits
A module that focuses on the primary legal principles of the public international legal order, before exploring a range of substantive areas, such as, for example, the use of force, the law regulating the conduct of war, International Human Rights, International Criminal Law and International Environmental Law.
100% Coursework
Art History with Policing and Security Management
Modules
CRM6011MX
Security Management
20 credits
This module provides students with a critical insight into the professional domain of security management. It provides an overview of the theories, policies, procedures and practices that underpin the work of the security manager, and focuses upon a career-relevant knowledge and understanding of this significant area of expertise.
70% Coursework
30% Tests
CRM5008MX
Security and Policing Today: Debates and Issues
20 credits
This module provides students with a contemporary overview of debates and issues in policing and security environments that inform practice and development in the field. The module examines how modern policing and security function, the impact of professionalization on all aspects of policing tasks and the tensions and benefits attained from multi-agency working. The module considers policing legitimacy, the ethics of crime control and associated engagement with the diversity of contemporary society, competing community interests and professional practice.
70% Coursework
30% Tests
CRM5003MX
Harm in the 21st Century
20 credits
This module explores the global challenges of harmful behaviours and activities in contemporary society by considering specific areas of concern for criminologists. By drawing on real-world examples in everyday life, the module examines how social problems and issues have arisen due to processes of globalisation that have changed the social, political and economic landscape of the 21st century.
100% Coursework
CRM5009MX
Crime, Harm and Culture
20 credits
The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.
100% Coursework
Entry requirements
UCAS tariff
104 - 112
Contextual offers: Typically, the contextual offer for this course is 8 points below the advertised tariff. A contextual offer is an offer to study at university that takes into account individual circumstances that are beyond your control, and that can potentially impact your learning and your exam results, or your confidence in applying to university.
Typical offer will be 104 points, minimum of 2 A levels, General Studies accepted.
26-28 points.
DMM.
If you hold a BTEC qualification it is vital that you provide our Admissions team with details of the exact modules you have studied as part of the BTEC. Without this information we may be unable to process your application quickly and you could experience significant delays in the progress of your application to study with us. Please explicitly state the full list of modules within your qualification at the time of application.
Pass a named Access to Higher Education Diploma with at least 33 credits at merit and/or distinction.
Merit in any subject.
Mathematics and English language grade C/4. If you do meet this criteria please seek further advice with the admission team on admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.
Fees, costs and funding
2024-2025 | 2025-2026 * | |
---|---|---|
Home | £9,250 | £9,535 |
International | £17,100 | £17,600 |
Part time (Home) | £770 | £795 |
*UK Government announcement on tuition fees
Following an announcement in November, the government has confirmed its intention to increase undergraduate tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year.
Subject to final Parliamentary approval (expected in early March 2025), the tuition fee for UK students is increasing to a maximum of £9,535 from 1 August 2025. This change applies to current and new students at the University of Plymouth. The Student Loans Company (SLC) has confirmed loans for tuition fees will be increased accordingly.
Undergraduate scholarships for international students
To reward outstanding achievement the University of Plymouth offers scholarship schemes to help towards funding your studies.
Additional costs
Tuition fees for optional placement years
How to apply
Help & enquiries
- Admission enquiries
- admissions@plymouth.ac.uk
- +44 1752 585858
- PlymUniApply
"Studying in the South West is unique. You have all of this culture that sometimes feels hidden, like it's just waiting to be discovered - time capsules from decades gone by, all set in this beautiful landscape".
Explore the unique human history of the image and navigate the fascinating world of the visual
Let our immersive course take you around the globe, exploring art and perspectives from many different times and places.
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First-hand experience
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Art history graduates
Discover our graduate success stories.
Lawrence Hendra
Head of Research, Philip Mould & Company, London and an on-screen picture specialist on BBC's Antiques Roadshow.
Emalee Beddoes-Davis
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
From the Tate Galleries to the Royal Academy of Art, Sotheby's to the London Transport Museum, our graduates can be found working and studying in a range of prestigious locations.
Featured modules
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Introduction to art history and visual culture
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Continuity and change in western art
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Lives and afterlives of renaissance artists
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Modernisms and modernities
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Collecting and exhibiting cultures
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The dawn of a modern century in art, 1900–1950
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Victorian values
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Power, patronage and ideology: the Italian Renaissance
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Working with culture: professional development project
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Self-reflexivity in western art and visual culture
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Regimes and revolutions: European art, 1750–1850
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Art after 1950
Meet our experts
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Dr Péter Bokody
Associate Professor of Art History
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Dr Jenny Graham
Associate Professor (Reader) in Art History
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Dr Ella S. Mills
Associate Lecturer
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Dr Alicja Syska
Learning Development Advisor
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Mrs Nicola Wakeham
Associate Lecturer