The Department of History is one of the longest established departments in the Faculty of Arts. The course programmes it offers range from the middle ages to modern and contemporary times. Undergraduate programmes cover Maltese and international history, including a significant number on Mediterranean history that reflect one of the department’s traditional distinguishing marks. Programmes offer also diversity of approach, giving due importance to cultural, social and economic, as well as the political aspects of history. Hands-on historical research forms an integral part of students’ preparation, with several study-units entailing individual or group-based research while all honours students write a substantial dissertation based on original research under one-to-one guided supervision.
In summary, the principal objectives of the undergraduate History programme, leading to B.A. or B.A. (Hons) are:
- to explain the principles and method of historical inquiry
- to provide a conceptual framework that will enable students to make meaningful judgments about the past
- to instill the idea of history as means of explaining and understanding the present
- to develop intellectual, analytical, critical and organizational skills that will be of value to students in any future career.
At graduate level the History Department offers research-based M.A. and M.Phil./Ph.D. programmes. In addition, the Department offers a taught M.A. in Mediterranean Historical Studies.
Because History is essentially about understanding the world we live in through a study of its past, our students are well equipped for a variety of careers by the time they graduate. Traditionally, history graduates sought avenues such as teaching or the general civil service, and many still do so successfully. However, more and more students are today moving into different career sectors, such as the media, heritage or tourism, as employers recognize the rigorous training that the discipline entails and the skills it imparts. The knowledge-backed understanding of how Malta, Europe, and the Mediterranean have come to be what they are equip students in particular for examinations leading to jobs connected with the foreign service or the European Union.
