History is a small and friendly department with eight full time members of staff. A limited number of places are offered each year to students who wish to study on the highly popular Single Honours History programme. It is also possible to study History as a Joint or Combined Honours subject. In terms of teaching and research the Department has been recognised as one of the top History Departments in the country. The teaching of History at the College has been graded as 'excellent' in the last round of the HEFCE teaching quality assessments, making it the only History Department in Southern England, beyond London, Oxford and Cambridge, to boast this distinction. The Department was also awarded a 3a rating in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, denoting research of both national and international excellence.

All first year History students take an introductory course, Making History, which explains the different approaches adopted by historians. This includes the consideration of a variety of primary sources, their interpretation by historians and the ways in which historians write about their subjects. First year students also take Tri-partite courses allowing them to sample medieval, early modern and modern subjects. Additionally Single Honours historians will have the opportunity to research group projects about more general historical themes on the Issues in History course.

The themes of many courses reflect the research expertise of members of the Department. Second Year courses thus include: The Crusades; English Social History 1500-1700; The Reformation; The Rise of The Totalitarian State 1917-1939; and US-Soviet Relations and the Cold War. Third Year courses include: The England of Lancaster and York 1399-1485; Women and Society in England 1400-1700; The English Labour Movement 1750-1906; The Irish and Ulster Questions since 1886; and War and Revolution in Vietnam 1930-1975. Third year Single and Combined Honours Historians may also be able to undertake an Individual Study, a research based dissertation on a topic of their choice (to be agreed with a member of the Department).

All lecturers in the Department are working historians, active in research and publication, as well as enthusiastic teachers of History. The Department hosts a thriving postgraduate research community and there are opportunities to enrol for an MA by dissertation or for the MPhil/PhD programme. Some of the many areas of research covered by experts in the History Department include medieval history, English Social and Economic History 1550-1870 (especially crime, urban history and popular protest), Early Modern History of Kent, the English Civil Wars, the Northern Ireland Conflict, British Foreign Policy since the 1930s, and Post-War International History.

Publications by members of the Department include:

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