History and Welsh History
History has been taught as a subject at British universities for over a century. The University at Aberystwyth was founded in 1872 and History has been there since its foundation. The Department of History and Welsh History is located on the University Campus close to the University Library, the Union, the Sports Hall and most of the Halls of Residence. It has a staff of eighteen teachers, whose teaching and research expertise ranges widely, and has close links with other centres of historical study in the University. Since books are the tools of the historian, it is worth noting that Aberystwyth is particularly well served in this respect. Its University Library, built up over a century, is very good. Furthermore, Aberystwyth is the home of the National Library of Wales, one of the five copyright libraries of the United Kingdom; its outstanding resources in books and manuscripts greatly enhance Aberystwyth’s appeal to the historian. Considerable investment has been made in Information Technology in recent years, and Aberystwyth offers excellent facilities and resources in computing, with a range of training courses appropriate for the humanities and an abundance of workstations to enable students to work independently.
The broad-ranging character of an historical education is an excellent general preparation for a whole host of careers. Many of our graduates take up teaching, museum work or archives (i.e. careers closely associated with history); but a growing proportion enter very different fields including, in the past few years, central and local government, banking, accountancy, management, sales promotion, journalism, the police-force, the armed forces, etc.