天美传媒

Students told us in 2025-26 that the department guidance on acceptable and unacceptable uses of generative AI needed to be clearer, and that the university's "Avoiding Plagiarism" Moodle course was not very useful for History students. In response, we developed new guidance on the use of AI, which was published in February of 2026, and we developed a history-specific Moodle training course for launch in 2026-27. We would appreciate any further feedback on either of these resources.

In 2024-25, Black students in the department told us that we could be doing more to help develop a sense of community and belonging. The department has since provided funding to support the History Black Student Network, as part of the university's commitment to inclusive education.

Since 2024, students have been invited to attend presentations given by staff applying for academic jobs in the department, and have the opportunity to give feedback on the candidates, thus ensuring that student views are taken into account when the department makes hiring decisions.

As part of a review into our undergraduate curriculum, students provided the department with their thoughts on what the department taught, how modules were run and assessed, and gave specific feedback on proposals that were developed through ongoing discussions in departmental working groups, the Education Committee, and the SSLC (all involving student representation). Proposed changes to the curriculum were accepted in a departmental meeting in June 2024, and have now been implemented across the department. Most notably, this has involved the creation of HI100 Unlocking History, HI2K9 Historical Research, and the further diversification of assessment across optional modules.

As UCU Industrial Action took place throughout 2022-23, students on the SSLC held the department to account, as both the Head of Department and Deputy Head for Learning and Teaching attended SSLC meetings and answered student questions.

Both staff and students identified that the History Social Learning Spaces in the new building were not identifiably "History" spaces. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, we felt that it was especially important to build a sense of community using these spaces as hubs. In order to gather feedback about how these spaces should be decorated, the department ran a series of lunchtime consultations in Spring 2022, and then published the plan in June 2022. The Social Learning Spaces have since had improved signage and additional noticeboards and artwork.

Students on joint degrees, especially History and Politics, let us know that they were confused about how to work across the two departments, from academic concerns like which referencing style to use, to a need for a specific staff contact to support their needs. The question of referencing was raised at the Education Committee and then the full Department Staff Meeting, and it was agreed that while History recommends MHRA, Joint Honours students could use any footnote style they prefer, in line with the requirements for PAIS. In terms of staff support for History and Politics students more generally, in summer 2022 the department appointed a Director of Student Experience for the History and Politics Degree (now the Director of Joint Honours Programmes), and in 2026-27 will establish a Steering Group for History and Politics.

Students raised concerns that they did not get their top choice modules as part of the department allocation process. While this cannot always be resolved due to capacity limits on modules and staff departures, in 2020 the department redesigned the module allocation process with significant improvements, and now almost all students receive at least one of their top choices.