This joint honours course enables you to address today's key issues and investigate their roots in the past. Explore both history and international relations and gain an understanding of how they influence one another. The History Department's expertise covers a wide and diverse range of regions, from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East. Placements are a prominent feature of our degree courses and highly encouraged. Through our links with the Careers, Placement and Experience Centre, you can source potential employers and help with CVs and letters of application. Staff in the department also has close links with the university’s Institute of Education, Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and Special Collections (archives), and with external organisations such as Cliveden House, English Heritage, Reading Museum, Reading Borough Library and the Berkshire Record Office. As a graduate of this joint degree you will have a broad range of transferable skills, including the ability to think clearly and critically, to communicate with confidence and work effectively both individually and as part of a team. Recent employers have included The British Museum, The Football Association, House of Commons, Marks and Spencer, MI5, Morgan Stanley and Siemens Financial Services. Past students have put their political analysis skills to direct use in the UK and European civil services, the armed forces, think tanks, non-governmental organisations and journalism. Others have gone into advertising, PR, media and banking.