What is art history?
Our undergraduate degree courses are designed to enable students to achieve a high degree of visual literacy and an awareness of the cultural and historical contexts of artistic production. The courses cover wide-ranging aspects of the visual arts including painting, sculpture, the graphic arts, photography and other visual media, as well as museum history and the relationship between high art and popular visual culture.
How will I study?
The department has an energetic and distinguished group of academic staff whose specialist interests range from the Renaissance to the present day. You will be encouraged to engage with a wide range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches and to develop the skills required to analyse and read contemporary and historical texts. Teaching in the department is highly rated, receiving 23 out of 24 in the latest independent review of teaching quality. Lectures, seminars and one-to-one tutorials form the basis of the teaching and learning experience in the department. Student-centred learning is also strongly encouraged and your dissertation provides you with the opportunity to fully explore areas of particular personal interest.
Assessment
Assessment methods vary and include formal exams (which are often in the form of slide tests), assessed classroom presentations, coursework and essays, which vary in length from 2,000 words to a dissertation of approximately 10,000 words. In the first year, you need to pass your exams in order to progress to the second year, but the marks obtained do not count towards the final degree classification. The second year marks are given a 40 per cent weighting in the final degree assessment, with final-year examinations and assessments providing the remaining 60 per cent.
Studying abroad
We offer opportunities to study abroad in Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden and the United States. Further information can be found on our study abroad web pages.
Career prospects
Our graduates have a wide choice of career opportunities open to them. In addition to management jobs in marketing, advertising and the media, art history graduates find careers in law, public relations and journalism and are also qualified for more specialised and distinctly art-related work in museums, galleries, arts administration, conservation, heritage management, planning, teaching and research.
Application and interview
Applicants are usually assessed on the basis of their UCAS form without interview. We may invite applicants with non-standard entry qualifications, including mature students, for interview.
Open days
UCAS visit days for students offered a place are normally held from late January to March. You are welcome to visit at other times – please contact us or for dates of our open days visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/opendays