Our BA Politics, Philosophy and History (PPH) draws together the three disciplines in a distinctive combination and uses them to interrogate one another. This innovative degree is unified by cross-disciplinary modules taught by members of all three contributing departments and taken by all students. These cross-disciplinary courses, currently Rise of the Modern State, Conceptions of the Human from the Enlightenment to Today, and Problems of Explanation and Interpretation, distinguish PPH from other tripartite degrees by providing a unique intellectual spine from which you can branch out to the three departments for your options. This structure produces a distinctive kind of student, one keen on questions and willing to think across and sometimes against conventional disciplinary boundaries. The course prepares you to undertake a higher degree or to move into a range of careers, including in education, the arts, politics, or journalism.

This course is also available for part-time evening study over four years.

• Birkbeck is a distinguished centre of research and teaching excellence in politics. Our central London location puts us at the heart of the UK's political life and at the centre of academic London.
• Birkbeck's Department of Philosophy is a leading centre for philosophical research in the UK. All of our established members of academic staff are active researchers, and the Department’s excellence in both teaching and research is consistently reflected in UK and international surveys.
• Our departmental building was once a key location for members of the Bloomsbury Group, so you could be studying in rooms that have hosted distinguished visitors, including T. S. Eliot, George Bernard Shaw and Maynard Keynes.
• Our Department of Politics is over 40 years old and has a reputation for the excellence of its teaching and its internationally significant research.
• Our Department of History, Classics and Archaeology is a world-renowned centre of original, influential research. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), History at Birkbeck was ranked sixth in the UK for the percentage of our research deemed world-leading or internationally excellent. 94% of our eligible staff submitted research and we achieved 100% for a research environment supporting world-leading and internationally excellent research.
• The PPH Society, run by students, organises regular study skills days, a weekend away, a journal and regular social events.

You take modules worth 360 credits in total, including seven compulsory modules and two option modules from each of the three disciplines.

In lieu of one of the options, in your final year you may elect to write a dissertation.

Option modules vary each year.

Graduates can pursue careers in local and national government, policy work, research or journalism. This degree may also be useful in becoming a diplomatic services operational officer, civil service fast-streamer, charity officer or newspaper journalist.

We offer a comprehensive Careers Service to help you advance your career, while our in-house, professional recruitment consultancy, Birkbeck Talent, works with London’s top employers to help you gain work experience that fits in with your evening studies.