It is your School Courses that provide the context in which you study History of Art. A staff exchange programme with the Victoria and Albert Museum gives you the opportunity to take courses based on the museum's collections and the expertise of specialists in the applied and decorative arts. The Barlow Collection of Chinese ceramics, housed in the University Library, is fully integrated into teaching, giving you opportunities from the very beginning for 'hands-on' experience with works of art. How you learn Courses are taught by a mixture of lectures, seminars and tutorials. From Year 1 you begin to engage in discussion during the three weekly lectures and seminars that constitute the main part of the teaching, and by the second year you are encouraged to present papers to class, assembling your own visual material.
Assessment is by a mixture of unseen exams, essays, dissertations and a presentation.
What you will achieve You will finish with a good knowledge and understanding of the way different types of art have been made, used and understood in a wide range of specific historical contexts. You will understand the relevance of a range of methods to the analysis of visual materials and be able to apply them critically. Additionally you will acquire the skills, specialist vocabularies and forms of knowledge needed to analyse visual materials of all kinds, together with some of the specific organisational skills used in a range of careers in the arts. You will be able to present your ideas clearly in both written and spoken form, and you will be practised in working as a member of a team. During your degree you will have acquired time-management skills, research skills and basic IT competence.