Military History BA
It’s a great place to be, so if you’re thinking of coming, do it!
I came to an Open Day and the lecturers seemed really good, very enthusiastic about their subjects. Plus I love Canterbury and the University, and the fact that it’s only minutes from the countryside. I’m not really a city person and this is the perfect balance.
It’s going really well, and I’m loving the people on the course too. It’s quite a small group compared to other courses – there are only about 50 of us – which is one of the reasons why I chose it; I love history and knew classes would be smaller doing this subject so you’d get more one-to-one teaching. There’s an enormous amount of reading and more pressure in the second year, but I’m enjoying it.
I particularly liked Blitzkrieg to Baghdad, about armoured warfare; it goes into the Cold War and the problems in the Middle East – it pretty much takes you up to the present day which makes it all the more fascinating. And I’m looking forward to Marvels, Monsters and Freaks, which studies changing attitudes to people seen as ‘different’. My father’s a doctor so when growing up there was always an element of medicine around, and I think that’s why I’ll find this so interesting.
The lectures are always really good and whenever you need any help you can get it. If you email a lecturer you get a prompt reply and they’re always happy to help you.
I lived in Turing for my first year, in a 12-bedroom house, and it was perfect. I really liked the people I was sharing with, and there was a bathroom for every two bedrooms, so you were never fighting to get in there.
The Library is brilliant; it has a very good range of journals and books, and so many of them are online which makes things much easier – you can study anywhere. And there’s everything else you need here too. The Gulbenkian is awesome and the amount of music, whether you want to listen or take part, is wonderful – there’s always so much going on. I was in the University’s Cecilian Choir for my first year but sadly don’t have time for it this year.
Everyone is really nice, especially the people you meet through university societies. There’s a very good mix of people here, and on the Military History course we tend to mix quite a bit with people studying Politics and International Relations – I suppose it’s a natural link.
I’m a member of the University of London Officers’ Training Corps – there are about 60 of us from Kent – and we meet every Tuesday night, plus a monthly training weekend. In a funny way it helps with studying Military History – when you’re doing battle drills, you can see how strategy and offensives work, and imagine how things are done on a global level.
It’s a great place to be, so if you’re thinking of coming, do it! It gives you the best of city and countryside and there’s more than enough going on to make sure you’ll have fun – not just the usual student activities but lots of niche things too because of all the different societies.
