The Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge is a long-established and world-renowned department. Currently, we have a population of 600 undergraduates and 500 postgraduates, who are taught and supervised by over 100 academic staff producing a constant stream of leading research. Our work and teaching are consistently rated top in global rankings.  

Cambridge History graduates are highly sought after, and common career paths can include law, politics, business, NGOs, journalism, entrepreneurship and the culture sector. Some forty per cent of Cambridge History undergraduates go on to further studies.  

In 2022, we restructured the History Tripos, enabling us to offer our students a genuinely global perspective on the past. The degree includes a rich array of options across time, geographical region and subject specialisation, allowing our students to investigate almost any aspect of history that interests them at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.  

Every year, there are talented prospective master’s students who cannot take up an offer to study with us because they lack funding. As a Faculty, we aspire to increase the diversity and representation of the applications we receive.  

“It is a privilege to be part of the History Faculty, surrounded by brilliant students and colleagues. History is an endlessly capacious discipline that constantly innovates in its subject matter and its methods. It’s always stimulating to hear what people are working on, and especially inspiring when new historical approaches challenge our assumptions about the past while helping us make sense of the present.”   

— Professor Mary Laven, Chair of the Faculty of History  

Graduate students are a vital source of fresh eyes, new approaches and bold ideas. They learn through research to challenge perceived wisdom, take the initiative, think creatively, show resilience, and show attention to detail. A more diverse cohort of students improves the robustness of debate, research and learning. It broadens the range of ideas, talents and intellects at work and our graduates take this knowledge and skill forward to benefit society. 

Removing the financial barriers to postgraduate study

Only a few students studying History at master’s level receive any form of financial assistance, with the most common barrier to accepting an offer of a place is a lack of funding. We are committed to helping more students be fully funded to ensure that anyone who is committed to, and capable of, further study can pursue postgraduate studies at Cambridge, regardless of their background or financial situation. 

Recent postgraduate students of the Faculty of History have gone on from Cambridge to exceptional roles, for example: 

Eloise Connelly is the Curator of Historic Furniture and Decorative Art at the Houses of Parliament. She secured this role after completing her PhD at Cambridge, where she examined the collecting of Renaissance decorative art in Britain between 1850 and 1914. Eloise’s job involves caring for the collections of around 11,000 objects, (many of which, such as the Despatch Boxes, are still in use daily), researching their histories and making them accessible to audiences through exhibitions, talks, tours and publications.   

Eloise says: “My experience at Cambridge has been critical to my career. The topic of my PhD is relevant to the collections I now work with, but also the broader contexts gleaned at Cambridge through the rich programme of seminars, lectures and workshops shaped my approach to my work. The museum collections in Cambridge provided a wonderful resource for learning; object-handling sessions and exhibitions curated by members of the History Faculty developed my understanding of the use and research of material culture. Practical skills I use every day, such as public speaking, undertaking research or writing about our collections, were all enhanced by my experience at Cambridge.” 

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) fully funded Eloise’s PhD, and she is clear that without this funding, she would not have been able to embark on a PhD. She also received financial support for travel to collections, archives and conferences in the UK, France, Italy and the United States which were key to her research.   

Ana Howie began her PhD in History in 2019 with Professor Ulinka Rublack. After completing her studies, she took on a position as an Assistant Professor of Early Modern Art at Cornell University, New York, teaching undergraduate and graduate students about the dimensions of the early modern artistic and material world. Her teaching covers the art of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. 

Ana’s PhD project explored cultures of dress and portraiture in seventeenth-century Genoa from a gendered and decolonial perspective, focusing on the oeuvres of Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Her work situated Genoa within global trade networks and demonstrates how elite Genoese women used globalised dress and painted portraits to negotiate their social arenas. As a state aligned with the Spanish Empire, much of Genoa's wealth was derived from participation in exploitative systems and structures. Ana argued that women's material consumption, as evidenced through their portraits, implicates them in empire-building and the formation of racial ideologies.  

Ana says “My studies were generously supported by the Prince of Wales International Scholarship, Cambridge Trust. My doctoral studies would not have been possible without this funding. It allowed me to undertake numerous research trips to Italy, where I carried out crucial archival and museum work. Further, I received funding from the History Faculty to support my language learning and to attend overseas conferences. These activities allowed vital skill-building to take place during my programme and allowed me to share my work with an international community of scholars. A PhD should not be completed in isolation, and conferences truly enriched the quality of my research. The Faculty’s funding options gave me important access to this crucial part of academic life.  

It is immensely fulfilling to introduce a new generation to new ways of understanding the past. My History PhD at the University of Cambridge gave me the tools, skills, and knowledge to do this work effectively, and I am proud to pass these on to my students.”