History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | study

mature students

Learning is for life – a guide for the mature student

By on February 28, 2018 in Learning in Focus

Nicholas Hawkins, first year History and Politics student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog on what it’s like to start university as a mature student. Reflecting on many of the things that concern mature students when contemplating a return to education – family commitments, finance, fitting in – Nick offers a candid account of his journey from prospective student to a first-year undergrad experiencing his first few months at university.  In my last year at school I was taught in the new ROSLA block which stood for “Raising of the School Leaving Age” as Ted Heath had done just that in 1972, from 15 to 16. […]

Continue Reading 0
AIDS pic

Homophobia surrounding the 1980s AIDS crisis

By on February 20, 2018 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Rory Herbert, final year History student and President of the History Society at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog on the 1980s AIDS crisis and the homophobic behaviour it triggered. Rory is a Gale Ambassador at the university and contributes to The Gale Review Blog. The role of the Gale Ambassador is to increase awareness of the Gale primary source collections available to students at their university. The University Of Portsmouth Library hosts a large collection of Gale primary sources which History students can use when undertaking archival research for their dissertations and other research projects. During the early 1980s, AIDS became an ever-growing concern in the minds of Americans, and […]

Continue Reading 0
1960s-recipe-book-1

‘Fodder for the masses’: Student recipes in the 1960s

By on October 19, 2017 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Dr Jodi Burkett is Principal Lecturer in History at the university, and teaches across the undergraduate course including a special subject on ‘Students and Youth in postwar Britain’. She is currently doing research on student activism around issues of ‘race’, racism and anti-racism between the late 1960s and early 1990s which includes reading a lot of student newspapers. While waiting in an epic queue in the Hub, or eating your Co-op meal deal, I’m sure many of you have asked yourselves: What did students eat in the late 1960s? For many undergraduate students, going to University is the first time that they are living on their own and having to cook […]

Continue Reading 0
fiona 2

The Excommunication of Portsmouth, 1450-1508

By on October 5, 2017 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Dr Fiona McCall teaches on a first year module, Early Modern World, where we discuss the practice of the medieval Catholic church before the reformation, and a second year module, Crime, Sin and Punishment in Britain, 1500-1850, which looks at the extensive jurisdiction of the church courts in the early modern period, as well as the role of religious ideas in punishment. Below she relates how the town of Portsmouth was excommunicated in 1450, and what it had to do, fifty-eight years later, to end this predicament. This year, Patrick Johnson, one of the students who studied the above module last year, will be researching a dissertation on the social meaning […]

Continue Reading 0
Image courtesy of Oliver Stedman

The Final Year: A year of many ‘lasts’

By on September 20, 2017 in Learning in Focus

Are you just about to embark on your final year studying as a History student? In this blog one of last year’s History graduates, Callum Devine, reflects on his experiences as a third year student. He offers advice on how to work through the year, as well as how to go about planning for your future careers. Callum graduated in July with a 2.1. The third and final year of your history degree… The year that seemed so far away when you started, and yet has crept up so quickly. For most of you it will be the year of many lasts: the last essay, last seminar, or last purple […]

Continue Reading 0
IMG_20170527_224633_377

Third Year & You: How to survive with your sanity intact

By on September 20, 2017 in Learning in Focus

Returning for your third year as a History undergraduate? This blog was written by former History student Taché Smith, and in it she reflects back on her final year of study and offers tips on how to work through it. Taché graduated in July 2017 with a 2.1 and is now looking for museum work in her home country of Bermuda. There’s a lot of things said about the third year, most of it revolving around how easy or how hard it is; however, it just isn’t that simple. The third year of university is one of the most satisfying and frustrating experiences you will ever have. It will challenge […]

Continue Reading 1