History students at the University of Dundee have seen the "added value" of their degrees ratchet up several notches with the department being awarded an historic "quality hat trick".
Just days after earning the coveted 5-rating for international excellence in the UK's Research Assessment Exercise, the University of Dundee historians learned that they are to be awarded the highest possible rating from the body that reviews academic standards and learning opportunities, the Quality Assurance Agency.
To complete a ratings hat trick for history, the QAA have also graded their use of the University Archives to support teaching and learning for students as "exemplary".
Head of the Department of History Professor Chris Whatley said: "This is a tremendous endorsement of the heroic work by staff in recent years and can only be good news for history students in Dundee. To have improved the RAE rating from a grade 2 in 1992 to a grade 5 in less than 10 years is like transforming a farm horse into a thoroughbred. To combine that with commendable quality of teaching and learning is a real tribute to the dedication of staff and the performance of students."
The QAA commented on the department's "broad coverage of history across diverse periods and geographical areas with particular attention to Scottish history" and made a special "exemplary" mention of the link with the University Archives which are used extensively by students./ends
Notes for editors
The Archives include extensive collections of manuscripts relating to
Dundee from the 15th century to today, including the Brechin Diocesan
Library, Tayside Health Board Archive, the jute industry and British
labour, social and shipping history.
The Department of history offers two degrees, in History and Scottish Historical Studies, with an extensive range of undergraduate courses in Scottish, British, European and American History, three postgraduate degrees and an innovative distance learning course in Modern Scottish History. The department is one of the strongest in the country for 18th century historical studies, and unique in possessing professors of Scottish art and architecture. A major research project on the significance of Dundee as a "laboratory of industrialisation" in Britain also played a key part in the success.
More info at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/history/
Contact Professor Chris Whatley 01382 344085