BA Japanese Studies and History
As part of Welcome Week, you will meet Dr Tom McAuley, Programme Lead for Japanese Studies degree programmes. Tom is a specialist in premodern Japanese literature and poetry, particularly the waka of the Heian period (794-1185) and regularly posts his translations of these on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and TikTok. He doesn’t spend all his time in the distant past, though, as he’s also an anime fan and owns an extensive collection of anime figures, some of which keep him company in his office.
He’s a Sheffield graduate himself, who did a dual degree in Linguistics and Japanese and so he knows all about what it’s like to learn and study here, and as a former Departmental Director of Education and Japan Year Abroad Coordinator, he’s willing and able to answer any questions you might have as you settle into SEAS.
As a dual degree student you will also receive information and support from the Department of History. The Department of History Welcome Hub will go live on 24th August, so check back after that date.
The structure of your Degree
At university, we refer to students being in "levels" rather than "years". The structure of our four year degree programmes is:
Level 1 - in Sheffield
Level 2 - in Sheffield
Level 3 - Japan Year Abroad
Level 4/Final Year - in Sheffield
Understanding the jargon
Some of the most important things for you to understand are a few terms we use all the time:
Semester: a period of 15 weeks: 12 teaching weeks and 3 weeks for assessment. Each academic year is split into two semesters: Autumn and Spring. You can find your semester dates here https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/about/dates
Module: Your studies are made up of modules, and each module is worth a number of credits.
Credits: Modules will be 10 or 20 credits. For a full year, you will need to pick 120 credits in total.
Core module: this is a compulsory module for your programme. You don't need to pick these modules as part of the registration - they will already be on your student record.
Approved module: there will be a some flexibility in your programme which means that in addition to your core modules, you choose approved modules that you're interested in to make up to 120 credits per year.
Guided Module Choice: these modules have been selected as being complimentary to your main area of studies. These modules might be run by SEAS, or they may be run by a different department.
Degree programme: this is the title of your degree. Programme of study is another term we use.
Add/Drop: for the first 2 weeks of the semester you have the option to drop an optional module if you don't like it. You can then add another (as long as there is space on the module and we can make your timetable work).
Modules in Level 1
Each year you must take 120 credits, split across Autumn and Spring semesters. These credits can be balanced equally 60:60, but you can also choose to have a 70:50 or 50:70 split at times.
Your year abroad may be an exception to this, but don't worry, you will be given lots of information as Level 3 approaches.
Your marks for first year do not count to your degree, but you need to pass all your modules to move on to Level 2.
Semester 1
Core modules (required)
EAS1033 Japanese Language 1a - 20 credits
EAS1034 Japanese Language 1b - 10 credits
HST120 History Workshop - 20 credits
Semester 2
Core modules (required)
EAS1035 Japanese Language 2a - 20 credits
EAS1036 Japanese Language 2b - 10 credits
Plus between 20 and 40 credits from...
HST112 Paths from Antiquity to Modernity (Autumn Semester) - 20 credits
HST115 The 'Disenchantment of Early Modern Europe, c. 1570-1770 (Autumn Semester) - 20 credits
HST116 Empire: From the Ancient World to the Middle Ages (Spring Semester) - 20 credits
HST117 The Making of the Twentieth Century (Spring Semester) - 20 credits
HST119 The Transformation of the United Kingdom, 1800 to the Present (Spring Semester) - 20 credits
Any remaining credits to be used on...
Guided Module Choice (a selection of History modules or selected modules from other departments) or Languages for All modules
Beyond Level 1