Overview

Studying History at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) is not about simply learning dates off by heart or holding on to romantic views of the past. Based on modern theories of history, cultural studies and social sciences as well as based on practical work with sources, students rather learn to understand history as a construct of human conceptions of the past that is bound to time, space and culture. In this way, they form a differentiated judgment, for example as regards questions of memory culture, identity formation and historical politics. The opportunity to spend a semester abroad at one of the KU’s many partner universities, participate in international programs, workshops, and conferences and courses for this specific professional field will allow you to broaden your horizons and lay the foundations for your future career.

Facilities

The well-stocked University Library not only provides you with scientific literature, but also enriches the courses with its historical holdings. The work with sources is therefore not limited to the analysis of illustrations and editions. Manuscripts and old prints can be analyzed and experienced in their original form on-site. In addition, the History department has numerous contacts in the field of applied history/public history, which add practical experience to the teaching practice. The KU also provides media equipment for the creation of own digital history teaching formats within the framework of practical courses.

The program in awards and rankings

The History department at the KU attached great importance to the quality of its teaching practice. KU lecturers of History are regularly among the prize winners for good and innovative teaching. Information on the prizewinners can be found on the University awards website.

The History department at the KU has numerous international partnerships with history institutes (e.g. Milan, São Paulo, St. Petersburg), which are an additional benefit to your studies. The open structure of the Eichstätt History degree program allows you to study abroad for one or two semesters. Before you start your journey, you will agree with your respective department speakers which courses you will take at your destination university. In this way, you ensure that your academic achievements will be recognized and you can continue your studies in Eichstätt seamlessly afterwards – enriched by important international experience.

The KU maintains a partnership network with around 300 universities worldwide. The KU International Office supports students in the planning phase and provides information on different financing possibilities for stays abroad.

The training to become a historian that is offered here in Eichstätt is extremely practice-oriented. By means of research-based learning, you will deepen the skills you have acquired so far in independent scientific work, to a large extent in complex approaches to unedited sources. You will directly benefit from the research strength of our subject area with a large number of third-party funded research projects.

In specific learning formats, you will also practice occupational activities with a professional focus that you will be confronted with outside University. You will prepare exhibitions, plan series of events or create digital formats for teaching history. In addition, regular field trips take you to historical sites, important memorials and museums, and to important artifacts.

You will gain further practical experience as part of the required internships of the teacher training program. In your course of study, it is also possible to include the internship that is required in the context of the teaching degree program or an additional voluntary internship at any time: Whether in a historically relevant institution, e.g. in a museum, archive, municipal cultural office, research institute or newspaper editorial office. For individual advice and support in finding an internship and financing possibilities, the KU Career Service and the International Internship Service are happy to help.

In addition to qualifying you to become a teacher, the history degree program will provide you with other skills that are in demand on the job market: You can collect information quickly, evaluate it critically, process it and communicate it in a comprehensible way. This opens up opportunities in many professional fields: typically, in history-related institutions such as archives, museums, memorials, but also in other sectors where language and text are used, such as publishing houses, advertising agencies or in the journalistic field.