I have loved history for as long as I can remember,
and I am so pleased that I chose Hull as the place to pursue my history studies.
The approach that they've taken to their new undergraduate programme is incredibly innovative.
So it really is something that students will be able to take into careers in the future.
The history department at Hull is absolutely fabulous.
There's such a variation in themes from the Tudors to modern air power,
and so there really is something for everyone at the University of Hull.
I'm Dr Victoria Taylor.
I'm a triple alumna of the University of Hull,
and I am an aviation historian specialising in British and German aviation.
When I was a child, I went through that really classic ancient history phase,
and it was only really when I was growing up just outside RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire
that I started to see the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
I was seeing Hurricanes,
I was seeing the Lancaster,
and of course I was seeing the Spitfire.
So for me there was this really tangible link between the past and the present,
and so as a result I really wanted to dig into the story of the men that flew these aircraft
and defended our nation.
Hull couldn't get rid of me.
I went for my undergraduate, my masters and my Ph.D.
and ultimately it was because it had such a lovely feeling of community and camaraderie.
You're actually listened to, your opinions are thought about,
and the fact that you can debate as an equal is such a lovely feeling.
You feel very much respected at Hull.
So that got me immediately and I wanted to make sure that
I honed my skills as a historian at the very best institution.
My name's Tracy Borman and I'm a historian and
Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces.
I'm also a writer.
I've written 15 history books, and I do quite a lot of television work
presenting history documentaries and series on
mostly The Tudors and it's the Tudors I really fell in love with while studying at Hull.
I remember looking around various universities on their open days,
and it was at Hull that I felt at home immediately.
And I loved the history department.
It changed my life.
It set me on the career path that I've been lucky enough to follow ever since.
It gave me the skills, but also it gave me the passion for history,
and that passion has stayed with me ever since.
So I'll always be grateful that I chose to study history at Hull
and I can't recommend it highly enough.
I'm Nicole Ridley.
I'm a history teacher at Malet Lambert School in Hull.
I love history itself and I'm very passionate about the stories and the patterns.
I find it fascinating.
So I wanted to be able to talk about history and as a teacher
I get to talk about history all day, every day.
Well, I think, first of all, it's an incredibly innovative programme.
The first I'd seen that started from a position of thinking very realistically about
what does a historian need to be able to do in the modern day?
And if you're working in any field of history, what skills do you need?
And they've built their course and their assessment, their topics around that principle,
It really is something that students will be able to take into careers in the future.
One of the most impressive things for me coming from a secondary school
into a university environment was looking at the relationship between the lecturers and the students,
and it quite shocked me because it's such a massive place.
But there was genuine respect and support there
from both the students to the teachers and the teachers to the students,
That's the kind of relationship and culture that I would want my students to have
when they leave us and they go onto further study.
Since leaving Hull, I've secured teaching at other institutions, including King's College, London
and the Defense Academy there through Shrivenham.
But to be honest, I've put a lot of my time into being a freelance historian.
You can go into industry as a historian, so you can be working on documentaries
you can be writing trade books, popular mainstream books,
you can be looking at consultancy roles.
So there's lots of different opportunities for a historian.
It isn't just the classic you teach or you write.
You really make an impact and a ripple in so many different ways
within the public and the academic sphere.
And so history, I think, is such a flexible subject
because it leads to all sorts of different careers.
It's an endless joy, actually, and a privilege
being able to spend every day doing something you love.
I think it was Winston Churchill who said:
‘If you find a job you love, then you'll never work again.’
And that's how I feel.