Widening Histories Academic Development Programme

Queen Mary's Department of History has one of the most diverse undergraduate populations in the UK. We want our postgraduate students and lecturers to reflect that too. 

Through this programme, students who are interested in exploring a career in academia will be equipped with knowledge and skills to map their own path to an academic future. They will be ready to become serious researchers, amazing postgraduate students, or, someday, inspirational professors and mentors. 

About the programme

Tuesday 5 - Friday 8 May, 2026

This programme is designed to nurture and support undergraduate students who are under-represented in postgraduate study and in the profession of History. It works with those who are part of the first generation in their family to attend university. It seeks to encourage them to continue their studies at the postgraduate level.

Research shows that the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study is particularly difficult for students from underrepresented groups. Students might face socio-economic challenges like the inability to fund study or the need to support family members. They also face the challenge of a culture that has not typically represented them, leading to unfamiliarity with terms, rules, or expectations in the academic world.

Together, we will build a cohort of students who support and challenge one another in their final year. The programme begins at the end of the second year and continues through the final year. Students receive a bursary to participate in a week of full-time activities at the end of the second year. This prepares them to realise their intellectual potential in their final year fully. Next, they will continue to gather for specialised training sessions, talks and activities. Talks will include, for example, work in progress from researchers that demonstrate how people build their research projects. 

Activities include:

• A one-day archival visit
• A visit to another major university - in previous years, this has been Oxford
• Writing sessions with tutors
• Research sessions: moving from idea to project, using primary sources
• Talks with UK and international professors of underrepresented and/or BAME background 
• Practical sessions on postgraduate study in the UK and internationally: how programmes work, what the expectations are, and how they can be funded. 

Overall, the programme is based on shared mentoring and community building. While it does not remove all the barriers to academic study, it will openly discuss these barriers and share ideas for challenging them.