Closing date for next application round:
Monday 24 March 2025
The Society’s Postgraduate Membership category launched in 2021. It is reserved for those studying History, or a cognate subject, at a higher level (from Masters to PhD) in a UK or overseas institution. Postgraduate Members join a group of researchers, many of whom will seek to work in a field relating to History. With this category of membership, the Society recognises the particular experience of higher degree students. Postgraduate Membership seeks to provide tailored support, for example in training events and grants, to assist students during a degree and immediately afterwards.
Postgraduate Membership is linked to student status and may run for as long as the member is registered for a postgraduate degree and one additional year thereafter.
From November 2021, the Society also offers an Associate Fellowship for historians who are no longer studying for a further degree but whose career stage and or contribution to history. Some Associate Fellows are historians working in Higher Education who have not yet reached the extent of publications, or equivalent, required to join the full Fellowship. Others contribute to History through their work in sectors such as heritage and museums, libraries and archives, teaching, publishing and broadcasting, or personal research.
These new membership categories – of Associate Fellowship and Postgraduate Membership – replace the previous category of Early Career Membership. Read more about these two ways to belong to the Society. From August 2022 we are extending the benefits available to Postgraduate Members of the Society (see below).
To apply for the RHS Postgraduate Membership please use the Society’s Applications Portal, and select your chosen membership category.
Benefits of Postgraduate Membership
- Online access to the current issue and entire searchable back archive of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society – from the journal’s foundation in 1872 to 2024.
- Online access to all 385 volumes of the Society’s Camden Series of primary source material, including the latest titles published in 2024-25. Since 1838, the Camden Series has made primary records available in accessible scholarly editions, compiled and introduced by specialist historians. The Series is especially strong in material relating to British history, including the British Empire and Britons’ influence overseas.
- All other RHS publications offered at a substantial discount: this includes print volumes for new and recent titles in the Camden Series and all titles in the New Historical Perspectives series.
- Substantial discounts on the Society’s former title, the Bibliography of British and Irish History, which is available to Postgraduate Members at £40 per year.
- 30% discount on all academic books (print only) published by Cambridge University Press.
- 30% discount on History titles published by Oxford University Press.
- 30% discount on purchases of print copies of the Society’s New Historical Perspectives book series, offering monographs and essay collections, and produced in association with the Institute of Historical Research and University of London Press.
- 30% discount on History titles published by Oxford University Press.
- Receipt of the weekly ‘RHS News Circular’ (this example, October 2024): a regular update on RHS activities, plus listings of events / calls for papers from other UK historical societies and research networks.
- Eligibility to apply for RHS grants and funded fellowships.
- Eligible for RHS training and career development events / workshops reserved for Fellows and members.
- Eligible to apply for the Society’s Research Funding programmes (including Scholarships and Fellowships) available to historians at all career stages.
- Access to the RHS Archive and Library collections, and RHS Library rooms, at University College London (UCL).
- Become part of a thriving international community of historians, of all kinds and from many backgrounds.
Annual Subscription
From July 2024, annual subscription rates for Postgraduate Members, payable on appointment, are:
- Postgraduates, UK-based and International: £20.00
- Postgraduates, Hardship Rate: £10.00
The RHS subscription year runs July to June with renewals due on 1 July of each year.
The Postgraduate Hardship Rate is available to unemployed and low income/wage members (self-defined) and includes unfunded/self-funded students.
How to Apply
Prior to making your application, please consult the FAQs relating to Postgraduate Membership.
To apply for the RHS Postgraduate Membership please use the Society’s Applications Portal, and select your chosen membership category.
Applications to join the RHS are welcome through the year. Remaining dates for applications in 2025 are: Monday 24 March 2025, Monday 26 May 2025, Monday 11 August 2025 and Monday 13 October 2025.
Rejoining the Society as a Postgraduate Member
If your Postgraduate Membership has lapsed / has been cancelled, and you would like to re-join the Society, please contact our Membership department at membership@royalhistsoc.org in the first instance. We will be glad to assist you.
All applications are considered by our Membership Committee which meets five times a year. You can expect to hear the outcome approximately eight weeks after the closing date for your application. Incomplete applications will be held on file until we have received all the necessary information.
All enquiries about applying for election to the Fellowship should be addressed to the RHS office: membership@royalhistsoc.org.