History Degrees in Alabama

In 1901 a Jefferson County lawyer named Thomas McAdory Owen wrote a bill creating a state agency whose only job was to collect and keep Alabama’s records. It passed almost unanimously, the governor signed it on February 27, and three days later Owen became its first director. The Alabama Department of Archives and History was the first state-funded independent archives agency in the United States, and it beat the National Archives by more than thirty years. Other states had handed their records to a library or a secretary of state. Alabama decided the job needed an institution of its own, and every other state eventually agreed. The same instinct shows up in the universities, where the research capacity runs deeper than the state’s size would suggest.

Alabama has 21 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 44 programs among them: 32 bachelor’s degrees, 10 master’s degrees, and 2 doctorates.

Four of the five schools in our ranking are R1 research universities, which is a high concentration for a state this size.

Top History Schools in Alabama

We scored all 21 Alabama schools on the four factors we use in every state: history degree offerings and program variety (40%), student outcomes (25%), reputation (20%), and affordability (15%). Alabama leads on depth at 7 programs, with Auburn, UAB, and North Alabama at 3. Outcomes go to Auburn at 82% and Alabama at 73% completing in four years. Reputation is where this list is unusual, since four of the five below hold R1 classification. Affordability favors UAB at $9,098 and South Alabama at $10,116. Here are Alabama’s best history degrees.

Most Affordable History Degrees in Alabama

Most affordable history degrees in Alabama

Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	University of Alabama at Birmingham	B.A. in History	$9,098
2	Auburn University at Montgomery	B.A. in History	$9,700
3	University of South Alabama	B.A. in History	$10,116
4	Troy University	B.A. in History	$10,176
5	University of West Alabama	Bachelor's in History	$10,990
6	Alabama State University	B.A. in History	$11,248
7	University of North Alabama	B.A. or B.S. in History	$12,120
8	Stillman College	Bachelor's in History	$12,126
9	University of Alabama in Huntsville	Bachelor's in History	$12,132
10	The University of Alabama	B.A. in History	$12,180

Annual in-state tuition and fees. Nine of the ten are public. Stillman College, a historically Black college, is the only private institution to make the list, and it sits within $60 of two public universities.

History Education in Alabama

Alabama is more public than most states, and the ranking shows it. Thirteen public institutions carry 33 of the state’s 44 history programs, against eight private colleges carrying 11, and all five schools in our ranking are public. The price range across that ranking is narrow, from $9,098 at UAB to $12,890 at Auburn, so a student is choosing between departments rather than between price brackets.

Public history is Alabama’s real strength. Six of the state’s programs carry a public history designation, roughly 14% of everything on offer, which is the second-highest share of any state in the country behind Colorado. More usefully, four separate Alabama schools teach it at bachelor’s level, matching Virginia and behind only Pennsylvania. UAB awards a full Bachelor’s in Public History, and the University of Alabama runs it as a named track alongside legal history.

Graduate study narrows sharply. There are only two history doctorates in the state, at Alabama and Auburn, and those are the only two schools teaching the subject at all three levels. Ten master’s degrees are spread more widely, including at four of the five ranked schools, so the master’s is the realistic ceiling at most Alabama institutions.

Transfer is protected by statute and works differently from most states. Alabama’s system was created by the Articulation and General Studies Committee in 1994 under Act 94-202 and was rebranded from STARS to Alabama Transfers in 2022, so older advice still uses the old name. The distinctive part is what it protects: rather than only guaranteeing a general education block, it issues a Transfer Guide for your chosen major, mapping the first two years so that credit is not lost on the way to the appropriate public four-year university. Every public institution receiving state funding has to honor it. Details are at Alabama Transfers.

The weak spot is distance study. Our directory lists 2 online history programs in the whole state, one bachelor’s and one master’s. Our guide to online history degrees covers the wider field.

Becoming a History Teacher in Alabama

Alabama certifies teaching fields for grades 6 through 12 through the State Department of Education, and requires the Alabama-prescribed Praxis Subject Assessment for the field you are seeking. One practical detail: the passing score that applies is the one in effect on the date your application reaches the certification office, not the date you sat the test.

Alabama also requires edTPA for anyone whose application was received on or after September 1, 2018. It is a portfolio assessment built during student teaching, and it is administered separately from Praxis rather than through it, so it is easy to overlook when planning.

Four Alabama history programs in our directory are built with classroom preparation in mind, so the licensure coursework can sit inside the major, not alongside it.

Confirm current requirements with the Alabama State Department of Education before choosing a program, since both the assessment list and the passing scores are revised periodically.

History Careers in Alabama

History Careers in Alabama

Occupation	Alabama jobs	Alabama median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	15,880	$61,990	-14%
Postsecondary history teachers	340	$66,550	-21%
Curators	150	$61,120	-4%
Archivists	100	$57,860	-10%
Historians	60	$72,490	-6%

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025.

Every occupation in this table pays below the national median, but the ordering is not what you would expect. Curators come closest to national at 4% below and historians at 6% below, while postsecondary history teaching trails furthest at 21% under.

That is worth weighing against the state’s degree structure. Alabama has two history doctorates and 340 college-level history teaching positions paying a median of $66,550, which is less than the national figure by a wide margin. A student planning on an academic career should treat Alabama as a place to train instead of a market to enter.

The collections side reads better than it does in many southern states. One hundred and fifty curator and 100 archivist positions is a modest count, but the wages sit within a few percent of national, and the state’s heavy public history provision feeds directly into that work. Secondary school teaching, 14% below national across 15,880 positions, carries almost all of the volume as usual.

History Resources in Alabama

• Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery. Created in 1901 as the first state-funded independent archives agency in the country, more than three decades before the National Archives. It remains the state’s official repository and runs public exhibits alongside its research collections.
• Encyclopedia of Alabama, a free online reference covering the state’s history, geography, culture, and biography. It is a genuinely scholarly resource, not a tourist guide, with signed and sourced articles, and it is a sensible first stop for anyone starting research on an Alabama topic.

Frequently Asked Questions