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MA in History

There are many reasons for deciding to do an MA in History: as a stepping-stone to a research degree and an intended academic career; as an advanced qualification to enhance your employability; for professional development or simply because you love History. We cater for all of these in a generic MA degree that is designed around individual students' research interests.

MA Pathways

The MA in History offers two pathways. You can choose either to take:

1. four taught courses and a long dissertation; or
2. or six taught courses and a shorter dissertation.

The choice is up to you, and you have the flexibility to decide which pathway to opt for six months into the degree. You can take the degree as a full–time student over 12 months, or part–time over 24 months.

All students take a core course in Michaelmas Term, Researching and Writing History, leading to a supervised feasibility study of their proposed dissertation topic.
If you opt for the shorter dissertation pathway you will take one other optional module in Michaelmas and two further optional courses in Lent Term, one of which will be an Advanced module. If you decide on the long dissertation pathway, you will then go on to take two more core courses in Summer Term. One of these, History for Life, is designed to show how valuable historical study and skills can be in the world outside the university. The other will be either Researching Medieval and Early Modern History or Researching Modern History, depending on the field of your dissertation.

With the exception of History for Life and Medieval Latin, all the taught modules run over a single ten-week term and are taught by seminars. History for Life has weekly seminars in the Michaelmas and Lent terms, while Medieval Latin is taught in classes for 25 weeks. All students, regardless of which pathway they choose, are strongly encouraged to attend the lectures for History for Life, though only those opting for the shorter dissertation pathway will attend seminars and do the coursework.

Whichever pathway you take, the focus of your MA will be the research topic you choose, with expert guidance from the department, for your dissertation. The coursework you do for all the taught courses is designed to feed into and inform your dissertation research.

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