Program Overview

MA History

The MA History program at Manchester Metropolitan University is designed to develop the skills of a professional historian while studying any aspect of history from the ancient to the contemporary, across all continents. This flexible and challenging masters program offers a range of core and optional modules that draw on the strengths of the university's research-active staff.

Course Overview

The course aims to provide students with the skills to progress to higher research programs, with a focus on key research methods and a hands-on approach to primary and secondary sources. The skills gained are also transferable to a range of jobs, including working with evidence, developing analysis, presenting research, and working collaboratively.

Features and Benefits

• Academic expertise: Work alongside leading researchers whose published work covers a wide range of geographical and chronological areas.
• Industry connections: Strong links with regional and national historians and archives.
• Learn at the forefront of your discipline: Taught by research-active and engaged tutors who bring their ongoing research to the classroom.
• Support for you: Individual support throughout the course.
• Manchester Centre for Public Histories and Heritage: Draw on the expertise of the center, where many academics are active researchers.
• Research-informed teaching: 83% of the university's research is rated internationally excellent.
• Hone your research skills: Pursue your own original historical project that allows you to develop your research skills, with the aid of expert supervision.

Year 1

Over the course of the program, students take a number of core units that develop specific research skills to enable them to develop their independent project. The two research methods units develop skills that professional historians use, such as finding and making use of materials in archives, gathering oral histories, and placing research findings within a local and global context. Optional units allow students to broaden their horizons in different historical time periods and geographical settings or to focus more specifically on themes and topics of their particular interest.

Core Modules

• Case Studies in Global History: Examines key themes and sources for the study of history in a global context.
• Independent Project: A negotiated assessment that can take one of several forms, such as a dissertation, a historical project in partnership with an outside organization, or a product resulting from a work placement scheme.
• Research Methods I & Research Methods II: Develops the necessary research and writing skills needed for postgraduate study in History, suited to the chosen exit award pathway.

Option Modules

• A Friendly Invasion? - The United States Military in Britain During World War II: Provides a social, cultural, military, and diplomatic political history of the ‘Friendly Invasion’ of Britain by American forces during World War II.
• Building the Country House: Provides knowledge of how to “read” the language of country house architecture and decoration.
• Case Studies in Controversy: History and Memory in Public: Interrogates the value of the public past in the 21st century through revealing public controversies.
• Case Studies in Medieval Warfare: Provides a case study on warfare in the medieval period.
• Professional Heritage and Practice: Provides detailed training in the methods used to record heritage and the historic environment.
• Race and Gender in Historical Perspective: Examines the changing interpretations and treatments of gender and race across a broad chronological and geographical range.
• Shock City: Order and Disorder in the Victorian City: Focuses on crime and disorder, authority and order, in the Victorian city.
• Terrorism and Political Violence: Considers the origins and development of modern terrorism.
• The World of the Courtier: Monarchy and Court Culture in Early Modern Europe: Brings together elements of history, art, literature, and politics to enable a thorough study of the world of the royal court in a shared European past.
• Women and Slavery in America: Gives an in-depth understanding of the intersections between race, class, and gender in the slaveholding South.

Study and Assessment

• Full-time: 30% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 70% independent study.
• Full-time: 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination.

Placements

While not a regular part of the course, some students choose to have a placement at a local institution, such as a library or museum, and incorporate this into their independent project.

Entry Requirements

• Normally, at least an upper second-class undergraduate UK honors degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant subject.
• Overseas applicants require IELTS with an overall score of 6.5 with no less than 5.5 in any category, or an equivalent accepted English qualification.

Fees and Funding

• UK and Channel Island students: Full-time fee £10,250 per year.
• EU and non-EU international students: Full-time fee £20,000 per year.
• Additional costs: Optional estimate £400 for books, printing, and other materials; compulsory estimate £10 for field trips.

Careers Support and Prospects

• Employed or in further study: 93.7% of UK-domiciled, full-time, postgraduate taught graduates are employed or in further study 15 months after graduation.
• Graduates may choose to go on to higher research programs or move into a wide range of industries like heritage, education, law, libraries, or local government. With the analytical and self-expression skills gained on the course, many have gone on to pursue careers and further study in business where these skills are desired.