Course content
There are three master’s courses in Social Anthropology: the nine-month M.St., the one-year M.Sc. [‘Mode A’ by coursework], and the two-year M.Phil. These share a common foundational period of nine months’ course work in the first year.. The M.Sc. includes also a summer dissertation, and the M.Phil. a 30,000 word thesis in the second year. These courses are open to any well-qualified graduate, even people with no prior qualification in anthropology, and can stand alone as qualifications in themselves. The M.Sc. and M.Phil. serve also as a foundation for doctoral research.
Graduate students following any of the above courses will attend lectures and classes, and will work on a regular weekly basis preparing essays for discussion with their individual tutors. This system allows for flexibility, given the varied backgrounds of students, and the range of their intended careers or research plans. Four written examinations are taken in June of the first year, one of these on a chosen option. For those taking the M.Phil., work on the thesis in the second year is supplemented by taking a further option course.
For applicants who already hold a good degree in social anthropology, it is possible to take a variant of the M.Sc. [‘Mode B’] which is devoted largely to research methods, leads straight on to a doctoral project. and is ESRC-recognized.