MA History

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2026, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MA (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £13,700
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £28,400
• MA (part-time)
  UK students (per annum): £6,850
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £14,200

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive for the course tuition, administration and computational costs during your studies.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of courses lasting more than a year for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for International students, for the course duration at the year of entry). For general fees information please visit: postgraduate fees . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

Self-funded international applicants for this course will be required to pay a deposit of £1000 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. This deposit will only be refunded if immigration permission is refused. We will notify you about how and when to make this payment.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

• Information on university funding, loans, and scholarships available on the Masters student funding page
• The Faculty of Humanities offered a range of scholarship opportunities for eligible applicants starting in September 2025. Please check back to confirm availability for September 2026 start.
• Please visit the school funding page for more information on subject funding available
• Other funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages .

In recent decades public interest in history has grown exponentially, evident in the popularity of history in the media including David Olusoga’s phenomenally successful House Through Time, favourites such as Who Do You Think You Are?, and historical fiction such as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series. Equally, historical sites, museums and exhibits are amongst the most visited attractions in Britain. The general public has also become increasingly engaged in producing history (e.g. through community history projects or family history). History and memory continue to be the object of central political controversies, invoked to define national identities, citizenship or to legitimise policies and claims. What role do (and should) historians play in contemporary society? How can historians engage with non-academic audiences, bringing their expertise to a wider public and to bear on these debates? This course explores these questions, introducing students to the practical skills and methods necessary to engage with them.

 

• To introduce students to the techniques, skills and media through which historians can engage with non-academic audiences;
• To gain skills in identifying and building relationships with non-academic partners (the general public, the heritage industry, policy and third sector);
• To gain experience in critically evaluating public history projects;
• To extend students’ skills set in communicating their research via a variety of media (newspaper, tv, radio, blogs, exhibitions);
• To develop a reflexive engagement with historical practice by debating the role of History in the public sphere.

 

• Understand the multiple modes of interaction between History and its publics;
• Analyse who is assumed to be ‘included’ and ‘excluded’ from popular historical narratives and sites, especially in relation to marginalised groups;
• Understand how non-academic audiences approach, consume and produce historical knowledge;
• Understand current and past debates on the role of history and historians in society.

• Synthesize and communicate complex historical knowledge and practice to non-expert audiences.
• Have developed the ability to consider historical topics from the perspective of non-professional audiences, as well as diverse groups of audiences.

• Identify, plan and design public history projects, with opportunities to write policy documents, exhibition proposals, and create films using zoom or phone technologies;
• Communicate historical research and knowledge to a non-expert audience across a variety of media;
• Manage a sustained program of regular weekly work;
• Gain experience in problem solving, leadership and teamwork.

• Develop empathy and concern for inclusivity in the way history is presented and communicated to wider audiences;
• Have developed a reflexive stance on own work and engagement with the public sphere;
• Communication and organisation skills;
• Articulate and develop informed and reasoned argument in written and oral forms to non-specialist audiences and in differing formats;
• Organise own learning through self-management and work to deadlines;
• Using ICT (Canvas, zoom etc.) for research and presentation purposes;
• Demonstrate the ability to work in a group and show leadership;
• Identify, analyse and apply a wide range of different types of data to formulate and solve problems;
• Ability to bring analytical and research skills to bear on the formulation and design of proposals and projects. 

Feedback method	Formative or Summative
Oral feedback on classroom project activities	Formative
Written feedback on essays	Summative

 

David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History (MacMillan, 2016); see also BBC series: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082x0h6

Black History Month website: https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/

Paul Ashton and Hilda Kean (eds), People and their Pasts: Public History Today (2008)

Hilda Kean and Paul Martin (eds), The Public History Reader (2013)

Jerome de Groot, Consuming History, Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture (2009)

Disability History Month website: https://ukdhm.org/

LGBT+ History Month website: https://lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk/

John Tosh, Why History Matters (2008)

Manchester Histories Festival: http://www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk/

The Raphael Samuel History Centre: http://www.raphael-samuel.org.uk/

History & Policy:  http://www.historyandpolicy.org/

Hilary Mantel Reith Lectures: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vkm52