MA Social Anthropology

The University holds regular open days, where you will have the opportunity to tour the campus and find out more about our facilities and courses.

On this day, you will find out more about the School of Social Sciences and our resources, you meet academic and admissions staff who will be able to answer any questions you have.

For more information, see open days and visits .

• 1 November (decision by 8 December, accept offer by 15 January) 
• 7 January (decision by 15 February, accept offer by 15 March);
• 2 March (decision by 8 April, accept offer by 8 May);
• 1 May (decision by 1 June, accept offer by 1 July).

If we make you an offer, you will have approximately 4 weeks to accept (conditional and un-conditional offers). Any offers not accepted by the deadline will be withdrawn so that an offer can be made to another candidate.

All conditional offer holders will have until 1 August to satisfy the conditions of their offer.

Due to competition for places, we give preference to students with grades above our minimum entry requirements. 

You need to ensure that you submit your supporting documents with your online application as it may delay us processing your application.

Whilst we aim to give you a decision on your application by the decision date, in some instances due to the competition for places/volume of applications received, it may be necessary to roll your application forward to the next deadline date. If this is the case we will let you know after the deadline date.

Applications received after our final selection deadline will be considered at our discretion if places are still available.

We can accept your application before you complete your undergraduate studies; please submit your latest transcripts with your online application. 

Please note: 

• all places are subject to availability and if you apply for one of the later dates, some courses may already be closed, we recommend that you apply early in the cycle to secure your place;
• meeting the minimum entry requirements does not guarantee an offer;
• if you are a current undergraduate student at the University of Manchester, you may be eligible to apply via the 'Fast-Track' scheme, email pg-soss@manchester.ac.uk for further information;
• international applicants who will require a visa to study in the UK can obtain up-to-date information on the latest student visa advice and guidelines;
• for a copy of the postgraduate prospectus, email pg-soss@manchester.ac.uk.

The objective of this course is to communicate an anthropologically-informed understanding of social life in both Western and non-Western societies. By confronting you with the remarkable diversity of human social and cultural experience, our aim is to encourage you to question taken-for-granted assumptions and to view the world from a new perspective.

Through a set of core course units, comprising about a third of coursework credits, you are provided with a comprehensive grounding in classical as well as contemporary debates in social anthropology and are introduced to the distinctive research methods and ethical positions associated with the discipline. You then complete your coursework credits by choosing from a broad range of units offered around the Faculty of Humanities. 

Through these options, you apply the social anthropological theories and methods learnt on the core units to particular substantive themes and topics. Diploma students complete their coursework in May and formally graduate in July. Over the summer vacation, MA students carry out research for a 15,000 word dissertation that is submitted in September; normally expecting to graduate formally in December.

You will take three 15-credit core course units, and a selection of optional units that you select shortly after arrival. Many optional units are worth 15 credits. In total, you are required to achieve 120 coursework credits. Over the Summer vacation, you are required to write a dissertation which is worth a further 60 credits.

Part-time students complete the full-time course over two years. There are no evening or weekend course units available on the part-time course.

You must first check the schedule of the compulsory units and then select your optional units to suit your requirements.

Updated timetable information will be available from mid-August and you will have the opportunity to discuss your unit choices during induction week with your course director.

Most units are assessed by means of an extended assessment essay. Typically, for 15 credit units, these will be 4000 words, whilst for 30 credit courses, they are normally 6000 words.

Certain options involving practical instruction in research methods, audio-visual media or museum display may also be assessed by means of presentations and/or portfolios of practical work. In addition, all MA students are required to write a 15,000 word dissertation.

Past graduates of the MA in Social Anthropology have gone on to many different careers, both inside and outside of academic life. As it is a 'conversion' course aimed at those who want to explore anthropology after undergraduate studies in another field, or at least within a different anthropological tradition, it often represents a major change of career direction, opening up a wide range of different possibilities.

About 20% of our graduates carry on their studies and enrol in doctoral research, either here or elsewhere. The MA in Social Anthropology also provides appropriate preparation for careers in which an informed awareness of social and cultural diversity is important. Other past students have gone on to work in the voluntary sector, either in the UK or with overseas development agencies, while others have gone on to work in the media or cultural industries, or in education at many different levels.

A number of graduates have found opportunities in business or the civil service, where ethnography-based studies are increasingly popular as a way of finding out how people - from consumers to employees - interact with their everyday worlds.