Course description
Sociology at Manchester is one of the UK's largest and most prestigious centres for the subject, with over 30 academic staff and 60 postgraduate students forming a diverse and rigorous academic community.
The MA course aims to provide those of you who have an interest in sociology the opportunity to extend and deepen your knowledge of the discipline. Our teaching includes all areas of contemporary sociology but we have particular expertise in the fields of socio-cultural change, gender and sexuality, and consumption and sustainability.
We are consistently highly rated for our research and were ranked in the top three in the UK for our research environment, research quality, and research power in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). Our research feeds into all of our postgraduate teaching.
The Sociology MA is the perfect course to develop your analytical and investigative skills, training you in methods of social investigation in order to equip you with the ability for independent thinking, research and analysis, setting you up perfectly for the world of employment.
Teaching and learning
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 course 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.
Coursework and assessment
Course unit details
You will take four compulsory course units:
- Social Theory: Structure, Relations and Interaction;
- Cultural Criticism: Sources for a Public Sociology;
- Research Design;
- Research Strategy and Project Management;
- Together with four options chosen from a wide range of specialist units.
Examples of optional course units include:
- Social Network Analysis: Concepts and Measures;
- Theories of Gender and Sexuality;
- Urban Sociology;
- Environmental Activism and Advocacy;
- Philosophical and Methodological Foundations of Social Research;
- Theories of social relations, networks, and social structure;
- The Sociology of the Environment and Sustainability;
- Sociology of Consumption;
- Social Capital and Social Change;
- Science Sustainability and Society;
- Understanding Social Change for Environment and Sustainability.
If you have registered for the MA (or upgraded from the PG Diploma), you will need to complete a 12,000-word dissertation, on a research topic of your choice, in addition to the eight taught course units.
Course unit list
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dissertation | SOCY60000 | 60 | Mandatory |
| Social Theory: Structure, Relations and Interaction (SRI) | SOCY60332 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Cultural Criticism: Sources for a Public Sociology | SOCY60342 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Research Design | SOCY60401 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Research Strategy and Project Management | SOCY60412 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Data Analysis with R & RStudio | CRIM70821 | 15 | Optional |
| Qualitative Research Methods | SOCS60230 | 15 | Optional |
| Protest and Progress: Understanding Movements for Social and Political Change | SOCY60141 | 15 | Optional |
| Creative Methods | SOCY60192 | 5 | Optional |
| Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods | SOCY60231 | 15 | Optional |
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Scholarships and bursaries
The School offers a number of awards for students applying for master's study.
To find our more, please visit our master's funding opportunity search page.