Master of Arts
MA Classics and Ancient History
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Fees and funding
Fees
For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:
-
MA (full-time)
UK students (per annum): £14,400
International, including EU, students (per annum): £31,400
The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.
Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .
Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.
International student CAS deposit
Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .
Policy on additional costs
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).
Scholarships/sponsorships
We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.
- Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.
- Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
- Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.
Course unit details:
The Study of the Ancient World
| Unit code | CAHE60510 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 30 |
| Unit level | FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree |
| Teaching period(s) | Full year |
| Offered by | Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology & Egyptolog |
| Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
The core seminar is a year-long foundational course, designed with three aims in mind:
- to give students specific training in academic/research skills
- to introduce students to specialist fields of research within the broad subject area of Classics and Ancient History
- to help students develop a better understanding of possible career paths, develop, recognise and articulate transferable skills in their CV
Semester 1 consists of a series of training workshops and classes. These include workshops on academic/research skills and interactive, practical seminars on specific areas of expertise/modes of research, covering between them a range of fields in Classics and Ancient History, such as reception, intertextuality and writing and using commentaries to pots, epigraphy, papyrology and numismatics.
In Semester 2, the MA students themselves take it in turns, to present papers on a subject of their own choosing (which may but need not relate to their planned thesis-topic). A properly written-up version of this seminar-presentation is submitted three weeks later. The oral and written versions each count for 50% of the overall mark (training on presentations and their assessment is provided). The above is complemented by sessions aiming to develop each student's employability skills and profile.
Pre/co-requisites
Aims
1. To introduce students to the advanced study of Classics and Ancient History
2. To provide them with a first experience, in a supportive environment, of being a postgraduate member of an academic audience
3. To provide the opportunity to learn, by both example and direct experience, how to give a research presentation to such an audience
4. To give students a sense of the range of intellectual activity encompassed by research in the subject
5. To provide students with at least a nodding acquaintance with a range of technical research skills in the area, and with the opportunity to develop further those that are of particular relevance
Learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
Objectives:
On successful completion of the course-unit, students should have acquired the following (not all of these objectives are subject to formal assessment):
1. The ability to give a formal presentation, with appropriate supporting material, on a topic where they have some degree of specialist knowledge
2. The ability to convey something of the excitement and value of that knowledge to a wider audience of non-specialist Classicists
3. The ability to contribute to discussion of academic topics both close to their own subject-area and more broadly across the range of ancient material
4. The basis for wider knowledge, and a spirit of enquiry, within the subject as a whole
Intellectual skills
- The ability to assimilate and summarise large quantities of evidence, and to engage critically and analytically with this evidence;
- The ability (as needed) to engage closely with specific skills in ancillary disciplines of classical study, such as epigraphy
- The ability to construct an argument in written and oral form;
Practical skills
- The ability to work co-operatively in small groups, and to engage in critical discussion and debate.
- (as needed each week) the ability to carry out practical exercises appropriate to the week’s study topic (e.g. decipher an inscription and carry out research on it)
Transferable skills and personal qualities
- enhanced abilities to engage in critical discussion and debate and independent research.
- improved analytical and observational abilities
Employability skills
- Other
- The course involves a large number of important employment skills, most notably an ability to analyse and examine complex information, an ability to synthesise an argument in a cogent form and present it orally and in written form, the ability to retrieve information from complex sources and present it in a compelling and cogent fashion.
Assessment methods
| Method | Weight |
|---|---|
| Written assignment (inc essay) | 50% |
| Oral assessment/presentation | 50% |
Feedback methods
Feedback method Formative or Summative
Written feedback Formative and summative
Class discussion and oral feedback formative
Recommended reading
Weekly preparatory reading will be provided for each seminar. However, every student should ensure that s/he has read (in translation) Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Vergil’s Aeneid.
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 44 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 256 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Ina Berg | Unit coordinator |
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