MSc Pure Mathematics

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

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,700
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £36,300
• MSc (part-time)
  UK students (per annum): £7,400
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £14,700

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

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).

The Martingale Foundation helps provide access to postgraduate mathematics study for UK students facing financial barriers by offering fully-funded MSc and PhD programmes. Find more information on the Martingale Foundation website . The deadline is Sunday 19 October 2025.

Our Manchester Master's Bursaries are aimed at widening access to master's courses by removing barriers to postgraduate education for students from underrepresented groups.

We also welcome the best and brightest international students each year and reward excellence with a number of merit-based scholarships. See our range of master’s scholarships for international students .

If you have completed or are in the final year of an undergraduate degree at The University of Manchester, you may be eligible for a discount of 10% on tuition fees for postgraduate study. Find out if you're eligible and how to apply .

For more information on master's tuition fees and studying costs, visit the University of Manchester funding for master's courses website.

Differentiable manifolds are among the most fundamental notions of modern mathematics. Roughly, they are geometrical objects that can be endowed with coordinates; using these coordinates one can apply differential and integral calculus, but the results are coordinate-independent.

Examples of manifolds start with open domains in Euclidean space <b>R</b>^<i>n</i>, and include multidimensional surfaces such as the <i>n</i>-sphere <i>S^n</i> and the <i>n</i>-torus i>T^n</i>, the projective spaces <b>RP</b>^<i>n</i> and <b>CP</b>^<i>n</i> and their generalizations, matrix groups such as the rotation group SO(<i>n</i>), etc. Differentiable manifolds naturally appear in various applications, e.g., as configuration spaces in mechanics. They are arguably the most general objects on which calculus can be developed. On the other hand, differentiable manifolds provide for calculus a powerful invariant geometric language, which is used in almost all areas of mathematics and its applications.

In this course we give an introduction to the theory of manifolds, including their definition and examples; vector fields and differential forms; integration on manifolds and de Rham cohomology.

The unit aims to introduce fundamental notions of differentiable manifolds.

On completion of this unit succesfully, students will be able to:

• state the definition of a differentiable manifold and construct practically the manifold structure for various examples;
• state the definition of a tangent vector and find tangent spaces in examples;
• work practically with vector fields and differential forms; in particular, calculate commutator of vector fields and exterior differential of differential forms;
• state the definition of integral of a form, state the general Stokes theorem and calculate integrals of forms in particular examples with and without using the Stokes theorem;
• state the definition of de Rham cohomology, use its main properties to calculate the cohomology for particular examples, and apply it for distinguishing manifolds.

. Manifolds and smooth maps. Coordinates on familiar spaces. Charts and atlases. Definitions of manifolds and smooth maps. Products. Specifying manifolds by equations. More examples of manifolds.

 

2. Tangent vectors. Velocity of a curve. Tangent vectors. Tangent bundle. Differential of a map.

 

3. Topology of a manifold. Topology induced by manifold structure. Identification of tangent vectors with derivations. Bump functions and partitions of unity. Embedding manifolds in <b>R</b>^<i>N</i> .

 

4. Tensor algebra. Dual space, Covectors and tensors. Einstein notation. Behaviour under maps. Tensors at a point. Example: differential of a function as covector.

 

5. Vector fields. Tensor and vector fields. Examples. Vectors and vector fields as derivations. Flow of a vector field. Commutator.

 

6. Differential forms. Antisymmetric tensors. Exterior multiplication. Forms at a point. Bases and dimensions. Exterior differential: definition and properties.

 

7. Integration. Orientation. Integral over a compact oriented manifold. Independence of atlas and partition of unity. Integration over singular manifolds and chains. Stokes theorem in different variants.

 

8. De Rham cohomology. Definition of cohomology and examples of nonzero classes. Homotopy invariance. Poincar&eacute; Lemma. Examples of calculation.

• Coursework (take-home): weighting 20%
• End of semester examination: weighting 80%

Feedback tutorials will provide an opportunity for students' work to be discussed and provide feedback on their understanding.  Coursework also provides an opportunity for students to receive feedback.  Students can also get feedback on their understanding directly from the lecturer, for example during the lecturer's office hour.

No particular textbook is followed. Students are advised to keep their own lecture notes. There are many good sources available treating various aspects of differentiable manifolds on various levels and from different viewpoints. Below is a list of texts that may be useful. More can be found by searching library shelves.

• R. Abraham, J. E. Marsden, T. Ratiu. Manifolds, tensor analysis, and applications.
• B.A. Dubrovin, A.T. Fomenko, S.P. Novikov. Modern geometry, methods and applications.
• A. S. Mishchenko, A. T. Fomenko. A course of differential geometry and topology
• S. Morita. Geometry of differential forms.
• Michael Spivak. Calculus on manifolds.
• Frank W. Warner. Foundations of differentiable manifolds and Lie groups