The UCL MA History degree programme draws on the wide range and depth of research and teaching expertise at UCL to offer an incredible range of options for MA historians. It is primarily aimed at students interested in the early modern and modern periods, but options from the medieval and ancient periods are also available.
The MA in History is intensively taught by leading professors and specialists in small seminar groups. You will learn through secondary reading, seminar discussion, one-to-one tutorials and – crucially – through close and critical engagement with current research being undertaken by UCL professors. You will also be required to do your own original historical research under the expert guidance of a dissertation supervisor.
Whether your interests lie in imperial/postcolonial history, cultural and intellectual history, social and economic or international history, nationalism, or history and social theory; or your regional/national focus is on Britain, Europe, the Americas, Jewish history or the Soviet Union, the UCL MA in History gives students the widest possible opportunity to choose courses relating to a variety of historical periods and locations. In addition, the MA core course provides thorough training in the skills, concepts and theories required for MA study and dissertation research, developing the skills of students from a history background, providing a bridge to history for non-historians and laying a solid foundation for those wishing to go on to study for a PhD.
The resources available to our students are unrivalled in range and proximity to the department. In addition to UCL’s own magnificent libraries and archives, UCL MA in History gives students access to a vast array of other libraries and archives, with the British Library, the British Museum, Senate House library and the Institute for Historical Research (IHR) all a few minutes walk away. Many other specialist libraries with historical sources in multiple languages are clustered around the Bloomsbury area of London, with UCL at its heart.
Each year we admit students of the highest calibre from around the world and train them to become outstanding historians. Our MA students have backgrounds history, political science, sociology, anthropology, literature and geography. Many of our students go on to do doctoral work, to become academics or leaders in many other fields such as government, public administration, journalism and law.