Modern History, MA

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, University of Leeds, the United Kingdom

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Study options for this course

The award	How you will study	Study duration	Course start	Domestic course fees	International course fees
MA	Full-time, Part-time	12 - 24 months	September	GBP 11500 per total	GBP 24500 per total

About Modern History, MA - at Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, University of Leeds

Spanning the early modern period to the present day and covering Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, our MA Modern History offers unparalleled range of study, not only chronologically and geographically but thematically too. We are one of the largest History departments in the country and the staff who teach on the course have a diverse range of expertise.

With a wide range of optional modules, you can tailor the course to suit your interests, but we also encourage you to develop how you think as a historian: you'll have the chance to encounter new ways of 'doing' modern history, from the study of state archives to popular culture and everyday life. Crucially, we don't prioritise any one approach so you'll get to work with historians who ask different kinds of questions, use different kinds of sources and who understand the past in different ways.

Core modules ('Practicing Modern History' and 'Communicating History') help you understand these different approaches and give you the critical skills to contribute to current historiographical debates. A 15,000-word research dissertation, closely supervised by a leading historian in their field, allows you to apply the knowledge and skills you have gained.

The School of History at Leeds has more than thirty members of staff currently working in the field of Modern History. We have long-standing strengths in British, European, American and colonial history but we also have experts working on East and South-East Asia, India, Africa, Latin America, Australia and the Middle East. Thematically, we also can offer a tremendous range of Modern History. We have specialists in medical history and the history of psychiatry, histories of race and gender, military history, the histories of childhood and the family, histories of protest and resistance, political, transnational and international history.

The MA Modern History enables you to immerse yourself in this diverse scholarly community; besides taught modules, you are encouraged to participate in the School's research culture by attending research seminars, conferences and workshops. The Leeds Humanitites Research Institute (LHRI) fosters interdisciplinary study and connects students with staff and students outside the School.

The University's libraries provide some of the best archival and library collections in the country and its Special Collections have a wide range of archival holdings, with particularly extensive collections in political and social history, the history of religion and theology, histories of science, medicine, education, travel and art. Outside Leeds, students have easy access to the British Library at Boston Spa.

Specialist Resources

You'll study in a supportive environment with a wide range of resources. The world-class Brotherton Library has one of the best history collections in the UK, ranging from monographs and journals to conference papers, theses and over 100 digital databases of primary sources and other materials for fundamental research. The Brotherton also has its own special collections including the Leeds Russian Archive and the Feminist Archive North.

The Alf Mattinson Collection is full of printed works and papers related to the history of the Labour Party, whilst the Romany collection and Liddle Collection offer insights into Romany culture and the First World War respectively.

Learn more about Modern History, MA - at Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, University of Leeds

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Entry requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any components

Student reviews of Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, University of Leeds

Find out what students say about Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, University of Leeds

Caroline Mwape Phiri-Lubwika - MA Applied and Professional Ethics (Online Learning)

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

I chose to study my course because you can apply it across different careers. I believe that each and every person needs to step up in terms of being professional in their work and in their careers; it is something very close to my heart.

I am a journalist by profession, and ethics is at the core of the media industry. I train upcoming journalists in Botswana and I also do children’s reporting, so issues of ethics are very pertinent; not only to me personally but to the profession that I stand for.

How would you describe your experience of studying at Leeds?

Studying online gave me the rare opportunity to study and take care of my family at the same time. It was good that I could concentrate on raising my family while also continuing with my professional work, I must say I gained all round!

I have studied online before - I did distance learning with the University of South Africa, where I did my BA in Communications Science - but this was at another level. What kept me going were the group discussions, which gave me an opportunity to interact with students from across the world, and the tutors coming in to give their opinion.

I decided to come to Leeds in person for my graduation and I was so excited because my dreams have turned into reality. It was so friendly and lovely that I felt like I’d been there before, even though it was my first visit to the campus.

Aakriti Jain - MA Global Fashion Management

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

After working in fashion as a designer, I realised that I am more suited for the managerial side of this industry. I had all the knowledge and experience I needed to become a designer but I needed to learn more about how that organisation works. With that in mind I started looking for universities who were offering a fashion management course which will help me to gain and enhance the required skills. UK was always my first choice for pursuing my masters because of the successful and booming fashion industry here along with the cultural diversity. University of Leeds offers that exact course which I had been looking for. The combination of subjects that this course provides is extremely unique. It has the perfect blend of business and fashion studies. Other than the course that the University of Leeds offers, the city also has a very warm and welcoming atmosphere for students.

What aspects of the course do you enjoy the most?

Here is the best part of this course, it is so well integrated and connected to all the subjects and you need to apply the knowledge gained from one subject into the other. You can literally see the various parts that you study coming together as one. It pushes you to think differently yet practically.

Ting Zeng - MA Linguistics and English Language Teaching

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

During the process of learning English and French I found many similarities and differences between these languages and my native language, Chinese. This made me curious about the amazing world of linguistics. In addition to this, my own experience of learning English has shown me that learning a language is not just about memorising vocabulary and grammar rules; it involves a systematic process. One field of linguistics, language acquisition, deals with this process, which increased my interest in studying English language learning from the perspective of linguistics, instead of from the perspective of education. Leeds is one of the few universities in the UK to have a course that combines these two areas.

What aspects of the course do you enjoy the most?

My favourite part of my course is the way it gives you critical reading skills. The major difference between postgraduate and undergraduate study is that postgraduate courses require you to think deeply and broadly, so that you can design your own research project to investigate a new or old problem which hasn’t been solved.

Developing these skills not only helped me to gain a lot of ideas about my essay and dissertation, but also enables me to read clearly, carefully and critically in my everyday life. When I am reading newspapers and magazines, for example, criticality helps me to avoid being misled by the words and opinions of others.