Why do postgraduate study in the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science?
Whatever your undergraduate degree, a 1-year Masters in philosophy, ethics, religion, or history of science can build on your skills, and provide a fulfilling end to your Leeds experience.
If you're new to philosophy, religion or history of science, you'll find that our Masters degrees are an ideal way to get up to speed in a new subject area. If you've already studied with us as an undergraduate, you'll find that Masters study enables you to take your interests and skills up to the next level.
Studying for a Masters also helps to develop valuable transferable skills (such as project design management, extended writing, and critical thinking) which will prepare you for, and help you stand out in, your future career.
By studying for a Masters with us, you’ll become part of the School’s large postgraduate research community and will benefit from, and contribute to, our active research environment. Through your own research, and through the chance to attend staff-led research seminars and events, you’ll be involved in developing new and ground-breaking knowledge.
You could also study a Postgraduate Diploma alongside professionals working in the relevant area and learn from a diverse and experienced student cohort.
What does studying for a Masters involve?
On our taught Masters courses you take a combination of core and optional modules. The core modules provide training in postgraduate research skills, particularly relevant for your research project (dissertation).The optional modules reflect the research expertise of our academic staff, and allow you to look at new or previously studied topics in greater depth and detail than at undergraduate level.
Modules are taught using a mixture of extended seminars (usually 2-hours), class workshops, specialist trips (e.g. visits to special collections) and plenary lectures. Online learning is generally delivered via interactive web-based resources, plus asynchronous participative discussion of key issues on each topic, led by specialist academics.
The MA research project or dissertation is the pinnacle of Masters level study. You work on developing your ideas from the start of your Masters, working collaboratively with your MA dissertation supervisor.
Funding support and how to apply
There is no formal application deadline, meaning that you can apply up to the start of the first semester of the academic year. However, scholarship and other funding support schemes have deadlines that are much earlier than this, and so we recommend applying to your chosen MA by the end of July to ensure you are eligible for these.
As a University of Leeds graduate, you may be qualify for a 10% tuition fee bursary.
If you have secured a place on our MA Religion course then you may be eligible for the Leeds Church Institute Scholarships for Theology and Religious Studies.
You can find out more about funding your Masters on the University’s website.
