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History MA

London, Bloomsbury

Fascinated by the history of a particular period, place or theme? Join UCL’s internationally renowned historians to deepen your expertise in one of four pathways: modern British history; environment, state and economy; culture, ideas and identities; or empires and global history. Whether aiming for PhD research or a career in the cultural sector, education, journalism, government, or law, this degree offers great preparation for a future where history meets impact.

UK students International students
Study mode
UK tuition fees (2025/26)
£16,000
£8,000
Overseas tuition fees (2025/26)
£33,000
£16,500
Duration
1 calendar year
2 calendar years
Programme starts
September 2025
Applications accepted
Applicants who require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 27 Jun 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Applicants who do not require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 29 Aug 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 4

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

This MA offers advanced-level teaching by leading historians in many historical fields. On the programme, you can follow one of four pathways:

  • Modern British History- You will learn about modern British history’s complexity, diversity and vibrancy as a field of study. You will identify key areas of historiographical debate, think critically about where the field’s boundaries lie and question what constitutes modern British history in its temporal and spatial dimensions. The pathway encourages you to problematise the idea of ‘national’ history, providing opportunities to explore the transnational, imperial, global and comparative dimensions of political, economic, social, cultural and intellectual life within a ‘British history’ framework.
     
  • Environment, State, and Economy- You will explore the connections between environmental, economic, and political change from a long-term perspective. We look at the relationship between humans and their environment and ask what impact this relationship had on the formation of states, the Industrial Revolution, technological development, colonialism and economic inequality. The core module will help you acquire expertise in cutting-edge debates over the Great Divergence, the Anthropocene, ecological imperialism and climate change. 
     
  • Culture, Ideas, and Identities- You will examine culturally constructed aspects of historical experience. Its subject matter includes the wide variety of meaning-laden objects and practices produced in the past or engaged in by different segments of society. Thus, it examines the history of what traditionally has been identified as ‘culture’ with a capital ‘C’, including the ideas articulated by intellectual elites.
     
  • Empires and Global History- You will examine and interrogate a set of overlapping concerns that have not only shaped global history, imperial history, and histories of empire but also stirred debate about the dividing line between such historiographical approaches. The first is with scale in historical analysis and the effort to move beyond the nation-state to consider empire, region, continent, the terrestrial or terraqueous globe, and even the planet as a unit of inquiry. The second is with connections between historical agents across and between these units. The last is with comparisons across space and time. Rather than being entirely pacific or underpinning ‘progress’, some connections supported the making or deepening of division, inequality, coercion, and violence

Each has a compulsory core module that introduces you to the theories, methods, and debates specific to your pathway. Optional modules allow you to explore historical subjects directly related to your pathway. You can also choose elective modules freely from a wide range of options. Please note that, depending on student demand and staffing capacities, the department may not run all four pathways in some years.

Who this course is for

This course enables you to think about theories of historical change, develop methodologies for understanding the past, and undertake a substantial original research project supervised by a working historian. Given the plethora of world-class archives within a short distance of the department – from the British Museum to the National Archives, Warburg Institute to London Metropolitan Archives – it is the ideal setting in which to hone your historical skills by working on actual archival documents, in addition to the magnificent range of digitised sources to which UCL Library subscribes. The programme provides an ideal foundation for doctoral research. It is particularly suitable if you wish to study the early modern and modern periods, but you can also take options in medieval and ancient history. It can also be a conversion course for non-historians pursuing history research.

Read about what it takes to study for a Master's at UCL

What this course will give you

UCL History has an outstanding international reputation for its research and teaching. We teach and research across every era and continent, from the ancient Middle East to the twenty-first century United States. The department is firmly committed to the intellectual development of all our students; if you come to UCL, you will receive individual supervision from leading historians.

Located in Bloomsbury, UCL History is just minutes away from the exceptional resources of the British Library, the British Museum, the Warburg, and the Institute of Historical Research. We are also ideally located at the heart of various historical societies and academic communities.

Read about what you'll get out of a graduate programme

The foundation of your career

Our graduates regularly find employment in education, health and social care, publishing and journalism, law, academia, policy and government, and museums and heritage.

Additional activities are available within the department and the wider UCL community to help you focus on employability skills, such as departmental career talks and networking opportunities with history alumni.

Employability

This programme provides an outstanding foundation for those hoping to undertake PhD research and pursue an academic career. Recent graduates have also pursued careers in journalism, the civil service, business, health and social care, museum and heritage, and the education sectors.

Debates, small group seminars and tutorials will help you acquire strong presentation and negotiation skills for your future career. Likewise, employers from many industries prize the analytical and research skills you gain on this programme. 

Find out what our students have done next.

Networking

Aside from the unparalleled networking opportunities found at London’s globally-renowned clusters of museums, national libraries, galleries, event spaces and cultural centres, students can attend presentations on cutting-edge historical research and interact with leading international scholars at various locations in and around UCL. These include:

  • The Institute of Historical Research;
  • UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies;
  • The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery; and,
  • Other area studies centres such as the Institute of the Americas, the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES), and the Centre on US Politics (CUSP).

Teaching and learning

This MA programme offers you the opportunity to explore a range of historical periods and locations while developing special expertise in one of four pathway fields. Through the compulsory module of your pathway, you will develop an understanding of a range of conceptual and theoretical approaches to the study of history. Through the optional modules, you will gain a detailed knowledge of historical subjects of particular interest to you. The majority of your learning environments will be small groups in which you will be offered the opportunity to participate fully. Most modules have a discussion-led seminar format, with a maximum of twelve to fifteen students.  In addition, you will also experience one-to-one tutorial-style teaching. Typically, a module will involve about two hours of contact time and ten hours of private study per week. Much of our teaching is research-led, and the capstone of the programme is the dissertation, an individual research project based on primary source materials that you will conduct under the supervision of a member of staff who is an expert in the subject. 

Assessment is through coursework and the dissertation.

You are expected to spend approximately 150 hours studying for a 15-credit module and 300 hours for a 30-credit module.

For full-time students, typical contact hours are around 7- 8-hours of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials per teaching week. Outside of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials, full-time students typically study the equivalent of a full-time job, using their remaining time for self-directed study and completing coursework assignments.

In term three and the summer period students will be completing their own dissertation research, keeping regular contact with their dissertation supervisors.

Modules

A full-time student will study:

  • A one-term 15-credit compulsory core course module specific to your chosen pathway, offered in Term 1;
  • 45 credits in optional modules from a list of pathway-appropriate modules;
  • A one-term 15-credit skills module entitled Research and Writing Skills for the MA in History (if your first [Bachelor's] degree was not in History or did not include a substantial research element (e.g. dissertation);
  • A further 15 credits if you take the skills module, or 30 credits if you do not, of elective modules that you may choose from the full range of MA modules offered within the department plus, with approval of the pathway tutor and the relevant authority in the teaching department, appropriate modules provided elsewhere (including language modules); and,
  • A 90-credit dissertation on a topic that falls within the parameters of your pathway.

A part-time student will typically study:

Year 1: 

  • A one-term 15-credit compulsory core course module specific to your chosen pathway, offered in Term 1;
  • 30 credits in optional modules from a list of pathway-appropriate modules; and,
  • A one-term 15-credit skills module entitled Research and Writing Skills for the MA in History or 15 credits from the full range of masters modules offered within the department plus, with approval of the pathway tutor and the relevant authority in the teaching department, appropriate modules provided elsewhere (including language modules) (if your first [Bachelor’s] degree was not in History or did not include a substantial research element (e.g. dissertation).

Year 2:

  • A 90-credit dissertation on a topic that falls within the parameters of your pathway;
  • 15 credits in optional modules from a list of pathway-appropriate modules; and,
  • 15 credits from the full range of MA modules offered within the department plus, with approval of the pathway tutor and the relevant authority in the teaching department, appropriate modules provided elsewhere (including language modules).

Compulsory modules







Optional modules




Enlightenment Histories: History and Time in 18th Century Thought and Culture


The Making of the Christian Empire, AD 284-425

The Economy of Classical Athens

Crisis and Future in 19th Century European Thought A


Politics of the Soul in Early Modern Europe


Unity before the Union: The Idea of Europe in the Modern Era









The Crusades...a Clash of Civilizations


Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MA in History.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services team.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students
Fee description Full-time Part-time
Tuition fees (2025/26) £16,000 £8,000
Tuition fees (2025/26) £33,000 £16,500

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

For Full-time and Part-time offer holders a fee deposit will be charged at 10% of the first year fee.

Further information can be found in the Tuition fee deposits section on this page: Tuition fees.

Students are expected to pay the entrance fee to any admission-charging exhibition or museum or archive visited by a class; the tutor will usually negotiate a group discount where this is significantly cheaper than the individual student discount.

Students who are facing financial hardships can apply for UCL Financial Assistance Funds.

UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £114.50. This price was published by TfL in 2024. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Next steps

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this programme of £90 for online applications. Further information can be found at Application fees.

When we assess your application, we would like to learn:

  • why you want to study History at graduate level
  • why you want to study History at UCL
  • what particularly attracts you to this programme
  • how your academic background meets the demands of this challenging programme
  • where you would like to go professionally with your degree

Along with essential academic requirements, the personal statement is your opportunity to show how your reasons for applying to this programme match what the programme delivers.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2025-2026

Apply for this course

Got questions? Get in touch

History
History

history.programmes@ucl.ac.uk

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