MA Philosophy

Course overview

• Learn from research-led teaching by experts in a wide range of areas of analytical philosophy
• Benefit from dedicated support in dissertation planning, research and presentation skills, including help preparing for PhD research
• Enjoy seminar-style classes with an emphasis on staff/student interaction

Fees

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2019, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MA (full-time)
• UK/EU students (per annum): £9,500 
• International students (per annum): £18,500
• MA (part-time)
• UK/EU students (per annum): £4,750 
• International students (per annum): £9,250

The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive for the course tuition, administration and computational costs during your studies.

Self-funded international applicants for this course will be required to pay a deposit of £1,000 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. This deposit will only be refunded if immigration permission is refused. We will notify you about how and when to make this payment.

Scholarships/sponsorships

We offer a number of postgraduate taught scholarships and merit awards to outstanding applicants and international students.

In addition, the Manchester Alumni Scholarship Scheme offers a £3,000 reduction in tuition fees to University of Manchester alumni who achieved a first-class Bachelor's degree and are progressing to a postgraduate taught master's course.

For more information, see fees and funding or search the University's postgraduate funding database .

• Faculty of Humanities/School of Social Sciences - Manchester Alumni Scholarship Scheme
• School of Social Sciences - A.N. Prior MA Philosophy Bursary - 2019

Entry requirements

_{English language}

• IELTS - overall score of 7, including 7 in writing with no further component score below 6.5
• TOEFL IBT 103 with 28 in writing and no further score below 25 in each section.
• TOEFL code for Manchester is 0757

Scores are valid for 2 years.

For students who require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, your test score is valid for 2 years preceding the course start date.

Applicants from certain countries MAY be exempt from having to provide an IELTS or TOEFL score. For further advice please email [email protected]

Application and selection

_{How to apply}

Apply online

_{Advice to applicants}

If you are a current undergraduate student at the University of Manchester, you may be eligible to apply via the 'Fast-Track' scheme. Please email [email protected] for further information.

All applications should be accompanied by a writing sample, which demonstrates that the candidate has the analytical capacities and writing skills required to undertake master's level research in Philosophy. 

You may submit a normal-length essay that you have written for a philosophy module as your writing sample.

International applicants who require a visa to study in the UK, can obtain up-to-date information on the latest student visa advice and guidelines.

Teaching and learning

All our Master's modules are taught through small-group seminars. The seminars usually involve some general context-setting and guidance from the course convenor, but are often largely focussed on student-led discussion of set texts that you will have studied in preparation for the discussion.

This fosters a proactive and collaborative approach to engaging with the topic and to developing your own views and arguments. All modules apart from Research Skills run for one semester.

The Research Skills module runs through both semesters, the purpose is:

• to develop your research, writing and presentation skills
• guide you through the planning of your dissertation, from selecting a topic and a supervisor to identifying and reviewing key literature;
• To think about what makes for the best philosophical writing.

All students are allocated an appropriate supervisor for their dissertations; in practice, you can almost always choose your own dissertation supervisor. You will work throughout the academic year on your dissertation in consultation with your supervisor - focussing on the assessed elements of the Research Skills module during the teaching year, and then, over the summer (and into the autumn for part-time students), on writing.

Part-time students complete the full-time programme over two years. There are no evening or weekend course units available on the part-time programme.  

Updated timetable information will be available from mid-August and you will have the opportunity to discuss your module choices during induction week with your Course Director.

Coursework and assessment

All course units apart from Research Skills are assessed through one 4000-word essay, submitted towards the end of the semester. Students are encouraged to discuss their plans for their essay with the course convenor in some detail outside of class time.

Research Skills is assessed through a combination of a 20-minute presentation, a 1500-word research proposal and bibliography (submitted in early January to aid application for PhD scholarships, which often have deadlines in early spring), and a 3000-word critical literature review.

The 90 credit dissertation is between 17,500 and 20,000 words, while the 60 credit dissertation is between 9,000 and 12,000 words.

By the end of the second semester, you will have already conducted the majority of the research for the dissertation and formulated a clear overall plan as part of the Research Skills module, so that the summer can be devoted to writing.

Course unit details

Full-time students take Research Skills (30 credits, all year) plus either four or six (depending on dissertation length) additional course units (15 credits each, two/three per semester), and submit the dissertation (60/90 credits) at the end of August.

Part-time students take three (four if doing a 60 credit dissertation) 15-credit course units in their first year, and the Research Skills unit and the remaining 15-credit course unit (two units if doing the 60 credit dissertation) in their second year, submitting the dissertation at the end of November.

Career opportunities

Many of our MA Philosophy graduates go on to pursue a PhD in Philosophy. Others embark on careers including:

• The Civil Service,
• journalism,
• teaching,
• law,
• And a wide range of related positions in both the public and private sectors.

Visit the MA Philosophy page on the University of Manchester website for more details!