The MRes is a research training Masters programme which provides rigorous training in socio-legal research skills to enable you to carry out doctoral-level research using legal and socio-legal methodology or, alternatively, to embark on a career as a specialist socio-legal researcher.
The programme is ESRC-recognised. This means it meets the research training requirements of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and that you are eligible to apply for ESRC funding for PhD research. Only a handful of Law Schools in the UK offer ESRC recognised programmes in this field.
The taught programme offers research training in generic social-science skills, providing you with a solid basis in social science theory and methodology through modules offered to all social science postgraduates across the University. These are then built on within the socio-legal context through two skills-based modules offered by the Law School. Specialist modules reflect the socio-legal research expertise of staff. The supervised research dissertation will allow you to bring together the conceptual and practical skills acquired in the taught modules and demonstrate your understanding by applying them to your own research ideas in the socio-legal context. Teaching is mainly seminar and workshop based.
Having done an LLB and LLM at the University of Aberdeen, I came to realise that I was interested in the socio-legal implications of law rather than just the black-letter law. I wanted to do an inter-disciplinary PhD that involved applying methods and theory from the social sciences to my main research interest, Family Law. Fortunately I received ESRC funding to undertake the MRes in Socio-Legal Research at Exeter followed by the PhD and the MRes research-training masters is exposing me to new ways of looking at the law as well a solid grounding in the various methods of empirical data collection and analysis that will be invaluable during my PhD.
(Student Profile)
Polly Lord
I took the MRes as a precursor to a socio-legal PhD. The relationship between law and society has always been of interest to me and the course enabled me to expand my knowledge beyond purely doctrinal legal analysis.
There is a real sense of working “with” academics at Exeter not merely under. This means from day one you are treated as a colleague, with your own research treated as just that, yours. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole course and would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of embarking on a Law PhD and/or as an alternative to the LLM. The course introduced me to a range of ideas and approaches without which I would not have thought about.
We offer a range of postgraduate scholarships and studentships for talented students. Students who reside in England and are interested in our Masters programmes can now take advantage of the UK government's postgraduate loan scheme which offers loans of up to £10,000.
Value of Scholarship(s)
Varies
Eligibility
Varies, but most awards are competitive and merit-based.
Please see our website for full details. View Website
Last Updated
11 October 2016
Course Fees
See our web site for more information (click on "Finance") website
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Recipient: University of Exeter
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