Religion - MA

The MA in Religion provides advanced study of the religious traditions of both the West and Asia. The programme offers two pathways:

• Buddhist Studies
• Theology and Religious Studies

These reflect the expertise in the Department of Religion and Theology and allow you to study various religious traditions with scholars who are world-renowned experts in those fields.

The taught element of the programme requires you to do some study of both Asian and western religious traditions (irrespective of the pathway you choose) but also allows you to focus more rigorously on the study of either Buddhism or religion and theology more broadly. In either pathway, the aim is to engage students in in-depth study, led by staff who teach careful, rigorous, scholarly research methods at a high level.

Programme structure

You will follow one of two pathways and complete units worth 180 credit points.

The Buddhist Studies pathway is suitable for those who either want to deepen their knowledge of Buddhism through academic study or are interested in undertaking research in Buddhist studies but have little or no formal academic training in this area at undergraduate level. There are two core units, one of which is a language unit, and a choice of optional units possibly including those available from across the Faculty of Arts. For the dissertation unit, you will engage in supervised research on a topic of your choice and submit a dissertation of between 10,000 and 15,000 words.

The Theology and Religious Studies pathway comprises two core units and four optional units. As with the Buddhist Studies pathway, you will also engage in supervised research on a topic of your choice and submit a dissertation of between 10,000 and 15,000 words.

Visit our programme catalogue for full details of the structure and unit content for our MA in Religion.

Careers

Students who complete this MA programme have taken up many different careers in areas such as academic research, social work, banking and industry, counselling and teaching, design, journalism, film and the arts.

Visit the Religion - MA page on the University of Bristol website for more details!