Masters degrees in Danish Society & Culture involve advanced study of the social and cultural relationships, traditions and phenomenon originating from, or associated with Denmark.
Related postgraduate specialisms include Scandinavian Studies, and European and Nordic Studies. Entry requirements typically include a relevant undergraduate degree such as Modern Languages or Cultural studies.
UCL's Scandinavian Studies MA offers an intellectually exciting and flexible range of options focusing on Nordic culture in a global context. No prior knowledge of a Nordic language is required, though students can opt to consolidate their language or translation skills, or to start Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish from scratch.
Optional modules include advanced translation skills, Nordic cinema, Nordic literature in global perspective, the transnational politics of the region, and material cultures as well as modules on Viking and medieval Scandinavia. Assessed modules are supplemented with workshops and a summer school providing opportunities for networking and career development in publishing, translation, film-making, and the heritage and creative sectors.
Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.
The programme offers two pathways: taught and research. Taught: one core cross-language module (30 credits), three optional modules (90 credits), dissertation (60 credits). Research: one core cross-language module (30 credits), two taught modules (60 credits), dissertation (90 credits).
A Postgraduate Diploma, one core module (30 credits), three optional modules (90 credits) full-time nine months or part-time two years, is offered.
A Postgraduate Certificate, one core module (30 credits), one optional module (30 credits) full-time three months, part-time six months, is offered.
Core module
Optional modules
Students choose from a range of optional modules on topics such as the following:
Dissertation/report
All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a substantial dissertation.
Teaching and learning
The programme is delivered through a combination of seminars, lectures and reading and language classes. Student performance is assessed through written examination, coursework, and the dissertation.
Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Language, Culture and History: Scandinavian Studies MA
An MA in Scandinavian Studies offers prospects for employment in the private as well as in the public sector, whether in Scandinavia or in the English-speaking world. Former graduate students in the department are to be found in a range of challenging careers, which include work in IT and management, museums and university teaching.
Employability
In the UK and abroad, the Nordic countries are increasingly recognised for the success of their political and social model, and for their film, literature, food and design. Our MA graduates bring their deep understanding of Scandinavian culture to careers in which knowledge of the region is key: publishing, the arts, commerce and information management. Expertise in Nordic languages is rare in the UK, and employer demand is accordingly high. Our MA allows students to hone their Nordic language skills or to try a new language. Many of our graduates launch careers with translation companies and as freelancers.
UCL Scandinavian Studies is the largest independent Scandinavian department in the UK. Our research and teaching encompasses the languages, literatures, cultures, histories and politics of the entire Nordic region, ranging from the Viking Middle Ages to the present day.
Facilities are excellent: UCL boasts possibly the best Scandinavian Studies library outside Scandinavia, and students also have the outstanding collections of the British Library close at hand. Excellent links with universities in mainland Scandinavia, Iceland and Finland provide further benefits.
The department is home to the Viking Society for Northern Research, a leading publisher of Old Norse texts and monographs on medieval Scandinavia.
The Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The 2014 REF was carried out by the UK's higher education funding bodies, and the results used to allocate research funding from 2015/16.
The following REF score was awarded to the department: School of European Languages, Culture & Society
74% rated 4* (‘world-leading’) or 3* (‘internationally excellent’)
Learn more about the scope of UCL's research, and browse case studies, on our Research Impact website.
Navigate new adventures in sound on this award-winning, industry-accredited MA. Bring your existing knowledge and experience to analyse radio from a theoretical and practical perspective.
Radio has the potential to be transformative, to further the human experience. It’s a medium that creates a sense of intimacy while continually generating questions. This is a programme that empowers you to create something permanent, something with a life beyond your own – something only sound can achieve.
The MA poses questions about the influence of radio as a medium and the power it has to stir emotions, evoke feelings, and conjure vivid mental images. We look at the ways in which recording technologies can preserve and hold on to an aspect of our existence – be that a cultural exchange or an artistic communication – and how we can inspire future generations with the work we create.
The degree blends theory and practice so you’ll work within professional standard broadcast and post-production suites and use sound studios linked to a networked newsroom. We also have our own student radio station broadcasting online with an FM restricted service licence. As an MA Radio student you can also learn online production skills and publish sound-specific features on Londonmultimedianews.com
We adopt a reflective, humanitarian approach to storytelling because we think that to develop the creative imagination, we need to embrace all kinds of belief systems. It’s why our students go and spend time within communities, continue questioning, continue listening, and research everything from academic journals to novels.
We give you the space and time to consider how different strands of thought and aspects of communication intertwine. And we don’t get in the way of talent; we encourage and support it.
Come and develop your own idea of the sonic arts and create everything from investigative journalism to interactive soundscapes.
This degree is part of our School of Journalism. Find out more about what we do and other degrees we teach.
You work in practice and theory groups, and take modules that cover:
Throughout the year, the programme includes workshops and seminars by visiting professionals and artists in the radio journalism and radio drama fields. We are happy to support work experience placements in professional newsrooms and radio drama productions. The programme offers students the opportunity to learn Teeline shorthand, television recording techniques and online applications for radio.
We also encourage you to support the Goldsmiths student radio station Wired FM.
Modules
The MA is composed of the following modules:
Assessment
Portfolio of recorded work; unseen examination; essay; 30-minute radio drama script.
Our graduates go on to work as broadcast journalists, creative programme makers, and foreign correspondents – and MA students are consistently winning significant awards for their work. For example in 2012, MA Radio students had considerable success in the Charles Parker student radio feature awards and the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) Awards for Best Radio News Feature and Best Online News Website.
In 2013 MA Radio students took Gold and Silver in the Charles Parker awards, and in the 2015 BJTC awards all the awards for Best Radio Feature and Best Radio Documentary went to Goldsmiths radio students. Our MA Radio alumni are also winning awards in the UK and abroad for their professional work too.
Find out more about employability at Goldsmiths.
As one of the few centres for the study of modern Scandinavian languages in the UK, we offer a programme that can cater to a wide range of research interests, covering all Scandinavian countries.
Our academic staff are able to offer supervision on a broad variety of subjects, including:
In addition, you have the opportunity to undertake interdisciplinary research in areas such as comparative literature, film studies, translation studies, cultural studies and Scottish studies.
Thanks to our place in the diverse School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures, we are also able to cater for interdisciplinary research programmes.
In order to encourage immersion in your research, we celebrate the major Scandinavian festivals, screen regular films and generally make the atmosphere as Scandinavian as possible. We are fortunate in being able to attract many Scandinavian visitors and speakers, including prominent authors and academics.
We encourage you to participate in our very active social and cultural life. We collaborate closely with the many Scandinavian bodies active in Edinburgh, such as the Danish Cultural Institute, the Norwegian Consulate General, the Scottish-Swedish Society and the Scottish-Finnish Society.
In addition, we have a partnership with the Georg Brandes International PhD School for Scandinavian Literature, Art and Linguistics, which is affiliated to the Department of Scandinavian Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen. This collaboration provides funding for our staff and students to attend and contribute to international workshops and seminars at the University of Copenhagen.
The MSc in Energy and Society is an innovative postgraduate programme that considers energy as socio-technical. Using ideas from practice theory, notions of integrated energy systems, energy development and social science approaches to energy, it aims to draw together diverse disciplinary approaches, and to ensure that students can speak and read across disciplinary boundaries. It will be of interest to engineers seeking to understand how and why innovations succeed or fail, to social scientists who want to improve their understanding of energy developments and to a broad range of graduates with an interest in today’s energy issues.
The full-time course consists of two terms of teaching, during which students are introduced to the range of research questions and methods, and a dissertation, involving the design, development and implementation of an independent research project. Students work closely with academic staff, and have the opportunity to become involved in active research projects.
The programme draws on leading experts in energy studies at Durham from Anthropology, Engineering, Geography, Earth Sciences and other departments. The two core taught modules are delivered via intensive block-teaching, and there is also a field study module for applied team-research.
Please see the website for further information on current modules.
The full-time course runs for a full year, from October to September. Full-time students attend classes between October and December (Michaelmas Term) and January and March (Epiphany), with further assessment in April and May (Easter Term), and then work, under the supervision of a specialist supervisor, to complete a dissertation by September.
The programme is delivered through a mixture of interactive lectures, seminars, practical sessions and workshops, in addition to one-to-one dissertation supervision. Typically, lectures deliver key information on progressively more advanced themes and topics. Seminars provide an opportunity to reflect in more depth upon material delivered in lectures and gathered from independent study outside the programme’s formal contact hours. They give students an opportunity to engage with academic issues at the cutting-edge of research in Anthropology, in a learning environment focused on discussion and debate of current issues.
Full-time students have on average 6-8 hours of formal teaching and learning contact per week, and are also expected to attend weekly departmental and Durham Energy Institute research seminars, often given by prominent visiting speakers. Outside timetabled contact hours, students are expected to devote significant amounts of time to reading, discussing and preparing for classes, assignments and project work.
Throughout the programme, all students meet regularly with the degree tutor, who provides academic support and guidance. Members of teaching staff have weekly office hours when they are available to meet with students on a ‘drop-in’ basis. Before the academic year starts, we provide information on preparation for the course. On arrival we have induction sessions, including a field trip,and social events, headed by the Director of Postgraduate Studies and the Degree Tutor for Energy and Society.. Students also attend an “Introduction to Research Groups in Anthropology”.
Students with a postgraduate qualification in Anthropology pursue a diverse array of careers in areas such as conservation, tourism, public health, health research and management, captive primate care and zoological research management, local government research and management, education (secondary, further and higher), social care, social research, in addition to academia.
Understanding Europe today requires much more than understanding the process of European integration. The tensions, challenges and possibilities that are manifesting themselves today have their roots in a longer political, social and cultural history.
This programme takes you to these roots. A multidisciplinary study path introduces you to various aspects of European society, culture and politics. Along the way, it draws from the strengths of Nordic research on Europe, with its strong focus on regional cooperation, diversity, identities, institutions, culture and the politics of history and memory. You will get to know the Nordic countries from a European perspective and Europe from a Nordic perspective.
Studying the ways in which Europeans cooperate, how European states and societies are interconnected, and how they are governed, forms an important part of the programme. Besides looking at the processes of integration and the evolution and functioning of the European Union, the programme highlights the significance of regional cooperation in the Nordic context, the EU’s relations with its neighbours and its place in the global system.
At the end of your studies, you will have gained a broad understanding of European issues and acquired advanced research skills. You will be ready to work in a wide range of expert positions that require independent and creative thinking, in both the public and private sectors.
The programme consists of joint courses and specialisation studies. One of the available options is to specialise in Nordic Studies. ENS is the only Nordic Studies programme taught in English in the Nordic countries.
The Master's Programme in European and Nordic Studies is offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Arts.
Further information about the studies on the Master's programme website: http://www.helsinki.fi/en/programmes/master/european-and-nordic-studies
The programme consists of a multidisciplinary selection of courses that introduce you to various aspects of Europe, the Nordic countries, and the Baltic Sea Region.
The topics addressed in the joint courses include, for example, contemporary European politics, cooperation and conflict in European history, Nordic societies and cultures, and institutions, ideologies and identities in Europe. You will also learn about nations and nationalism, political and social protest, (Nordic) welfare models, the European Union and Nordic cooperation, European legal traditions, and the politics of memory.
The programme involves substantial interaction between you and your teachers. You will complete several writing assignments and research papers along the way, culminating in a Master’s thesis in your second year. Some courses use active learning or flipped classroom pedagogy.
The content of your studies also depends on your own choices. In addition to core courses that provide you with a deep multidisciplinary understanding of Europe, the degree includes specialisation studies of your own choosing.
If you specialise in Nordic studies, you will have access to some courses taught at the programme for Nordic Literature and the Kultur och Kommunikation Master’s programme.
You also have plenty of other options. The University of Helsinki is a large research university. As a student in ENS you will have access to a rich variety of specialised courses in many faculties and schools. Check the section on research focus to see what we are particularly good at in Helsinki.
