Master of Arts in International Relations (East Asia)

at Durham University United Kingdom

We offer post-A level courses in French, German, Italian, Russian and Hispanic Studies. These courses are open to students who have an A level (at least grade A) or equivalent qualification in that language. We also offer beginners’ courses in Arabic, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. Beginners can take cultural modules alongside post-A level students, and completely merge with the advanced stream in the final year.

Here are some examples of how to combine languages

• You might choose to study one language (chosen from French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish [Hispanic Studies]). You will need an A level at the appropriate grade pass in your chosen subject. However, if you wish to study Arabic as a single language, you will need an A level at the appropriate grade pass in at least one other foreign language. You take four modules in the language area of your choice, along with a further two modules in a subsidiary subject of your choice outside the School in both your first and second years. You then take your year abroad and return to your final year to take either six modules in your chosen language or five modules in your chosen language and one module from a subject studied in your second year. Subsidiary subjects may be chosen from those available in departments outside of the School, subject to module availability, individual entry requirements and timetable compatibility.
• You might choose to study two languages (chosen from Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish [Hispanic Studies]). These languages can normally be divided 3 modules +3 modules between two languages, or 4+2 as you prefer (subject to some variation in module availability between the languages).
• You might initially choose to study three languages (chosen from Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish [Hispanic Studies]), which you study in equal proportions (2+2+2). After your first year, you will be required to drop one of these and study no more than two languages in Years 2 and 3.

Advances in fields such as Physics, Engineering, Earth Sciences or Finance are increasingly driven by experts in computational techniques. Notably, people skilled to write code for the most powerful computers in the world and skilled to process the biggest data sets in the world can truly make a difference.

The MSc in Scientific Computing and Data Analysis offers an application-focused course to deliver these skills with three interwoven strands:

• Computer Science underpinnings of scientific computing (algorithms, data structures, implementation techniques, and computer tool usage)
• Mathematical aspects of data analysis
• Implementation and application of fundamental techniques in a domain specialisation (presently astrophysics, particle physics, or financial mathematics).

Through MISCADA’s Earth & Environment domain specialisation, we seek to provide the advanced knowledge of how to use sophisticated datasets and tools to tackle cutting-edge and societally-relevant problems relating to the Earth’s environment and management of its scarce resources. We introduce a variety of Earth and Environmental datasets, as well as to the specialist mathematical and software tools required for their quantitative and computational analysis.

The taught MA in Music is structured to allow you to intensively pursue a specific sub-discipline in Music, accommodating your particular research interests.

Up to five specialisms will be offered each year:

• Musicology (P1)
• Ethnomusicology (P2)
• Composition (P3)
• Performance (P4)
• Music and Science (P5)

The MA will provide intellectually rigorous preparation for the study of music at an advanced level as an independent researcher in accordance with standard professional expectations attendant on the practice of research as articulated by the AHRC and other research councils. It not only affords opportunities for students to explore a chosen area of specialisation in-depth but provides a research culture that fosters inter-disciplinarity and exchange between sub-disciplines.

Our one year, full-time MSc in Management programmes are designed to provide you with the tools, techniques and knowledge to succeed in business.

One of the few certainties in an ever-evolving commercial world is that business is becoming increasingly international. That’s why our MSc Management (International Business) focuses on equipping you with an in-depth understanding of the realities of management in a global context.

The programme consists of a set of core and elective modules, culminating in a practice-based business project or a research-based dissertation.

Core and elective modules:
You will study:

• Business Economics and Accounting
• Global Business
• Global Marketing
• Organisational Behaviour
• Strategic Marketing Management

You will receive a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of social anthropology situated in relation to wider disciplinary approaches of biological and evolutionary anthropology as well as interdisciplinary perspectives on culture, society and health.

The MA in Education provides outstanding opportunities to study a wide range of educational issues. It will provide you with a clear understanding of the nature and significance of policy and practice in education, relevant to researchers as well as professionals in schools, colleges and universities.

A key feature of the course is the facility for you to draw on your own professional and personal as well as academic and theoretical interests, through being able to choose from a range of optional modules to study (see below). You will also be able to explore your own interests in depth through the completion of a dissertation.

The degree has been designed to meet the needs of educational professionals, especially those in teaching, management or administration at all levels of education. Students likely to benefit from the course are those who are interested in education, often teachers or people planning to become teachers, who have a commitment to pedagogy, and educational managers in schools, colleges and higher education institutions, as well as those working in educational administration, in the UK and overseas.

Through its flexible delivery routes, the MA in Education is suitable for students from all backgrounds and countries. In addition to a traditional full-time study route, the course is also available part-time. On the part-time route, teaching is delivered through intensive teaching weekends scheduled around (Durham) school half-term holidays making the course more accessible for those working full-time.

Combining still and moving images, advanced academic study and practical skills development, the BA in Visual Arts and Film at Durham is a degree like no other. It draws on staff research spanning historical periods from classical Rome to the present, and is almost global in its geographical reach, with an emphasis not only on Western art, film, and visual culture, but that of the Middle East, Russophone Eurasia, and East Asia. The very conceptions of the visual and the image you will explore in this course are fundamentally shaped by this transnational perspective. With this transnational scope in mind, the degree offers extensive language-learning opportunities, while within Durham it draws on the outstanding collections of the University’s Oriental Museum, its distinguished Western Art collections, and the curatorial expertise of its staff. No previous study of art is required: just a desire to explore the vast world of visual art and film.

The course at Durham prides itself in combining the traditional and the modern in the study of music. The learning of techniques such as harmony, counterpoint and aural skills are juxtaposed with an investigation of the most up-to-date thinking in musicology, critical theory, composition (acoustic and electroacoustic), analysis, ethnomusicology and performance. Moreover, our teaching, essentially research-led, is enhanced by distinctive staff specialisations that include nineteenth- and twentieth-century British music, music of the Soviet Union, musical life in France and Germany, historically-informed performance, Korean and Indian music, popular music, music technology, conducting, music psychology, and contemporary composition.

Single Honours in English Studies offers a comprehensive syllabus, which combines traditional areas of literary study with new and developing areas of the discipline. It aims to develop your conceptual abilities and analytical skills by exposing you to a variety of literary critical approaches, to promote and develop clarity and persuasiveness in argument and expression, and to enable you to develop, to a high degree of competence, a range of skills which are subject-specific and transferable. A degree in English Studies will equip you for a wide variety of professions and employment, as well as for advanced postgraduate study of English and related disciplines.

The study of philosophy at Durham does not follow one particular school. The Department is unique in the UK in its wide-ranging expertise in anglo-american analytical philosophy and continental philosophy. Each of these has its own distinctive set of issues and approaches to resolving them. We also have special expertise in the philosophy of science, and social science, and the history of science and medicine. So at Durham, you will follow one of the widest-ranging philosophy degrees in the country.

At Durham, you will have the opportunity to study Philosophy as a Single Honours degree, or with another subject including: English, Music, Psychology, Politics or Theology. Philosophy can also be combined in a Joint Honours degree within the Natural Sciences course or as part of a Combined Honours degree.

Philosophy is a new subject for many students, so in your first year you will follow a range of introductory courses, introducing the fundamental philosophical subject areas.