Master of Arts in International Relations (European)

at Durham University United Kingdom

At the Department of Theology and Religion, the answer to the final question is 'Yes'. We teach you how to use the tools of philosophy, social science, history, literature and language to understand human beliefs and worldviews, past and present. We do this both from within, seeking to test our own beliefs for clarity and coherence, and from without, as critical observers. We have a historic strength in the study of Christian thought, history, practice, and texts, while offering strong provision in other areas such as politics, ethics, non-Christian faith traditions, humanism and atheism (which are also belief systems).

This lecture, seminar and laboratory-based MSc equips you with the theoretical and practical skills and knowledge to study and interpret data collected from human remains. The emphasis is on osteoprofiling, as well as health and disease using a multidisciplinary approach, linking biological evidence with cultural data (the biocultural approach). This is a very hands-on, practical course, and students will gain experience with human skeletal remains from a variety of time periods.

This course is unique in the world and it takes a holistic view of the body and society and will prepare you for undertaking significant research projects in this subject or working in contract/commercial archaeology, and many other fields. It is aimed at graduates mainly in archaeology and anthropology with or without past experience or knowledge in this field, and for those who aspire to continue on to PhD or work in contract archaeology. However, past students have come from a variety of subject backgrounds, and destination data illustrates a wide range of employers take these students.

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.

The LLB degree is a highly flexible three-year, full-time course. There are approximately 300 students on each year of the LLB. While providing a solid grounding in the main areas of English and Welsh law, it also allows for individual specialisation through a variety of optional modules offered by the School and other departments in the University.

The degree course provides the opportunity to obtain a Qualifying Law Degree as recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board. (Please note: whether or not a degree exempts a student from the academic stage of training to be a solicitor or barrister depends on the modules that the student studies. In practice, virtually all of our students choose to study the modules that are required by the Law Society and Bar Council, and do gain a Qualifying Law Degree.)

Study abroad
The LLB with a Year Abroad (YA) comprises all of the content of the three-year regular LLB, plus an exciting additional year spent at one of our European or international partners during the third year of study. At present, Durham Law School has partnerships with universities in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Singapore.

This degree balances fundamental knowledge and practical application in order to provide you with both specialised and transferable skills that are greatly valued in the marketplace. The course emphasises from the start both programming and mathematical skills that allow in the later years engagement through your 'Individual Project' with cutting-edge research being done in the department.

There are numerous areas of overlap between Anthropology and Archaeology, making them particularly suitable for combination in a joint honours degree. The BA (Hons) Anthropology and Archaeology course combines modules from the BA/BSc (Hons) Anthropology degrees and BA (Hons) Archaeology, providing a comprehensive understanding of humanity both past and present.

Students also have the opportunity to study a foreign language by taking a module from the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study in any year.

Our innovative MSc Accounting programme sits within Durham’s portfolio of Masters programmes. A one-year full-time programme, it provides an opportunity for you to develop an in-depth understanding of the theory and practice of accounting as well as the critical thinking skills so valued by employers. The MSc in Accounting covers key accounting topics including financial statements and their preparation and analysis, the practical limitations of financial reporting, contemporary and evolving practice in financial and non-financial accounting and reporting, management information for decision-making, and the practice and concepts of auditing.

This is an ideal programme to choose if you’re looking to pursue a career in accountancy. The programme is intended for graduates in any subject or discipline; no previous study in accounting is necessary. Accounting undergraduate students, or students who have completed a professional accounting qualification may find some content of this programme overlaps with their prior learning.

This Economic and Social Research Council approved MA provides training in research methods with a focus on methods used by researchers in anthropology. At the end of this course, you will be well-prepared to go on to do research in Anthropology or a related discipline. Most students expect to move on to a PhD.

The course includes training in qualitative and quantitative methods needed by researchers in social sciences and draws on expertise within the Department of Anthropology to provide specialised training in either sociocultural anthropology, medical anthropology, the anthropology of development or cultural evolution (depending on your chosen pathway). It is affiliated to the Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership, which offers funding to British and European Union students interested in taking the course preparatory to moving on to a PhD at Durham.

Durham’s Psychology and Anthropology Departments pride themselves on excellence in both teaching and research. The breadth of complementary research strengths across the two Departments means that you are guaranteed to be taught by staff who are actively engaged in the interaction of psychological and anthropological approaches, and are leading figures in their field of research.

In Anthropology, you will use perspectives from human biology, cultural evolution, animal behaviour, and human evolution to illuminate inquiry into the mind and behaviour of past and present human and primate populations. You will learn how anthropology and psychology provide complementary and contrasting perspectives on what it is to be human, as well as a variety of quantitative and qualitative ways of addressing major questions. The interface of anthropology and psychology explicitly integrates intercultural, international and global issues. For example, in anthropology’s traditional focus on cultural diversity and the burgeoning recognition of psychology’s need to address cross-cultural issues and move away from studies biased by Western Educated Industrialised and Rich (WEIRD) samples.

The degree provides the opportunity to develop extensive subject-specific, interdisciplinary, and transferable skills. The course follows the British Psychological Society(BPS) guidelines with an extensive range of options in the final year, drawing both from work in fundamental scientific research and in applied areas of psychology and anthropology. You may choose to take modules that deepen your understanding of a smaller number of anthropologically and psychologically relevant topics or choose to take a more broad and varied selection. Several coherent pathways – for example in animal behaviour, infant and child development, and health – are possible, using complementary modules from the two departments.

Excellent research facilities are available, including a virtual reality suite, developmental testing facilities, and EEG labs (in psychology), as well as extensive collections of fossil hominin casts and material culture artefacts from around the globe, a sleep lab, hormone lab, and field station for primatology in South Africa (in Anthropology). You are encouraged to get involved in research being carried out by your lecturers, thus gaining a deeper and more hands-on understanding of the issues you are learning about in your degree, and adding to your contextual experience.

The MEng Engineering degree is a four-year first degree that delivers the breadth and depth that you will need in the world of engineering. It is designed to produce graduates who will go on and lead engineering teams. Your first two years offer you a broad-based engineering education. You are then able to specialise in your third and fourth years.

At Durham in each year of your degree you will take six modules, the year is divided into three terms and there are examinations at the end of each year.