MA in Military History by Research

The programme runs from October to September with thirteen research seminars – three on research techniques and ten by guest lecturers. Please click on “Teaching and Assessment” for the list of seminars.Associate studentsFor those wishing to attend the evening research seminar programme, but unable to devote the time to the coursework or to register for the MA degree, there is the option of becoming an Associate Student. This status will enable the student to attend the ten research seminars and to meet the guest lecturers, in the first six months of the programme, but does not require the submission of written work. Associate Students are not registered for, and do not receive, the MA degree.What our students sayI completed the one year Research MA in Military History in 2012 and subsequently went on to complete a DPhil also at the University of Buckingham.Like most students I embarked on the MA course with a longstanding interest in military history but little understanding of the skills and disciplines involved in academic research. The unique and exciting quality of the Buckingham programme is that it enables an interested amateur as I certainly was then to tackle a historical question that is entirely new and to produce a work that can withstand rigorous professional scrutiny within an incredibly short timescale.If the opportunity provided by the Buckingham course is exciting, its strength lies in the way it combines three elements which support and guide the student. The first is a well-crafted introduction to research techniques backed by exercises to develop research and writing skills. This element is relevant and practical and it is adjusted to the needs of the individual. The second is the series of general interest lectures over the first half of the year all provided by first rank historians. These expose students to new historical problems and the latest research and the format over dinner allows genuinely stimulating debate. They provide invaluable context to the student’s individual work. However, the critical element that stands out at Buckingham is the quality of the individual guidance and supervision in selecting a research topic and then executing successive stages. I cannot rate too highly the individual supervision that I and my fellow students received. I think DPhil students at the best universities would count themselves fortunate to receive tailored support of this quality and care and not least time from some of the best historians in the United Kingdom.I would also like to commend the general administration of the Buckingham MA programme. It is a complex programme with diverse students with different requirements, a complex lecture programme and no dedicated Buckingham owned site in London. Yet the execution from logistics around successive lectures through to the examination of the final thesis and the monitoring of academic standards was close to perfect.Andy Boyd, 21 March 2016For further details contact: