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University of Buckingham: History of Art (Renaissance to Modernism)

Institution University of Buckingham
Department History of Art View department profile
Web www.buckingham.ac.uk
Email humanitiespg-admissions@buckingham.ac.uk
Telephone 01208 820227
Study type Research

Summary

The University of Buckingham is: - Home of the two-year degree, the University of Buckingham, based in the South East of England, is ranked 6th for Student Satisfaction in the UK (National Student Survey, 2020).

  • We are proudly independent and not-for-profit, and offer courses in Allied Health, Business, Computing, Education, Humanities, Law, Medicine, Psychology and Security and Intelligence. We are one of the few universities in the UK that offer September and January start dates for almost all of our courses.

  • Based in Buckingham on a riverside campus, we are only 20 minutes’ from Milton Keynes central station and a short drive from Bicester, Aylesbury, Banbury and Northampton. There is free parking on-site and we are within easy reach of London and Oxford.

  • Our award-winning small class tutorials ensure every student is known by name and supported throughout their studies, including by dedicated personal tutors.

  • As pioneers of the two-year degree, we offer a condensed version of the traditional three-year degree, meaning you can gain a full honours degree and complete your studies a whole year earlier. Alternatively, you can complete both your undergraduate and master’s degree with us in just three years: saving you time and money.

The University of Buckingham’s Master’s programme in the History of Art offers the opportunity to pursue research at Master’s level in any one of a wide range of art historical topics: from explorations of individual artists, to examinations of styles, themes, movements and the role of art in society across the centuries.

Individual research topics are closely focused; but the approach of the course is to encourage students to investigate the interconnections between art’s multiple facets and roles. Recent dissertations have surveyed, for example, the role of modern church art, the links between three twentieth-century female sculptors, Caravaggio’s biblical understanding, the origins of the Official War Artists scheme during the First World War, and art commissioned by the East India Company. The choice of subject area is ultimately the student’s own.

The Master’s degree can be taken either full-time and completed in a single academic year, or taken part-time and extended over two years. Although original research it the prime focus of the programme, there is also a strongly collegial aspect to the course, as all research students meet regularly throughout the year for a series of early-evening seminars by some of the most distinguished scholars working in the history of early-modern England. The seminars are held in the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE, and provide an opportunity for students to meet and debate with the visiting speaker. Each seminar is followed by a working dinner at a nearby restaurant at which discussion continues. (The full seminar programme is given below.)

The MA is awarded solely on the basis of the dissertation (there are no ‘exams’), and the relationship between the student and supervisor is therefore at the heart of the course.

The maximum length for the MA dissertation in the School of Humanities is 25,000 words (or approximately 75 pages at line-spacing of 1.5), excluding notes and references. Student and supervisor meet regularly on a one-to-one basis to discuss, plan, and review the dissertation as it develops through the year.

The University of Buckingham MA programmes are intended to impart all the skills necessary for the student to work as an independent researcher and writer – skills that are valued by both academic and non-academic employers. But the MA can be undertaken just as fulfillingly as an exercise in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, and as a means of exploring areas of enquiry that are of particular interest to the student.

MA (Res)

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