Masters Degree and Diploma
Irish-Scottish Studies
For further information and an application form contact:
Dr. Shane Alcobia-Murphy
Programme Co-ordinator
MLitt in Irish and Scottish Studies
Humanity Manse
19 College Bounds
Aberdeen AB24 3UG
Tel: +44 (0) 1224 272630
Fax: +44 (0) 1224 272624
Email: sam@abdn.ac.uk / enlpgapp@abdn.ac.uk
The application form is also available at:
www.abdn.ac.uk/sras/postgraduate/apply.shtml
Introduction
The Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (RIISS) is the first of its kind in the world for comparative and interdisciplinary research and graduate training on the history, literatures, languages and cultures of the two countries. As an international centre of excellence, RIISS offers unparalleled expertise in Irish and Scottish Studies and has created a carefully regulated, interdisciplinary MLitt programme that gives graduate students rigorous, yet flexible, research training. The Institute, which is also the headquarters for the AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, offers a programme that addresses the specific research interests of individual students while, at the same time, educating them about resources outside their proposed area of interest, thus helping them to contextualise their scholarship and set it within a wider historical, literary, linguistics or ethnological framework.
Course Structure
The Irish-Scottish Masters Programme is made up of three parts. Students are required to take courses from both Part 1 (subject-based courses) and Part 2 (interdisciplinary training) and then, if eligible, proceed to the dissertation, which constitutes Part 3. All students must take at least 60 credits from part 1, and are normally expected to select 60 credits from Part 2 as well. It is permissible, however, for students specialising in English to take up 100 credits from Part 1.
Part One
A wide variety of courses is available, each worth 20 credits. Students must take a minimum of three courses from this part of the programme in order to acquire at least 60 credits. The courses - not all of which are available every year - are delivered in weekly two-hour seminars, lasting for a period of 12 weeks each. They are taught during the course of the academic year, beginning in September or in February. They may include the following courses:
The Narrow Ground: Literature in Northern Ireland from 1960-2004
W.B. Yeats and James Joyce
Enlightenment to Romanticism: The Scottish Achievement
Walter Scott and His World
History and Memory
Irish and Scottish Jacobitism
Witchcraft: Traditiaonal Practices and the Rise of Protestant 'Culture'
Novel and Nation 1800-1830: Ireland and Scotland
Scottish and Irish Diaspora
The Importance of Elsewhere: The Representation of Place in C20th Irish Culutre
Scottish Literature: The Twentieth Century and Beyond
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Part Two
Students specialising in English are required to accumulate a minimum of 20 credits from the interdisciplinary training component, although they will normally be expected to take 60 credits from these courses. Students specialising in History must accumulate a minimum of 40 credits from the courses in Part 2, although they will normally be expected to take 60 credits from these courses.
Skills-based courses provide training in:
Gaelic; Latin; Paleography; Research Methods;
Preperation and Presentation of Scholarly Writing;
Introduction to Historical Reseach;
Computing for Historians; Theoretical Approaches to History; Writing and Editing
Part Three
Dissertation (12-15,000 words in English)
Who will take this degree?
Offering innovative single-discipline, comparative and interdisciplinary postgraduate training, the MLitt is ideal for students who wish to study the history, literature and culture of Ireland and Scotland . Students will be able to draw expertise from the Institute's main staff, its prestigious advisory board and distinguished honorary professors and fellows, as well as from over eighty associated members of the University. The MLitt programme will also appeal to those who wish to avail themselves of Aberdeen 's
excellent library collections. Students can take this programme as a diploma, a stand-alone one-year or two year part-time Master's degree (but immigration regulations prevent an overseas student from studying part-time), or as a first step towards a MPhil or PhD (subject to admission to a further degree programme either at Aberdeen or elsewhere). Hence, it is likely to appeal to those who wish to create a solid foundation on which to build a PhD research proposal, those who wish to teach literature, and those who wish to study literature at a postgraduate level to further their interest in culture and life-long learning.
Entrance Requirements
The standard entrance requirement is a good first degree in English, normally at a 2.i level or at a level deemed equivalent by the Director.
Foreign-language students need to have a minimum of IELTS at 6.5, or TOEFL at 580. The Director will also consider applicants with non-standard qualifications.
Cost
Full-time British nationals and students from European Union countries pay £3,010 per annum in postgraduate fees and part-time £1,505. Students from non-EU countries pay £8,316 per annum. Accommodation and food would be expected to cost between £5K and £8K per year. Books and excursions will also cost extra.
What if I do not want to write a dissertation?
Students who attend and satisfactorily complete all compulsory and optional courses, but who do not write a dissertation, will be awarded a Diploma in Irish and Scottish Studies.
For international students, all postgraduate taught programmes, beginning in September 2008, have a deadline of the 1 st of July 2008. Any application received after this date, will not be considered for September 2008, but instead will be considered for the next available intake, either January 2009 or September 2009. For more information on the intakes for each programme please visit www.abdn.ac.uk/prospectus/pgrad/ Please note this deadline is to ensure students have sufficient time to complete the application process and apply for their visa, and arrive in Aberdeen in time of the start of their programme.
There is no programme deadline for those students classed as UK/EU for tuition fee purposes.