Master of Arts in Social Policy

at University of York United Kingdom

At York, you will be at the forefront of literary study. Our modules are designed and taught by world experts working at the cutting-edge of literary study.

We offer a breathtaking choice of modules with an unsurpassed geographical and linguistic range, giving you the freedom to tailor your degree to your interests with the support of friendly and accessible tutors. With period coverage extending from Greek and Latin classics to literature being published right now, there’s something for everyone, including creative writing, drama, fiction, film, poetry, and the chance to get your hands dirty in our printing studio.

No discipline equips its students better to understand and interpret a wide range of texts or to form articulate and persuasive responses to a range of challenges. Our graduates go on to careers in all sorts of fields, even areas that traditionally haven’t recruited among Arts and Humanities graduates.

An English graduate’s creativity, passion, and ability to adapt – along with outstanding presentation, language, and reasoning skills – are what employers look for. Join us at York to discover a world of literature.

Material culture tells the story of people and their things: allowing us insights into the significance that objects held for people in the past.

Interweaving practical and theoretical approaches to material culture, this course explores ethnoarchaeological and experimental archaeological approaches to objects, alongside functional analyses of a broad range of artefact types.

You will discover the theories underpinning our understanding of the material world while developing invaluable practical skills such as designing and executing your own experimental archaeology project, the analysis of microscopic wear and residue traces, working with objects from excavations and museum collections or making a short documentary film for the heritage sector.

Whatever your period of interest is, this course will equip you with the skills and experience you need to begin a career in cultural heritage, academia, or commercial archaeology.

This exciting combined degree in History and Politics will help you attain a global understanding of events, institutions and structures. You'll explore how human society works now, and how it has worked in the past. You'll analyse the meaning of ideas such as freedom and democracy, and investigate the factors that have shaped society and culture around the world over time.

You'll join two highly respected research intensive departments, being taught by academics at the forefront of their field. You'll graduate with the knowledge and the practical skills to play your part in tackling some of the world’s most important problems.

With access to the latest computer design labs, multi-speaker surround sound systems, multimedia studios and an anechoic chamber you’ll be able to explore synthesiser technology, MIDI, audio recording, sampling and digital audio signal processing. You’ll not just learn how this technology is applied in making and recording music, but also use your engineering expertise to design and build the next generation of audio technology.

With individual and group projects at every stage of the degree designed to develop practical, organisational, management and business skills, you'll graduate with the knowledge and skills you’ll need to operate with confidence – as an audio engineer, expert designer, researcher or engineering manager in the exciting field of audio and music technology.

The BEng is a fully-accredited engineering course which combines professional electronics with audio and music technology, and draws on the expertise of researchers in the University of York AudioLab.

This course is ideal if you have an interest in diversity, inclusion, equality and a fair and decent society. It's especially useful for current and future teachers as well as potential policy makers and researchers.

Educational policymakers, researchers and teachers recognise that social justice is fundamental to their work. This course will equip you to investigate the pedagogical and professional issues that relate to social justice.

Cognitive neuroscience examines the biological processes that help us to understand complex mental functions such as memory, language, emotion, perception, attention and consciousness.

While psychology focuses on understanding the structure of the mind through behavioural experiments, neuroscience provides a window on how these processes occur in the brain.

Our course gives you unique access to the York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC) where you'll have opportunities for hands-on experience of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). You'll learn how to design, analyse and evaluate neuroimaging experiments, and see how they contribute to our understanding of brain mechanisms.

Provided jointly by the Department of Psychology and the , the course pulls in expertise from other areas of the University, such as the Hull York Medical School.

‌Politics is all around us, and it’s moving fast. With our internationally renowned experts you’ll get to the very heart of political thinking.

Explore the principles of power – how it’s won and how it’s used to drive the decisions that influence our daily lives. You’ll discover how issues such as poverty, debt, terrorism, conflict and environmental change affect us all, and investigate emerging powers like China and India.

There has never been greater need for scientists who understand how the Earth system functions and responds to human activities, and who can apply this knowledge in the broader social and economic context of managing the environment to ensure a sustainable future.

Research-led teaching with a multi-disciplinary focus will provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to address complex environmental problems such as climate change, air pollution and energy transitions.

Governments and international institutions regulate our lives, from what we wear in public to what we say about others. This raises profound questions about how we relate to each other and to our government.

By what right do some people rule over others? Do citizens have an obligation to obey the law? Ultimately, how can we live together peacefully in circumstances in which we disagree about how best to live?

This course, taught in conjunction with the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Politics, explores the core issues of political and legal theories and the relationship between them. By studying the works of theorists both past and present, you'll delve into the fundamental questions of legal and political philosophy.

On this course, you’ll explore these topics in greater depth and from different perspectives. The course draws on our internationally-recognised teaching and research strengths in analytical political philosophy, intellectual history and critical theory.

You'll be encouraged to attend regular research seminars, where the best current work in political theory is presented by staff and eminent guest speakers from all over the world.