The MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies is a 21-month, taught master's course, offered jointly by the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. You will study this important region, with its rich history and its complex present-day societies, via an intensive language route or a non-language route, culminating in a substantial thesis.

The MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies is an exciting degree bringing together Oxford’s wealth of expertise on South Asia in a single course. You will gain access to teaching and expert supervision across departments in the Social Sciences and Humanities Divisions. You will receive rigorous training in one of two tailored modules in research methods, and have the option to build in Hindi, Urdu, Classical Hindi/Hindavi, Persian or other language training.

You may choose to explore the social, economic and political achievements and challenges of the present-day states of South Asia, and the connections between the countries’ democratic and developmental successes and failures, or to range more broadly across the states and societies of the subcontinent over the past five hundred years.

Since the MPhil is taught jointly by staff within the Social Sciences and Humanities Divisions, students will be part of a larger community of teachers, researchers and students with interests in South Asia.

For students who already have a grounding in a South Asian language, there are opportunities to proceed to an advanced level, and to develop reading skills to attain a research proficiency.