Overview

On this rewarding course, you’ll develop the skills and knowledge to produce meaningful social research.

You’ll take core modules that will teach you how to turn social research issues and questions into workable research designs, as well as handle quantitative and qualitative data and issues such as ethics and funding applications.

You’ll also have the chance to specialise through a choice of optional modules, allowing you to pursue your interests and focus on research in disciplines such as disability studies, care, social policy analysis, criminology and evaluation of programmes and policies.

This course has recently been redesigned to meet the new postgraduate training and development guidelines of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), meaning it stands alone as an MA but will also prepare you to apply for doctoral research in the dynamic fields of social science research. You’ll be well prepared to become a specialist social science researcher, supported by expert tutors across our active research centres and institutes.

Career opportunities

In the last decade, there has been enormous growth in social research, leading to an increasing variety of career options. There are a number of different research environments, such as academic departments, third sector organisations, private research organisations and governmental agencies – all of which have distinctive research cultures.

There is an increasing emphasis on the production of high-quality, rigorous and meaningful research by professionally trained researchers. We designed the MA in Social Research to provide such training, and the course will interest people pursuing, or enhancing, a research-related career in a wide range of settings.