Taught Postgraduate Courses

What can I expect?

You will be part of a large community of international graduate students pursuing taught MA/MSc courses and research degrees (PhD and MPhil) who benefit from dedicated postgraduate support facilities and a unique Sociology Student Resource Centre.

All members of the academic staff in the Department are active researchers, so you will be taught, supervised and be able to attend seminars by experts in their fields.

Our renowned off-campus Graduate Conference takes place in February and sees presentations by academic staff and graduate students in full panel or poster sessions as well as being a major social event.

Finally, you can expect a bright future! Our Masters graduates now work in a wide range of sectors including government research, NGOs and charities, media production and market research whilst others have continued in academia.

In our latest criminology video you can find out what it's like to study in the department and hear from Levi Vance, a postgraduate student who is currently studying our new MSc Organised Crime, Terrorism and Security course.

Sociology Courses

NEW for 2012: MA Advertising, Marketing and the Media
This course will investigate key theoretical and substantive debates in the critical study of advertising, marketing and media. You will analyse the advertising industries in Britain, North America and newly emerging economies like India, examine the use of branding and developing brand cultures and examine the wider concept of advertising, marketing and consumption.

Your dissertation is a key part of the course and will be linked to the new master's thesis award scheme run by CREDOS, an advertising Think Tank.

MSc Criminology and Socio-legal Research (1+3 ESRC funding available)
This course combines contemporary debate in criminology and a grounding in sociological research with an introduction to socio-legal theory and socio-legal methods. It offers an ideal background for someone seeking to conduct legally informed criminological research.

MSc Organised Crime, Terrorism and Security
An advanced course that addresses key critical issues surrounding organised criminality and terrorism in contemporary society, involving analyses of organised crime as a concept alongside the impacts of urbanisation, migration and globalisation upon both the practice of crime and the ways in which we understand them.

MA Sociology
A broad, engaging and flexible approach to sociology; follow one of the designated thematic 'streams', or choose from the available modules according to your interests and career plans. Streams offered in 2011/12:
  • Citizenship and rights
  • Contemporary social theory
  • Criminology
  • Culture, media and identities
  • Global Challenges
  • Intimacy and Gender
  • Open stream
MA Sociological Research (ESRC 1+3 Funding available)
Advanced training in quantitative and qualitative research methods sits alongside deep enquiry into substantive sociological interests. This is useful for careers in research and is excellent preparation for a PhD.

MA Longitudinal Social Research (ESRC 1+3 Funding available)
Offers a thorough grounding in quantitative research methods, especially longitudinal survey data. It is ideal training for a research career or future PhD study.

MSc Survey Methods for Social Research (ESRC 1+3 Funding available)
An innovative, unique course offering applied knowledge of generating, managing and analysing large scale social surveys. Good preparation for a PhD, and particularly valuable for a career in survey or market research.

MA Sociology by Dissertation
A research-based Masters for students with a small research project in mind and the research skills to complete it. We also offer other research degrees.

Joint Courses

MA Psychosocial Studies
Offered jointly with the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, this new course builds on the theoretical insights and research methods of both sociology and psychoanalysis. Psychosocial studies probes the boundaries of these disciplines with a view to adding depth and complexity to the representation of human subjects in their social and historical contexts.p>

MA/MSc Environmental Governance (ESRC 1+3 Funding available)
An innovative Masters course, taught jointly by a wide range of departments and centres at the University. The course is designed to introduce students to the multidimensional nature of environmental questions and to explore the interaction of ecological, social, economic, political and legal factors in determining the outcome of environmental issues at local, national and international level.

MSc Human Rights and Research Methods (ESRC 1+3 Funding available)
A thorough and comprehensive education in both human rights and social science research methodologies. This course would, therefore, be of interest to students who have an interest in human rights and intend to work in areas such as policy analysis, human rights data collection, and the growing number of national and international bodies that draw directly upon qualitative and quantitative methodological skills in their work.

MA Sociology and Management (Edge Scholar funding available)
Develops critical and sociological approaches to understanding work, organisations and management; a collaboration between the Sociology Department and Essex Business School.

Funding

There are a number of funding opportunities for postgraduate study so make sure you investigate all the options available to you.

Interested?

Why not take a look at the full range of Sociology Postgraduate Modules, the Sociology postgraduate prospectus and the general University information on postgraduate study at Essex.

The programme specification describes the aims, learning outcomes, teaching, learning and assessment methods, the course structure and the rules of assessment for each of the taught courses.

You might then want to sign up for one of our postgraduate open days and then make an application and think about sources of funding. If you've already applied then you might want to use the myEssex applicant portal to track your application and make some accommodation plans.

Last modified on 26 April 2012