MA Culture and Thought After 1945 Programme Specification 2024-25

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1	ACADEMIC QUALITY TEAM
2	Programme Specifications 2024-25
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5	Programme Title			MA in Culture and Thought After 1945
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7	This document applies to students who commenced the programme(s) in:			2024		Award type			MA
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9	What level is this qualification?			Level 7		Length of programme			1 year (or 2 years part-time)
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11	Mode of study (Full / Part Time)			Full-time (or part-time)
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13	Will the programme use standard University semester dates?			Yes		For York Online programmes, will standard dates for such programmes be used?			Semester 1 - 18/09/2023 to 02/02/2024 Semester 2 - 05/02/2024 to 17/09/2024
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15	Awarding institution			University of York		Board of Studies for the programme			MA English
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17	Lead department			English and Related Literature		Other contributing departments			Students can choose modules from: Archeology Centre of Women's Studies Centre of Medieval Studies History History of Art Sociology Politics, as well as the School of Arts and Creative Technologies
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19	Language of study and assessment			English		Language(s) of assessment			English
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21	Is this a campus-based or online programme?			Campus-based
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23	Partner organisations
24	If there are any partner organisations involved in the delivery of the programme, please outline the nature of their involvement. You may wish to refer to the Policy on Collaborative Provision
25	N/A
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27	Reference points
28	Please state relevant reference points consulted in the design of this programme (for example, relevant documentation setting out PSRB requirements; the University's Frameworks for Programme Design (UG or PGT); QAA Subject Benchmark Statements; QAA Qualifications and Credit Frameworks).
29	Subject Benchmark English; UoY Framework for Programme Design (PGT)
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31	Credit Transfer and Recognition of Prior Learning
32	Will this programme involve any exemptions from the University Policy and Procedures on Credit Transfer and the Recognition of Prior Learning? If so, please specify and give a rationale
33	No
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35	Exceptions to Regulations
36	Please detail any exceptions to University Award Regulations and Frameworks that need to be approved (or are already approved) for this programme. This should include any that have been approved for related programmes and should be extended to this programme.
37	N/A
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39	Internal Transfers
40	Please use the boxes below to specify if transfers into / out of the programme from / to other programmes within the University are possible by indicating yes or no and listing any restrictions. These boxes can also be used to highlight any common transfer routes which it would be useful for students to know.
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42		Transfers in:	Students can apply to transfer from other MA programmes, on the condition that they meet the application criteria required to gain entry to the programme, and that they take, or have taken, the core module in the First Semester.			Transfers out:	Yes, students may transfer in to or out of the programme in accordance with University Regulations. Transfers will be dependent upon student numbers and available places.
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45	Statement of Purpose
46	Please briefly outline the overall aims of the programme. This should clarify to a prospective student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
47	The MA in ‘Culture and Thought After 1945’, based in the Centre for Modern Studies, offers you a unique chance to study the aesthetic, theoretical, cultural, political and historical developments of "the contemporary" at both an advanced academic level and with a personal focus. The MA programme enables you to simultaneously advance your disciplinary knowledge - pushing you into new intellectual areas - and engage with challenging arguments about “contemporary” societies and ideas. The programme will stretch you intellectually across more than one disciplinary domain, around the globe and into topical debates about the dynamcis of the contemporary world. This depth and flexibility of engagement is possible due to a structure which includes a core conceptual framing module and on-going graduate training (our graduate training module, Postgraduate Life in Practice, aims to foster both subject-specific and transferable skills) as well as access to modules from eight different departments - English, History, History of Art, Archaeology, Sociology, School of Arts and Creative Technologies, and the Centre for Women’s Studies. You can come from any relevant disciplinary background, and find an attractive breadth, depth and vibrancy of the modules across the humanities and social sciences. The result is that you are able to construct your own interest-based programme in an incredibly research-rich and intellectually diverse environment. You will develop a range of important transferable skills: critically analysing textual, visual and aural sources; managing large amounts of information; improving written and oral communication skills; and developing advanced powers of argumentative persuasion. With this emphasis on critical, theoretical and interdisciplinary thinking about the contemporary, the programme lays a strong foundation for future careers in publishing, advertising, the media, teaching, journalism and many other areas of the creative industries. The programme also serves as perfect preparation for doctoral research.
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58	If there are additional awards associated with the programme upon which students can register, please specify the Statement of Purpose for that programme. This will be most relevant for PGT programmes with exit awards that are also available as entry points. Use additional rows to include more than one additional award. Do not include years in industry / abroad (for which there are separate boxes).
59	Exit Award Title			Is the exit award also available as an entry point?	Outcomes: what will the student be able to do on exit with this award?			Specify the module diet that the student will need to complete to obtain this exit award
60	MA in Culture and Thought After 1945			Yes - an entry award	N/A			180 credits
61	Postgraduate Diploma in Culture and Thought After 1945			No - not an entry award	The PG Diploma in Culture and Thought offers a postgraduate qualification that can be completed in less time than the MA and involves the writing of a 6-7,000-word long essay rather than a 14-16,000-word dissertation. Students must obtain 120 credits in order to receive the diploma. 100 credits are gained for the five taught modules (this includes 20 credits for PLP), and the diploma long essay carries 20 credits. Successfully completing these requirements will mean that students gaining a Diploma will have engaged in learning towards all seven PLOs, and will have been assessed on six of those PLOs (excluding PLO6).			120 credits - 100 credits are gained for the five taught modules (this includes 20 credits for PLP), and the diploma long essay carries 20 credits.
62	Postgraduate Certificate in Culture and Thought After 1945			No - not an entry award	The PG Certificate in Culture and Thought offers recognition for their work and achievements to students who have completed taught elements of the degree, without them having to complete a dissertation project or a long essay. Students must obtain 60 credits in order to receive a certificate. Students will thus have completed at least three modules: the core module plus 2 option modules and assessment requirements for each of those modules. They will have passed at least 40 credits outright and received at least a compensatory pass in another 20 credits. Students achieving a certificate will have engaged with Postgraduate Life in Practice but will not have completed the module, so no credits will be awarded to this provision. In this manner, students will have studied in accordance with the PLOs that are mapped via the core module and option module entries on the Masters Programme Map. They will have engaged in learning towards all seven PLOs, and will have been assessed on the first five PLOs.			60 credits - students will have passed at least 40 credits outright and received at least a compensatory pass in another 20 credits.
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64	Programme Learning Outcomes
65	What are the programme learning outcomes (PLOs) for the programme? (Normally a minimum of 6, maximum of 8). Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme and represent the outcomes that students progressively develop in the programme and achieve at graduation. PLOs should be worded to follow the stem 'Graduates will be able to...'
66	1	Analyse significant literary and cultural texts from the modern period closely and critically, interpreting them with reference to the social, political, economic and/or aesthetic contexts in which they were produced, reproduced, and received.
67	2	Evaluate and contribute to scholarly debates around literary modernism, and around the legacies of modernism in twentieth-century and contemporary literature and culture.
68	3	Deploy knowledge of specialist fields within the broader remit of modern literature and culture – for example American fiction, narrative theory, political theatre, poetry and poetics, Cold War culture, world-systems theory – in order to ask and answer innovative questions regarding the origins, contexts, and underlying conditions of the modern world.
69	4	Initiate, conduct, and take responsibility for independent research, drawing on skills honed by graduate-level research training, research-led teaching, and the completion of a substantial dissertation project.
70	5	Communicate sophisticated written arguments in a clear, accurate and persuasive fashion, synthesising evidence from multiple sources so as to convey information creatively and convincingly.
71	6	Engage in verbal discussion of complex textual material, demonstrating versatility, rigour, and confidence in the reception, appreciation, and articulation of high-level ideas and perspectives.
72	7	Direct their own development, bringing new knowledge and skills to bear upon a range of contexts including (but not limited to) doctoral study in modern English literature and related fields.
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74	Diverse entry routes
75	Detail how you would support students from diverse entry routes to transition into the programme. For example, disciplinary knowledge and conventions of the discipline, language skills, academic and writing skills, lab skills, academic integrity.
76	As an interdisciplinary programme stretching across a variety of Arts & Humanities disciplines, and also drawing on the Social Sciences, the MA in Culture and Thought enables students from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to enter into a new style of study programme, and to sit alongside other students whose disciplinary training may come from across a spectrum of relevant (but not necessarily the same) areas. In this way, the MA programme enables entry from across a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds. And, while the entry policy encourages students with particularly strong theoretical interests and advanced modes of critical thinking skills to apply, it makes clear provision for students coming from outside the most common routes into the MA, both in terms of disciplinary training and in terms of educational route. On the programme, the core module – Framing the Contemporary – underpins the necessary intellectual range required for the MA programme, training students in how to take up disciplinary debates and move them across boundaries, where appropriate, and how to ask probing questions about such intellectual boundary crossing. It enables them to encounter discipline-specific advances or mutations in thinking within the contemporary period and to explore how such changes fit into larger patterns or intellectual trends. The core module also provides methodological templates for approaching inter-/trans-disciplinary study that establish the foundation for the rest of the MA programme and its optionality. In providing an opportunity for formative writing, via Framing the Contemporary, the MA ensures that all students – from all entries routes and disciplinary backgrounds – receive early and constructive feedback about how to shape their research and writing approaches for the MA. And this is accompanied by instruction about the Academic Integrity tutorial and a wide range of training activities coming from, and also as linked to, the MA programme. The new graduate training module in English is strongly oriented toward developing writing skills at MA level, which will be of particular help to students transitioning into the programme from diverse entry routes. The opportunity to participate in History department graduate training enables students to further engage, under staff supervision, with issues in using digital resouces for humanities research, for example online databases and online repositories. Across the MA as a whole, the variety of option modules means that students can select specific topics and methodological approaches that interest them, or that they feel will benefit them directly in terms of skill acquisition. The specifications for all modules offered are reviewed before being made available to students to ensure: that all MA students on the programme will be eligible for the module; that they will intellectually gain in relation to the overall ambitions and PLOs of the MA programme; and that the module works as part of the inter-changeable range of options that constitute an effective and challenging interdisciplinary MA programme. The design of the dissertation, and the supervision and training pattern provided to accompany it, including support from staff with inter-/trans-disciplinary interests and/or training, also ensures that students from all backgrounds will gain support across the full stretch of research and writing tasks required of them for successful completion of the programme.
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85	Inclusion
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87	Please confirm by ticking the box on the right that the design, content and delivery of the programme will support students from all backgrounds to succeed. This refers to the University's duties under the Equality Act 2010. You may wish to refer to the optional Inclusive Learning self-assessment tools to support reflection on this issue.									TRUE
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89	Employability
90	Please give a brief overview - no more than 5 sentences - of how the programmes helps develop students' employability. Your Faculty Employability Manager can help reflection on this issue. This statement will be used by Marketing as the basis for external content with respect to employability.
91	Students gain advanced academic and scholarly skills via the MA and will develop strong and versatile modes of thinking, researching, writing and presenting information, including through Postgraduate Life in Practice. They will be able to communicate in ways that are discipline and audience specific, and manage data, evidence and argument. Students gain opportunities to study in areas in which they feel they require additional and/or more advanced training, thereby gaining new intellectual impetus in new areas of thinking and also being able to build on their existing skills and training in new and more advanced ways. Students will select their modules, and thereby their own sense of intellectual focus and/or breadth, in accordance with their own intellectual and potentially professional (or future-oriented) needs. They will practice self-directed study across the programme and particularly in the dissertation, making them well equipped for future independent work. In addition to these provisions, students may choose to develop dissertation projects that are more explicitly directed towards a particular career path or one that explores a non-university institution, place, or employment practice. Finally, students are able to engage with the wide training programme offered by English, which includes employability-linked sessions and opportunities for skills acquisition.
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100	[For Undergraduate and Integrated Masters Programmes Only]