The first two terms are devoted to taught courses. You take 6 assessed courses and you also participate in workshops on research methods and issues. In the third term and during July and August , you do your personal research work under the guidance of a supervisor and write this up in the form of a dissertation. Your studies for the MA programmes are full-time for one year from October to the following September. The Final Examiners' Meeting usually takes place in the third week of September and this marks the official end of the course.
Most students are full-time.
However, it is also possible to take the MA part-time. Normally part-time students can spread their coursework over the first two terms of their first year and the first two terms of their second year. You begin your research for the dissertation in the third term and summer months of your first year. The dissertation is then written up in the last part of their second year. Under this kind of arrangement, you can do half of your courses in the first term of the first year, and the other half in the second term of the second year, the dissertation being written up by the end of the second year.