Teaching & modules

Modules

Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take modules totalling 180 credits.

Required Modules

You are required to take:

  • Approaches to Early Modern History (30 credits)
  • Advanced Skills for Historians (30 credits)
  • Dissertation (60 credits)

Optional Modules

In addition, you are required to take 60 credits from a range of optional modules, which may typically include:

  • Body & Society in Early Modern Europe (15 credits)
  • From Hume to Darwin: God, Man & Nature in European Thought (15 credits)
  • Liberty, Reason & the State: British Moral & Political Thought in Early-Modernity (15 credits)
  • Divided by Faith? The Age of Religious Violence in Early Modern Europe (15 credits)
  • The Public History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (15 credits)
  • The MA History Internship (15 credits)

You may also take up to 30 credits from a range of master’s level modules offered by other MA programmes in the department, other departments at King’s, or intercollegiately, subject to approval

You may also take one graduate level language module offered by King’s Language Centre

If you are a part-time student, you will take Advanced Skills for Historians in your first year, along with 30 credits of optional modules. In your second year you will take Approaches to Early Modern History and your dissertation module, along with 30 credits of optional modules.

Teaching methods - what to expect

We teach our modules through small seminar groups where we will debate and discuss ideas based on extensive reading.

If you are a full-time student, we will provide you with six to eight hours of teaching each week, and we will expect you to undertake 32 to 34 hours of independent study.

If you are a part-time student, we will provide you with two to four hours of teaching each week, and we will expect you to undertake 16 to 18 hours of independent study.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Application closing date guidance

Key Information

Course type:

Master's

Delivery mode:

In person

Study mode:

Full time / Part time

Duration:

One year full-time, two years part-time, September to September

Application status:

Open

Start date:

September 2026