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Postgraduate Taught

MA Classics and Ancient History

Please note: The below is for 2025 entries. Click here for 2024 entries.
UCAS code 1234
Duration 1 year full time
2 years part time
Entry year September 2025
Campus Streatham Campus
Discipline Classics and Ancient History
Contact

Web: Enquire online 
Phone: 
0300 555 6060 (UK)  
+44 (0)1392 723044 (non-UK)

Typical offer

View full entry requirements

2:2 Honours degree

Contextual offers

Overview

  • Gain an understanding of Greek and Roman culture and society through guided study and independent research
  • Develop advanced research skills and specialist methodologies for the use and analysis of a range of forms of textural and material evidence
  • Tailor your programme by choosing a selection of modules to match your interests
  • Become part of a friendly and lively community of students and scholars. Exeter has one of the largest and most successful teams of Classics and Ancient History scholars in the country

Apply online

View 2024 Entry

Fast Track (current Exeter students)

Open days and visiting us

Get a prospectus

Contact

Programme Director: Prof Claire Holleran 

Web: Enquire online

Phone: +44 (0)1392 72 72 72

Discover MA Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter.

Research icon: a mortarboard and a cog

We are 4th in the UK for world-leading Classics research

Based on 4* research in the Research Excellence Framework 2021

Top 50 icon

Top 50 in the world for Classics and Ancient History

QS World University Subject Rankings 2024

Trophy icon

Top 10 in the UK for Classics and Ancient History

7th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025

Group icon

Proactive Classics Society with successful student tutor scheme

Research icon: a mortarboard and a cog

We are 4th in the UK for world-leading Classics research

Based on 4* research in the Research Excellence Framework 2021

Top 50 icon

Top 50 in the world for Classics and Ancient History

QS World University Subject Rankings 2024

Entry requirements

We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree with 53% or above in their first degree in a relevant subject area. While we normally only consider applicants who meet this criteria, if you are coming from a different academic background which is equivalent to degree level, or have relevant work experience, we would welcome your application.

Entry requirements for international students

English language requirements

International students need to show they have the required level of English language to study this course. The required test scores for this course fall under Profile B2. Please visit our English language requirements page to view the required test scores and equivalencies from your country.

Course content

The MA Classics and Ancient History is fully flexible allowing you to create your own programme based on your particular interests and aims. We provide a wide variety of specialist modules based on our diverse areas of research, together with optional language teaching at all levels. You will undertake training in specific research skills designed to help you succeed across your MA studies and beyond.

We also offer a range of international opportunities that vary from year to year.

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

90 credits of compulsory modules and 90 credits of optional modules.

 

Compulsory modules

CodeModule Credits
CLAM043 Dissertation in Classics and Ancient History 60
CTHM007 Research Skills in Classics, Ancient History and Theology 30

Optional modules

a - If you are beginning a classical language, you should take 30-60 credits from CLAM090 and CLAM091 as well as CLAM088 and CLAM089.

b - If you have a classical language at beginners' level, you should take 30 credits from either CLAM252 or CLAM202.

c - If you have a classical language at intermediate level, you should take 30 credits from CLAM254, CLAM255 or CLAM204, or CLAM205.

d - If you have a classical language at Degree level, you should take CLAM012A.

CodeModule Credits
CLAM090 Classical Language and Texts: Latin I (A) [See note a above]15
CLAM091 Classical Language and Texts: Latin I (B) [See note a above]15
CLAM088 Classical Language and Texts Greek I (A) [See note a above]15
CLAM089 Classical Language and Texts: Greek I (B) [See note a above]15
CLAM252 Classical Language and Texts: Latin II [See note b above]30
CLAM202 Classical Language and Texts: Greek II [See note b above]30
CLAM254 Latin III [See note c above]30
CLAM255 Latin IV [See note c above]30
CLAM204 Greek III [See note c above]30
CLAM205 Greek IV [See note c above]30
CLAM012A Latin Epic [See note d above]30
Classics and Ancient History PGT option modules 2024-5
CLAM108 Rome: Globalisation, Materiality 15
CLAM077 Ancient Texts and their Interpretation 15
CLAM101 The Western Dragon in Lore, Literature and Art 15
CLAM259 Ancient Epigraphy 15
CLAM078 Classical Reception: An Introduction 15
CLAM079 Cultures of the Body in the Roman Empire 15
CLAM260 Greek Papyrology: An Introduction 15
CLAM263 Magic and Folklore in the Greek and Roman Worlds 15
CLAM107 Roman Myth 15
CLAM262 Pandemics and disease in the ancient Mediterranean 15
CLAM106 Ancient Philosophy 15
CLAM261 Homers Odyssey and the Caribbean 15
CLAM111 Ancient Drama in its Social and Cultural Context 15
CLAM046 The City of Rome 30

Fees

2025/26 entry

UK fees per year:

£12,500 full-time; £6,250 part-time

International fees per year:

£25,300 full-time; £12,650 part-time

Scholarships

The University of Exeter has many different scholarships available to support your education, including £5 million in scholarships for international students applying to study with us in the 2025/26 academic year, such as our Exeter Excellence Scholarships*.

For more information on scholarships and other financial support, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.

*Terms and conditions apply. See online for details.

Teaching and research

Teaching

Before you begin your MA we will sit down with you to discuss your module choices and help you build your programme of study. Throughout the course we will support you, mainly through a personal tutor who will meet with you regularly to discuss progress, results and feedback.

Your teaching will mainly be through small group discussions and seminars where you will present your work and take part in debates. We use a variety of methods including seminars, student-led groups and one-to-one supervision. You will also have the opportunity to join postgraduate reading groups and benefit from working collaboratively with your fellow students.

Throughout your programme you will have the opportunity to explore your personal interests through directed independent study.

In your final term you will continue shaping, researching, and writing your dissertation which will be an original project on a topic of your choice. We will teach you the skills and train you in the methodologies you need to be a success.

Research

Exeter has one of the largest and most successful teams of Classics and Ancient History scholars in the country. We are all active academic researchers, working at the forefront of our fields, and are confident in the benefits that our discipline can bring to the wider world.

We have a real research culture at Exeter with international conferences that you could help organise. You will be taught by research-active staff who are at the top of their field. We hope you will become part of that culture and add to our research strength.

Our academic staff have a broad range of expertise and ground-breaking research interests. Some of the areas we have a special research interest include:

  • Ancient and modern philosophy, especially metaphysics and ethics
  • Ancient political thought and its reception in later societies
  • Archaeology and material culture, especially of the Roman world
  • Papyrology
  • Classical reception
  • The history of sexuality and gender
  • Digital Humanities
  • Greek and Roman epic, tragedy and comedy
  • Greek and Roman mythology, religion and magic
  • Greek and Roman socio-economic history
  • Greek literature in the Roman empire
  • Hellenistic history and historiography, especially the Hellenistic dynasties, the barbarian interface and the Greek culture of Asia Minor
  • Ancient medicine
  • Late Antiquity and religious change
  • Latin literature
  • Migration, mobility, and connectivity, especially in Italy and the Roman empire
  • Global Classics

Facilities

We have a number of dynamic research centres grouped around shared themes in our work.

The Centre for Hellenistic and Romano-Greek Culture and Society is an internationally recognised hub for the study of the history and culture of the post-classical Greek world. Research interests include ancient Macedonia and the Hellenistic dynasties, religion, cultural exchange and heritage, historiography, and the literature of magic.

The Centre for Connectivity in the Roman World examines the ways in which connectivity contributed to the shaping of distinctive cultures, economies and societies across the breadth of the Roman world (and its immediate neighbours).

The Centre for Knowledge in Culture in Antiquity and Beyond brings together research in specialised areas including ancient medicine, ancient science and the scientific imagination, metaphysics, philosophy, ethics, sexual knowledge, military strategy and political thought, and on ancient technical writings from across the Classical world.

The Exeter Centre for Classical Reception brings together an extraordinary concentration of colleagues in English, History, Modern Languages, as well as Classics and Ancient History with an interest in the different ways in which the Greek and Roman world has been presented, interpreted, and reimagined in both the past and the present. We also have close links with other disciplines within the university, particularly digital humanities, archaeology, and theology.

Find out more about our research on the Classics and Ancient History website.

Read more

My research interests lie in Roman social and economic history, particularly urban economies, the experience of living in the ancient city, and Roman demography.

I am especially interested in Rome itself, and have published work on the city's retail trade, demography, and street life, as well as editing A Companion to the City of Rome with Amanda Claridge (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018). 

View staff profile

Read more from Dr Claire Holleran

Dr Claire Holleran

Programme Director

Careers

PhD

Many of our students decide to take their studies on to doctoral level and we are very happy to help you prepare with one-to-one mentoring as you develop a research proposal and submit applications for funding. Of course, a PhD isn’t the only option available to you on completing our MA.

Careers

During your time with us you will have a developed an excellent range of skills in logical thinking, interpreting, analysing and evaluating information, and communication. A range of options will be open to you, you might take a career path in a related area such as museum and cultural heritage work or teaching. Alternatively, you might choose to pursue a different profession using your relevant skills, perhaps joining the Civil Service or working in business, law or management.

Some destinations of graduates from Classics and Ancient History programmes are:

  • Actor
  • Classics Teacher
  • Client Executive
  • Executive Search Researcher
  • Human Resources Adviser
  • Lecturer
  • Legal Assistant
  • Personal Incident Manager
  • Producer of West End Shows
  • Project Manager
  • Property Manager
  • Publishing Assistant
  • Quality Controller
  • Researcher

Trophy icon

Top 10 in the UK for Classics and Ancient History

7th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025

Group icon

Proactive Classics Society with successful student tutor scheme