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Postgraduate Taught

MA Social and Political Theory

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 Politics and International Relations
Contact
Typical offer

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2:2 Honours degree

Contextual offers

Overview

  • You will study the ideas that have shaped our political and ideological traditions, focusing on the study of key thinkers, such as John Locke, Karl Marx and Michel Foucault
  • We employ analytical and institutional approaches to debate the history of political ideas and changing perceptions of money, work and commerce
  • You’ll benefit from an active research culture with seminar series and highly successful annual postgraduate conference
  • Tailor your degree to your interests with an array of optional modules including Problems and Texts in Social and Political Thought, Sources in Modernity and Post-Modernity and Contemporary Ethics

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Fast Track (current Exeter students)

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Contact

Programme Director: Dr Jack Tagney

Web: Enquire online

Phone: +44 (0)1392 72 72 72

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Employability focussed

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Top 10 in the UK for Politics

9th in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024

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Top 100 in the world for Politics

QS World University Subject Rankings 2024

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Flexibility to follow your interests with a world-leading cluster of researchers

Entry requirements

We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree with 53% or above in their first degree. 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 Social and Political Theory gives you the opportunity to study the thinkers who have shaped the modern world – Locke, Hegel, Marx and others – as well as more recent debates in social and political theory. It draws upon the diverse interests of our lecturers; refers to both Anglo-American and ‘Continental’ literatures; and employs analytical and institutional approaches.

As a graduate of this programme you will have a broad knowledge of classic debates in the history of political ideas and of changing perceptions of money, work and commerce. You will also have the opportunity to take a wide range of options in subjects including philosophy of social science, science and technology studies, and theories of revolution.

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.

Students must take three compulsory modules: POLM803 (30 credits), SOCM027 (30 credits), and POLM886 (60 credits).

Students must also take a further 60 credits-worth of optional modules at Master’s level. Of these, at least 30 credits must be Politics modules (module codes beginning POLM). The remaining 30 credits can be in Politics, Sociology (SOCM), Philosophy (PHLM), or any other discipline in the university, with approval from the programme director (or equivalent) of the relevant discipline.

The ‘Recommended optional modules’ in the table below are some of those currently led by political and social theorists/philosophers, or otherwise closely related to core topics in the MA Social and Political Theory.

Politics and International Relations modules https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/studyinformation/modules/?prog=politics

Compulsory modules

CodeModule Credits
POLM886 Dissertation 60
POLM803 Sources in Modernity and Post-Modernity 30
SOCM027 Social Theory 30

Optional modules

CodeModule Credits
POLM168 From Oppression to Resistance: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class and Gender 30
POLM156 The Transformation of Politics in the Global Age 30
POLM307 International Politics of the Body 30
POLM502 International Relations: Power and Institutions 30
SOCM002B Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30
PHLM006 Contemporary Ethics 30
SOCM950 Science Technology and Society 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

We invest heavily in scholarships for talented prospective Masters students. This includes over £5 million in scholarships for international students, such as our Global Excellence Scholarships*.

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

*Selected programmes only. Please see the Terms and Conditions for each scheme for further details.

Teaching and research

Learning and Teaching

With the exception of the dissertation, each module on this programme is normally taught through academic lectures expanded through seminar discussion, presentations, group work, reading and essay assignments.

You will have an individual supervisor for your dissertation, which is a 16,000-20,000 word extended political theory essay on a topic of your choice (following discussion and approval from your supervisor).

The teaching and assessment on this programme should enable you to develop insight into recent critiques of modern Western societies and their values, and the ways in which these form crucial theoretical elements in debates across the social sciences.

Library services

Our main library is open 24/7 throughout the academic year. With a book stock in excess of 1.2 million, we have one of the highest UK academic library ratios of books to students. The main library offers self-service machines, state-of-the-art multimedia facilities, and an extended wifi network. The library provides world-class study facilities to all students. It has extensive holdings of works on political science, international relations and the various sub-disciplines.

Careers

You will develop a number of skills that are valued in professional and managerial careers: the ability to research and analyse information from a variety of sources along with written and verbal skills needed to present and discuss your opinions. The understanding you will gain of complex political and cultural issues, often in continually changing environments, can also be relevant to both business and public sector appointments.

Consequently, University of Exeter Politics postgraduates have been highly successful in securing interesting career opportunities and progressing to PhD level study.

Careers support

Our careers advisory service provides expert guidance to all students to enable them to plan their futures through psychometric testing, employer presentations, skills events, practice job interviews and CV preparation.