Master of Arts in History
Historians try to reconstruct and fathom the origins, development and coherence of human civilization. The master’s curriculum contains the actual discipline-specific expertise, with at its heart the master’s dissertation and supporting electives (chronologically, thematically or regionally) tying in with your choice of approach.
What
If critically examining the past while reaching beyond interminable lists of dates, facts and names is what you have always wanted, our academic History programme is the right choice for you. Not only will you learn how and where to find historical sources, you will also learn to adopt a critical attitude vis-à-vis these sources. In addition to source criticism or heuristics, you will learn to ask the right questions (what is it that I want to know?) and use the appropriate methods (how do I get these sources to reveal their information?). Once the information has been revealed, you will learn how to analyse, synthesize and assess it.
Through the History programme, you come to understand the great story of human civilization. You try to reconstruct and answer questions pertaining to the origins, development and coherence that civilization. Knowledge of past and present always go hand-in-hand. Humankind and society can only be understood by establishing connections between past and present processes and events. This makes of History the social science par excellence, not only of the past, but also of the present.
Our academic History programme aims to deliver historians with a research-oriented attitude and a broad view on the world. Not only do our graduates have a solid knowledge of Humanities, Social Sciences and History, they also possess a critical understanding of social processes and structures. Our graduates have learnt to adopt a critical-academic attitude vis-à-vis past and present, they can conduct historical research autonomously, they are able to present research results to a wide audience (both orally and in writing), and they can participate in contemporary social debate.
For whom
The admission requirements vary. Depending on your prior education, you are either able to enrol directly, or there are additional requirements.
Structure
Whereas the Bachelor’s programme still offers the broad fundamentals, the Master’s programme contains the actual discipline-specific expertise. At the heart of our programme is the Master’s dissertation, which is a testimony to your academic skills. The importance of the Master’s dissertation is reflected in its ECTS-credits: it makes up as much as half of the curriculum’s total ECTS-credits. Your dissertation comprises a topic of your choice, either situated in a specific period (e.g. the Middle Ages), a specific theme (urban history) or a specific region (e.g. African history). Your supporting electives are chronologically, thematically or regionally in line with your choice of approach. The elective course unit Public History makes it possible to take on a work placement.
In addition to the (domain) Master’s programme described above, you can also choose a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: Educatieve Master) www.ugent.be/educatievemaster.
Labour Market
Traditional employment sectors for historians are education, academic research (often through doctoral studies), and the broader heritage sector, in particular the archive sector (take a look at the advanced Master’s programme in the archivism: heritage and contemporary document management).
There is, however, an increasing demand for graduates with a polyvalent education. The study of History offers significant advantages: its broad training and academic depth give our graduates a broad intellectual and cultural background, in addition to specialist skills that are in demand in many non-historical sectors: the cultural sector, administration, journalism, diplomacy, the publishing world, the banking sector, and many others. To those who aspire continued education, that same broad training and specialist skills provide a solid basis for advanced studies in various disciplines.
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- A broad range of specialisations: the History programme covers Western history, from Antiquity up until the present, in a context of world history. It offers opportunities for an in-depth study of historical periods (Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Early Modern Times, Modern Times and Contemporary Times) as well as regions (African history) and themes (urban history, economic and ecological history).
- Public history: we offer a range of modules on public history, focusing on the role of history and the historian outside the academic world, including the possibility of an work placement. We organise an annual project week for all students, “The Past Week” (in Dutch: de Verleden Week), in which Bachelor’s and Master’s students work together on a specific theme from public history.
- Curricular freedom: students have extensive freedom to put together their own curriculum, with a choice from a range of specialised historical as well as elective modules.
- Focus on research: the different modules we offer promote interdisciplinary approaches based on the study of sources. In the Master’s curriculum, the Master’s dissertation takes centre stage, allowing students to demonstrate their research skills on a topic of their choice. We offer guidance on the improvement of oral and written communication skills and writing skills.
- Transferable skills: our students acquire a wide range of skills that will be of use to them in their future career, also beyond the field of History: critical, analytical and synthetical thought; independence and team work; presentation and communication skills.
Strengths
- Student satisfaction: students give highly positive feedback on our programme, especially in terms of content, methods and approaches.
- Excellent research: our lecturers’ internationally renowned research feeds into the curriculum, and stimulates our students’ critical thought.
- Quality assurance: we encourage our students to participate in the Programme Committee. We also consult with our students regularly in order to detect points of improvement, which we then follow up closely.
- Diversity: we focus on diversity in the curriculum. By means of English-taught course units (among other things) we introduce international research into the programme.
Challenges
- Wider focus on non-Western history: we want to broaden our offer of course units on non-Western history by collaborating with other departments, among other things.
- Monitoring the workload: we set high demands vis-à-vis our students, but at the same time we monitor our students’ workload closely by co-ordinating the deadlines in the various modules.
- International and intercultural skills: we want to render the international dimension of the History programme more visible to our students and want to teach our students how to deal with cultural differences in as many course units as possible. We also intend to offer a coherent offer of English-taught course units.
- Career prospects: strengthening our ties with academic and non-academic partners should allow us to strike a proper balance between the academic study programme that we are, and the preparation for the manifold career prospects we want to offer our students.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 01/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.