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Master in History

Master in History

The 2024-2025 programme is subject to change. It is provided for information purposes only.

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    • Programme title
      Master in History
    • Programme mnemonic
      MA-HHIST
    • Programme organised by
      • Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences
    • Degree type
      Master 120 credits
    • Tier
      2nd cycle
    • Field and branch of study
      Human and social sciences/History, history of art, and archaeology
    • Schedule type
      Daytime
    • Languages of instruction
      french
    • Theoretical programme duration
      2 years
    • Campus
      Solbosch
    • Category / Topic
      Human and social sciences - History, history of art, and archaeology
    • Jury President
      Kenneth BERTRAMS
    • Jury Secretary
      Pieter LAGROU

    Presentation

    Details

    General information

    Degree type

    Master 120 credits

    Theoretical programme duration

    2 years

    Learning language(s)

    french

    Schedule type

    Daytime

    Campus

    Solbosch

    Category(ies) - Topic(s)

    Human and social sciences - History, history of art, and archaeology

    Organising faculty(s) and university(ies)
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    Presentation

    This programme offers extremely broad insights into the many areas of study associated with the history of civilisations (political, religious, social, economic, and cultural history) and focuses on comparative history and the long-term study of societal development as the tools for historical synthesis. Knowledge and tools in these areas are especially helpful when students write their dissertation, which provides them with an opportunity to use the specific techniques of the historian, gained over the three years of the Bachelor programme (critical analysis of sources, epigraphy, palaeography, diplomatics, etc.) on original written and audio-visual sources. By the end of the programme, graduates of the Master in History have acquired a broad general culture, strong analysis skills, and specific skills for classifying and critically analysing information and all kinds of documentation. This makes them ideally suited to positions or tasks in areas such as archiving, libraries, and teaching—and, of course, the culture and information sector.

       

    The focal points of this Master programme are diachronics (the study of long-term development, avoiding a restrictive focus on specific periods), comparative history (particularly European history, but also introductions to the civilisations of Africa, America, Asia, etc.), and the relevance of history in current affairs as well as its place in contemporary issues in today's world. An Erasmus exchange, which students may complete in one of twenty European universities, also contributes to increasing their understanding of history's international scope.

    Access conditions

    Programme

    Three focuses are available for the Master in History:

    • the focus on archives and documents, which covers the theoretical and practical foundations of working as an archivist

    • the focus on history and administrations, which teaches students a practical approach of administrations and examines them from a historical perspective

    • the teaching focus, which prepares students to work as history teachers, developing skills that promote teaching—such as argumentation and knowledge sharing—and that are valued in many other fields

    What's next ?

    Prospects

    Graduates of the Master in History possess—on top of their vast cultural knowledge and summarising skills—a specific ability to critically analyse information and any existing type of document. This is why studies in history can lead to a great variety of careers: teaching; administration; libraries and documentation centres; museums and cultural centres; any event that involves ‘memory’ or references to the past; those, and many more, are opportunities for a historian's skills to shine. In addition, the very object of their study gives graduates a strong sense of humanity and the concrete conditions governing its existence, as well as the evolution of these conditions, allow them—as do their methodological and organisational skills—to work in many professions that place humans at the forefront: NGOs, social work, etc.