Master of Arts in History

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.

While the Bachelor’s programme provides broad foundational training, the Master’s programme focuses on developing in‑depth, discipline-specific expertise. Its core component is the Master’s dissertation, a substantial demonstration of your academic abilities. This central role is reflected in its weight within the curriculum: the dissertation accounts for nearly half of the total ECTS credits. You select your dissertation topic yourself, choosing a focus situated in a particular period (e.g. the Middle Ages), a specific theme (e.g. urban history), or a particular region (e.g. African history). Your elective course units support this choice and align with it chronologically, thematically, or regionally. The electives Public History and Archival Science also offer the opportunity to complete 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.

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.