Sociology MA

Year of entry: 2025

Course length: 12 months Full-time | 24 months Part-time

About the course

Sociology at Manchester is one of the UK's largest and most prestigious departments for the subject, with over 30 academic staff and 60 postgraduate students forming a diverse and rigorous academic community.

The MA course aims to provide those of you who have an interest in sociology the opportunity to extend and deepen your knowledge of the discipline. Our teaching includes all areas of contemporary sociology but we have particular expertise in the fields of socio-cultural change, gender and sexuality, consumption and sustainability, and social networks.

We are consistently highly rated for research and ranked in the top 3 for the overall quality of our research, our research environment and our research power in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). Our research feeds into all of our postgraduate teaching. We revise our fees each academic year. For up-to-date fees information for 2025 entry, please visit our website.

Be part of a Sociology department ranked Top 5 in the UK and Top 30 worldwide

(Times Higher Education Rankings 2024)

Benefit from research-led teaching at one of the UK's Top 3 universities for Sociology research

(Research Excellence Framework 2021)

Our graduates are among the most targeted by top UK employers

(High Fliers 2024)

Compulsory Units

Research Design
Research Strategy and Project Management
Social Theory: Structure, Relations and Interaction (SRI)
MA Dissertation

Optional Units

Qualitative Research Methods
Protest and Progress: Understanding Movements for Social Change
Social Network Analysis: Concepts and Measures
Sociology of Consumption
Science, Sustainability and Society
Theories of Gender and Sexuality

These are examples of units offered in 2023/24 and are subject to change.

See the full list of units and find out more on the full course profile >

Where will your degree take you?

Our Sociology graduates can be found on every continent, working across sectors as diverse as education, NGO management, medicine and healthcare or government services.

Recent Sociology graduates have are employed in positions such as Research Fellow, Lecturer, Consultant, and Project Manager.

Many of our graduates choose to go on to research degrees (PhD), either at Manchester or at another leading university, where they expand the boundaries of our knowledge and pursue careers in research or academia.

Georgia Shaw

Sociology MA

"At Manchester, I’m excited to be taught by lecturers who are at the top of their field and have the opportunity to meet classmates who are just as passionate about the sociological world as I am. The module choices are impressive and there’s the chance for individual study to hone my knowledge on topics that I think are worth exploring."