Victorian Studies MA
1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Social changes, technological developments, and literary experimentation make the Victorian period a source of ongoing fascination. On the Victorian Studies MA, you’ll explore a variety of perspectives on life, art and literature during this most exciting of times.
Course information
UK fee £10,950
International fee £19,700
Taught by English
Course director
Dr Claire Brock
cb178@le.ac.uk
Course enquiries
ArtsPGT@le.ac.uk
Course description
Course description
Our MA in Victorian Studies provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Victorian period. Leicester is home to the internationally renowned Centre for Victorian Studies and you’ll benefit from our expertise as the longest established Victorian Studies Centre in the UK.
Founded in 1966, our Centre has over half-a-century's tradition of innovation and excellence, with research strengths in Victorian science and medicine, life-writing, Dickens, and the Brontës, among others. Our students also benefit from a range of extracurricular activities from reading groups and public seminars to our annual Victorian Studies Lecture. Our welcoming, internationally diverse postgraduate community will provide a supportive and stimulating environment for your studies.
This course offers you an ideal platform to delve into the areas of Victorian life that interest you the most, offering you greater depth and insight than previous studies. You will also be exposed both to canonical works and hidden gems of the time, giving you an excellent grounding in this engaging period of history.
Because you study the Victorian Perspectives module in your first semester, you will be fully equipped with an understanding of the impact of social, cultural, and historical factors in exploring texts and contexts. This knowledge will be invaluable throughout the rest of your MA in all core and option modules.
The option modules available to you reflect the huge range of our academics' research interests - from nineteenth-century literature to social history and the history of science and medicine. You are bound to uncover unique aspects of Victorian life whilst doing this MA.
The Centre for Victorian Studies draws on a number of research areas, including History of Art and Film, History, English Local History, Urban History, English, and the History of Science and Medicine. These offer a broad and exciting range of perspectives on Victorian literature, art and society, and provide a fresh outlook on familiar (or not so familiar) works.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
2:1 honours degree in a related area (or equivalent).
You will be asked to provide a personal statement as part of your application, explaining why you have chosen this course.
Where appropriate, you may be asked to submit an essay as part of our admissions process. We will contact you if this is the case.
English Language Requirements
IELTS 6.5 or equivalent. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. If you do not yet meet our requirements, our English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) offers a range of courses to help you to improve your English to the necessary standard.
International Qualifications
Find your country in this list to check equivalent qualifications, scholarships and additional requirements.
Countries listFees and funding
Fees and funding
UK Students
Starting in September 2025
- MA: £10,950
If you are resident outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland, you will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Did you know you can apply for a Government Postgraduate Loan? Find out if you’re eligible.
Waddington Scholarship
The Waddington Scholarship is an award of £1,000, awarded on the basis of academic merit. It is open to full-time and part-time students from anywhere in the world.
International Students
Starting in September 2025
- MA: £19,700
You will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
If you are an EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme, you may qualify for the UK fee (subject to criteria).
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Waddington Scholarship
The Waddington Scholarship is an award of £1,000, awarded on the basis of academic merit. It is open to full-time and part-time students from anywhere in the world.
Careers and employability
Careers and employability
A Masters degree in Victorian Studies is an excellent preparation for a wide range of careers. As well as deepening your knowledge in your chosen areas, you will also develop transferable skills, such as research, analysis, and presentation skills.
Completing an MA can be the first step in an academic career in Higher or Further Education, whilst also enhancing your career options outside the field of academia.
One popular career choice is teaching English, either in the UK (having completed a PGCE) or abroad (with a TEFL or TESOL qualification). Many of our students go on to careers as journalists on local, national and specialist newspapers and magazines. The fields of publishing, advertising, arts administration, PR, television, the film industry and other media-related jobs are also ideal destinations for English Studies graduates.
Previous graduates have gone on to careers as:
- academics
- archivists
- civil servants
- librarians
- parliamentary researchers
- social workers
- IT consultants
- accountants
- solicitors or barristers after completing a Law conversion course
Our Career Development Service is here to support you, with advice on interviews, CVs, work experience, volunteering and more. From Freshers’ Week to Graduation and beyond, they are here to help you reach your professional goals.
Course structure
Modules
Modules
Core modules:
- Research Methods and Writing Skills
- Victorian Perspectives
- Victorian Literature and Culture
- Dissertation
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Option modules
Option modules
Choose one option module from:
Then choose two option modules from:
- Charles Dickens: A Writer in Progress
- Women in Literature, Culture, and Society, 1850-1900
- The Brontës
- Evolution and Entropy: Changing Representations of the Sciences in Victorian Literature
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Why Leicester?
The Centre for Victorian Studies is a thriving and inclusive community. We encourage and support student-led social groups, conferences, and other events.
You can attend our annual spring seminar series, and our annual autumn lecture, where you can hear from cutting-edge academics working on nineteenth-century topics.
You will be taught by academics with a wide range of research specialisms including Victorian literature, gender-studies, science, medicine, urban-studies, and visual culture.
Our teaching methods mean you will be taught in small seminar groups, of 8-10, an ideal size for detailed discussion and debate.
Teaching and learning
During the course you will be taught through a range of methods, including:
- seminars
- workshops
- individual supervisions
- presentations
- directed and self-directed study, writing, and research time.
In seminars, a small group of students (usually between 3 and 13 participants) is led in a discussion of texts and issues by a tutor. For each seminar you will read the set texts and prepare other work, which may include a presentation. For workshops on the 'Research Methods' core module, you will be taught together with students from other MAs in English, working together on problem-solving, research, and presentation skills.
Assessment on a module usually consists of one or two pieces of written work. Common types include essays in response to a choice from set questions, editorial exercises, and critical reviews of recent work in a field. Some modules may feature oral presentations.
For your dissertation, you will have one-on-one supervision from a member of staff with an interest in your chosen topic. The diverse research interests of staff means that we can offer an impressive breadth of expertise for dissertation supervision.
Part-time students
Part-time students take the core modules in their first year and the optional modules in their second year.
In addition to the teaching for modules, we organise a number of extra-curricular research seminars, at which academics and researchers from around the country present their latest work. Research seminars are an excellent way to hear about new, unpublished ideas and to develop your own understanding of a field. As well as a long-established Victorian seminar series, events are also run for the Medieval, Early Modern (Renaissance), and Modern periods, and for Linguistics. There is also a Victorian Studies Centre Annual Lecture, usually held in November. Previous speakers have included: Matthew Sweet; Kathryn Hughes and Jenny Uglow.
Key dates
September 2025 start
- Application deadline: 8 September 2025 (Please note if you require a visa to study you will be required to submit your course application by 25 July 2025)
- Deposit payment deadline: 8 August 2025
- CAS request deadline: 5 September 2025
- 70% tuition payment deadline: 5 September 2025
Apply now
| Course | Qualification | Duration | Start Dates | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course Victorian Studies | Qualification MA | Duration 1 year full-time | Start Dates September each year | Availability Apply Now |
| Course Victorian Studies | Qualification MA | Duration 2 years part-time | Start Dates September each year | Availability Apply Now |
My love for 19th-century literature blossomed in my undergraduate studies. Leicester's Victorian Studies MA offered the perfect opportunity to specialise in this area.