MA in Art History

Am I ready for the MA?

Entry requirements

The standard entry qualification for the MA programme is an honours degree. You will find further advice on the general skills that are needed for the MA programme from the MA in Humanities website.

You should note that you are unlikely to do yourself justice in the MA in Art History if you do not have a first degree in Art History (or a degree with a significant element of art history in it). If you have not recently completed a degree in Art History, you should consider whether you meet the following requirements.

Before embarking on postgraduate study of art history, you should:

• be able to analyse (rather than simply describe) works of art in different media (painting, sculpture, architecture, etc.);
• have a broad knowledge of the history of Western art between the Renaissance and the present;
• be aware of recent developments in art history (the challenge to the Western canon, the impact of feminism, etc.);
• be able to offer an evaluation of the role and significance of art institutions and the mass media in the production and reception of art today.

You should also note that the emphasis of this MA is on the methodologies of art history; it will not teach you about the history of art, understood as a succession of artists, art works, styles and movements. You will not succeed in the MA if you are not prepared to study a range of approaches rigorously and in depth via guided, but to an extent independent, reading.

Read our Study Skills Pack

You can download the A840 Study Skills Pack [159 KB, PDF]. This covers topics such as What does postgraduate study mean for me, in real and practical terms? How do I find documents and sources relevant to my research? How can I develop my skills of critical reading and effective note-taking? Writing skills for postgraduate students; Presentation: quoting, referencing and bibliographies; Working with your tutor and Working with feedback.

If you are at all uncertain as to whether your previous studies in art history are adequate preparation for the MA, you should on no account enrol for the course without taking our self-assessment test to assess your level of preparedness.

Some advice

If, having done the test, you are confident that you meet the requirements, you are advised to prepare for the course by following the advice given under ‘How can I prepare?’.

However, if you are uncertain that you meet the requirements but are still keen to do the MA, the sensible approach is to prepare yourself by taking one or two undergraduate-level courses in art history. If you complete those successfully, you will have proved your ability to work in the subject and have given yourself a good intellectual foundation for your MA studies. Suitable undergraduate-level courses include A226 Exploring Art and Visual Culture, AA318 Art of the Twentieth Century, or AA315 Renaissance Art Reconsidered.