Master of Arts - Country House Studies by Research

Explore the Master of Arts in Country House Studies in London. Conduct in-depth research with expert supervision. Apply now for your unique journey!

The University of Buckingham’s Master’s programme in Country House Studies offers the opportunity to pursue research at Master’s level in any one of a wide range of country-house-related topics: from explorations of individual houses and their architects and decorators, to studies of their social and political use, and the role of the country house in literature and film. Individual research topics are closely focused; but the approach of the course is to encourage students to investigate the interconnections between the country house’s multiple facets and roles, rather than to examine it in exclusively architectural-historical terms. Recent dissertations have surveyed, for example, the Baroque mural in country house decoration; the use of music in the country houses during the 1650s; and the professionalization of the sale of country estates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The course is awarded solely on the basis of the dissertation (there are no ‘exams’), and the relationship between students and their supervisor is therefore at the heart of the course. The maximum length for the program dissertation recommended by the School of Humanities is 25,000 words (or approximately 75 pages at line-spacing of 1.5), excluding notes and references. Student and supervisor meet regularly on a one-to-one basis to discuss, plan, and review the dissertation as it develops through the year.