This programme will provide you with the opportunity to develop sophistication in research design and quantitative and qualitative research while maintaining a focus in a social scientific discipline. You will acquire skills of ‘practical scholarship’ and ability to design, conduct, analyse and report a social research project. This programme draws on the range of expertise available within the Department, as well as related academic departments, in order to provide an advanced training in social research methodologies, combined with a focus on one of a number of special areas in the social science. The syllabus for the MSc goes some way beyond the ESRC's requirements for the first year of a 1+3 PhD programme, and it is designed as training for doctoral research and as a pre-professional training for careers in social research in the public and private sectors. This programme has entered PhD programmes, or is working in social research in universities or national and local government.