MA Archival Practice

The MA programme is designed and taught in partnership with archival professionals, created to give you practical experience of the archive, from manuscripts to film, sound and digital archives. Co-taught with The Box, Plymouth's new heritage centre, and with links to local archives and work-based learning, you also learn about current and practical management issues, the varied needs of users and how to communicate through outreach and marketing.

Careers with this subject

The MA Archival Practice is designed to prepare you for a range of archive and related jobs, including posts with local government, national archives, museums, universities, businesses and charities.

Key features

• Taught in partnership with The Box, Plymouth's new heritage centre, with archival professionals as core and optional module teachers and in the placement module.
• Work-based learning is a key feature of the MA.
• Digital skills are embedded in all modules.
• You develop links with local record offices and other archives which will be important for future employment in the archive and heritage sector.
• The core and optional modules meet practical and current needs (fund-raising, employment law, archival and digital skills) for a range of archive and related jobs.
• Designed to be an accredited, professional qualification aligned to the Archives and Records Association’s new competencies in core modules. Provisional accreditation for the programme is being sought.

You can study MA Archival Practice full time over one year, or part time over two years. Your studies will consist of six modules, of which five are core modules: The Management of Archives; Audiences and Users in Archives; Placement; Business of Archives; Dissertation You’ll supplement these with an optional module where you select the areas of archival practice that you interest you from a range of options including Palaeography; Display and Interpretation; Sound and Vision.