MMU joins Arts & Humanities elite

POSTGRADUATE students in arts and humanities are in line for new grants after MMU won funding from a prestigious research council.

The University was awarded the grants - worth around £10,000 a piece - by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

MMU is one of only four ‘new’ universities to gain the funding for excellence in postgraduate studies in Arts and Humanities, the bulk of which goes to the likes of Oxford and Cambridge.

MMU was selected for a new ‘Block Grant Partnership’ and attracted funding for 35 places on Masters and Doctoral degree programmes.

Overall, the university will receive 23 Professional Preparation Masters Awards, six Research Preparation Masters Awards and six Doctoral Awards.

The grants cover the following subjects:

– Librarianship, Archives, Record Management and Information Science
– Communications, Graphics & Photography
– Creative Writing
– Cultural Studies
– Dance. Drama and Performing Arts
– English Language and Literature
– Fine Art
– Applied Art and Crafts
– History of Art, Architecture and Design
– Design
– Film Studies and Television Studies

The BGP scheme will account for about 1,100 awards in the UK per year and were graded by peer review.

“Only research organisations which have shown strong evidence of excellent strategic planning for, and delivery of, high-quality postgraduate research and training have received BGPs,” said the AHRC.

MMU has around 700 postgraduate students in arts and humanities

“We got 100% of what we asked for in English and in Library and Information Studies and about 75% of what we asked for in the other subject areas,” said Professor Jim Aulich, Postgraduate Research Degrees Coordinator for the Faculty of Art & Design

Graduate options

The AHRC added: “We are particularly pleased to make these awards at a time when there is uncertainty for graduates in the employment market.”

Find out more about Arts and Humanities postgraduate courses.