Postgraduate FAQ's

For a full time postgraduate course we recommend around 20-25 hours of independent study a week. The majority of our courses have around 10-12 hours of formal teaching time which you will spend in lectures and seminars.

For a part time postgraduate course your contact hours would usually be 5-6 a week across 2-3 days and we would recommend around 10-12 hours of independent study a week.

Those undertaking language modules may have additional contact hours.

You will be assessed by unseen written examinations, essays, coursework and a dissertation.

If you are looking to study one of our traditional one year programmes, you can choose to study part-time over 2 years. Please note that part-time study is not available to students who require a Tier 4 visa to study. 

If you are interested in the two-year International Masters (IMESS), it is not possible to study part-time.

Your timetable will be in part determined by the modules you choose as your optionals. Classes can be timetabled Monday-Friday between 9am-6pm. We cannot give timetables in advance of enrolment unfortunately. 

There may also be additional meetings/events/seminars that you will want/need to attend at certain times during the week.

Depending on the programme of your choice, the structure will comprise of core modules (compulsory), optional modules and a dissertation across one or two years. The balance of compulsory and optional modules will vary from programme to programme.

A full structure for each programme can be viewed on our Study pages.

You are very welcome to visit the school. You can book an appointment with one of our staff in the Admissions office by emailing maadmissions@ssees.ucl.ac.uk.

This will depend on your degree and its structure. Many of our programmes allow for you to take a small number of credits from outside the school, although we encourage students to select from the varied options available at SSEES under our Module Listings.  If you wish to take modules outside SSEES, you will have to contact the relevant outside department (e.g. Anthropology, Geography etc) during registration week in order to sign up for a module in that department. Each department has their own procedure for admitting students to their modules. You will also need to obtain permission from your Programme Coordinator.

If you do choose to sign up for modules outside SSEES, it is your responsibility to check that your outside modules do not involve timetable clashes with your modules in SSEES. Please be aware that modules across the College fill up rapidly, so it is a good idea to choose your modules as soon as possible in registration week.

At SSEES we offer a broad range of languages that students can choose from:

• Bulgarian
• Czech
• Finnish
• Hungarian
• Polish
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian/Croatian
• Slovak
• Slovene

More information can be found on our Languages page.

UK and other EU students

We are unable to offer student accommodation to graduate students with UK/EU fee status. There is a range of other private accommodation options and you may wish to use the University of London Housing Services.

International students

Single international first-year graduate students can apply for accommodation if they are studying a full-time Master's programme or an MPhil/PhD.

More information on eligibility criteria can be found on the Accommodation page.

Yes. Reading lists will be made available before the start of your course on the Current Students page.

Yes, you can defer your place for the next year, but please do so as soon as possible. To defer, please email the SSEES Admissions Office: maadmissions@ssees.ucl.ac.uk and be sure to include your student number.