I completed a BSc in Computer Science in 2001 and went to work for an IT company. Since then I've become interested in studying history and am now considering doing a part-time MA at Manchester.

I have 2 questions:

Will the fact that my first degree was in a technical discipline prevent me from being accepted on to a History Phd course? (assuming I complete the MA).

Does anyone have any experience of doing an MA part-time and balancing this with a job? If so, how did you find it and how many hours a week do you think I'd need to put in

I should have mentioned, the course is 1-day per week, but i'm wondering about the amount of work required outside the 'classroom'.

I did a part-time taught history Masters course a few years ago focused around weekly afternoon taught seminars. Extra work required included preparatory reading (we had a reading list to work through each week), and writing essays and of course a lengthy dissertation. Expect to put in at least 5 hours extra on average a week. Re the PhD you'd probably be considered for application, and a computing degree can be useful to demonstrate other useful skills like databases. I'm doing a part-time history PhD now and my first degree was a BSc in Computer Science. But I studied a part-time history/classical studies degree with the OU before starting the Masters course. So I was a bit different and already had the history BA. Good luck!

BilboBaggins,

Thanks for your reply. I applied and was accepted on a part-time course at Manchester, looking forward to starting in 6 weeks.

thanks again for the advice.

Excellent news morpheus. Good luck with the Masters course. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did mine.

Hi Morpheus, can you shed some light on what the reference requirements were for your acceptance to the MA History program?
Considering you did a science Bachelor's and went to work for some time, who did you go to for reference letters/were any required in the application process?

meowfood,

the university ask for 2 references, preferably academic ones. I asked 2 lecturers and both said they would, unfortunately only 1 actually obliged (and that took 6 weeks!). The 2nd lecturer was not available when i tried to chase him up so i asked the Admissions department if they would accept a reference from my boss. They said yes and he submitted it within a few days.

My advice is:

* give your lecturers plenty of time to complete the references, especially if you're applying in summer when people are not always around
* don't rule out using a non-academic reference, though if you do, provide the referee with the guidelines (in the case of manchester it's the Referee Report Form) so they can tailor your reference for Academia
* send thank-you notes!