Postgraduate studies in history

The History Department at Flinders University is well placed to offer a wide range of graduate studies. In the past five years the 7 staff members have published numerous books and over a hundred articles, chapters of books, conference papers.

Through the bequest to the University of Mr James Millar Main, a former member of the Department (J M Main Bequest), the Library has acquired a uniquely abundant set of resources for the study of Australian History. Flinders is a subscriber to the National Joint Copying Project through which the National University in Canberra and only two or three other Universities systematically microfilm all the material relevant to Australian history held in libraries and other depositories around the world.

This unique resource has made possible the development of a considerable expertise by staff and graduate students who have published on a wide range of topics in Australian and South Australian history. Migration history, religious history, economic and social history, the history of public health and disease have all been prominent in the Department's published work. A considerable emphasis has also been placed on local history as a transferable skill much in demand around the world.

Outside of the specifically Australian fields, the Department has specialised Russian, globalisation, the contact period in the Americas, nineteenth and twentieth century Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Spain and Latin America. It also maintains close connections with and engages in joint projects with Women's Studies, Economic History, Asian Studies and American Studies.

History offers three post-graduate programs (all of which can be undertaken on either a part time or a full time basis):

• Master of Arts by coursework;
• Master of Arts by thesis;
• PhD by thesis.

A coursework program normally consists of two topics and a thesis and is arranged, in content and in unit value, to suit the requirements of individual students. To research a thesis, at either Masters or PhD level, it is first necessary to ascertain that the project is feasible, that the Department can supervise the project and that the resources are available for that particular research.

If you would like to enrol in a post-graduate degree in History you should apply in the first instance to the Department Co-ordinator for Graduate Studies, Dr Carol Fort. You would normally have to have completed an Honours Degree with a grade of 2A or better. It is the policy of the Department to enrol applicants, in the first instance, at the Masters' level and to consider a change to PhD - usually after about one year's study - if the student shows the ability to handle the higher level of research and the project warrants the change. However, applicants with a first class Honours degree can be considered for direct entry into the PhD program.