Develop critical thinking around a wide range of societal issues and concerns
Engage with leading, socially-engaged academics
World Top 100 QS World University Subject Rankings 2025 (Arts & Humanities)
Develop advanced social science research skills and prepare to make a substantial contribution to organisations, policy makers and academic debates. Supported by our expert researchers, you’ll gain in-depth knowledge and practical experience of essential qualitative and quantitative research methods for social sciences, alongside core skills in research design, methodology and critical analysis.
The MSc in Social Research at Lancaster University is ideal for those preparing for doctoral study or seeking research expertise for careers in policy, public service, think tanks, or the voluntary sector.
Why Lancaster?
Learn from leading academic experts whose cutting-edge research is shaping the social sciences in the UK and globally
Combine hands-on practical research design and project work with a real-world focus
Join a vibrant and supportive research environment with access to world-class resources, and research centres
Benefit from individual mentorship from one of our renowned academics and direct contact with our team of leading researchers
Boost your career with demonstrable expertise in social science research
Become PhD-ready on a programme that has supported students funded by the ESRC and the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP)
Expert-led, research-informed teaching
At Lancaster, you’ll join a vibrant intellectual environment within the School of Social Sciences. Renowned for high-quality teaching and research, we are consistently in the world top 100 for Sociology (QS World Subject Rankings).
By joining the MSc in Social Research, you become a part of our multi-disciplinary research community and can benefit from our staff’s experience of taking core research skills into exciting new directions.
Impactful and relevant
We know that strong research depends upon not only personal curiosity and dedication, but also strong networks that support inspiring discussions, constructive feedback, energising collaborations, and impactful results. We engage with research communities, public discussions and contribute to social change. Our staff and students regularly contribute to important public discussions through blogs, lectures, media appearances, podcasts and social media.
On this programme, you will combine deep intellectual engagement with hands-on practice and build your confidence and capacity to carry out methodologically robust social research that makes a difference.
Advanced training
This programme emphasises a scientific and systematic approach to social research. You’ll acquire the critical and analytical tools to engage with pressing social issues and the confidence to design and carry out theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous research. You will:
Train in research design, qualitative methods, and critical quantitative methods
Develop core skills in data analysis, presentation, and research communication
Learn to frame research questions, evaluate evidence, and make informed methodological decisions
Undertake collaborative research
These skills are embedded through hands-on learning and reflexive practice, supported by authentic assessments designed to build the confidence, capacity and competencies to equip you for a future career in social research.
Tailor your research
With expert supervision and access to world-class resources, you’ll be able to shape your learning around your own interests helping you connect methodological training to the issues that matter to you and the organisations and communities you engage with.
An optional module will help you explore how advanced methodological questions intersect with key areas of social concern—such as environment and sustainability, crime and deviance, criminal justice, gender and ethnicity, technology, data, and AI. Your choice of option allows you to engage more deeply with a topic of personal or professional interest and to tailor the direction of your independent research.
Finally, you'll undertake a dissertation: a sustained piece of independent research supported by expert academic supervision. In this piece of work, you will consolidate and apply your learning, engage with emerging debates of specific interest, and develop an original contribution to knowledge in an area that matters to you.
A research community
At Lancaster, you’ll join a vibrant research community with opportunities to take part in coffee mornings, film screenings, public events, seminars, and international conferences hosted by staff and students. These events offer space to exchange ideas, develop new projects, and engage with a diverse range of public groups and organisations.
The MSc in Social Research offers the ideal foundation for your next steps—whether in academic research or a professional role that requires expert skills in social science research to influence social change.
Whether you are already working in a social research role and want to enhance your methodological toolkit, or you are seeking to transition into a research-focused career, the MSc in Social Research provides a robust and recognised foundation for your future.
You’ll develop high-level competencies in analytical and critical thinking, applied and reflexive research practice and data analysis. Your specialist skills, when combined with transferable skills in communication, project management and independent problem-solving, will make you well-placed to impress prospective employers across a wide range of industries.
Our graduates go on to a variety of different careers and some continue to doctoral study. They have advanced careers in the social research centre and public policy roles within local and national government, including the Home Office, the Department for Education and Public Health England.
Others have secured positions in research consultancies, NGOs, charities and think tanks, where the ability to design and carry out rigorous research is key. Other career routes include criminal justice agencies and education.
The programme is ideal preparation for careers in:
Research and evaluation roles in public sector organisations and government departments
Policy analysis and development
Market and social research consultancy
NGOs, charities, and advocacy organisations
Higher education and doctoral research
For those interested in further study, the MSc is fully recognised by the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) and meets the core training requirements for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded PhD studentships. Many of our students progress to doctoral programmes in sociology, criminology, education and related fields, and continue their research at Lancaster and other leading institutions.
Careers and employability support
Our degrees open up an extremely wide array of career pathways in businesses and organisations, large and small, in the UK and overseas. Our specialist Employability team is ready to support you, whether you are starting out your career after leaving higher education or returning to university to open up new career options.
We provide individual employability advice, application support, career events, development opportunities and resources to help you plan and achieve your career goals. We also run a paid internship scheme specifically for arts, humanities and social sciences students.
The Lancaster Award is available to all postgraduate taught students and recognises work experience, volunteering and personal development alongside your studies. Developed with employers, it helps you reflect on key skills, boost your CV and articulate your strengths with confidence.
Whether you have a clear idea of your potential career path or need some help considering the options, our friendly team is on hand.
Find out more about Lancaster’s careers events, extensive resources and personal support for Careers and Employability
Entry requirements
Academic requirements
2:2 Hons degree (UK or equivalent) in a relevant social science.
English Language Requirements
We require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test.
If you are thinking of applying to Lancaster and you would like to ask us a question, complete our enquiry form and one of the team will get back to you.
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master's pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master's degrees. Visit INTO Lancaster University for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.
Course structure
We continually review and enhance our curriculum to ensure we are delivering the best possible learning experience, and to make sure that the subject knowledge and transferable skills you develop will prepare you for your future. The University will make every reasonable effort to offer programmes and modules as advertised. In some cases, changes may be necessary and may result in new modules or some modules and combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
Core
core modules accordion
In this module, you’ll gain an accessible and critical introduction to using numeric evidence in social research.
You will study the basics of quantitative research design, including:
How to work with large-scale datasets
Design surveys
Understanding population level assumptions
Interpret statistical outputs
In this module, you will understand key statistical techniques and ask thoughtful questions about the power and politics of data. The module emphasises a critical, reflexive approach that recognises that data is never neutral and that all research involves choices. You’ll also learn to check if data is fair, by looking at how it was collected and whether it is truly represents people.
You don’t need a strong background in maths to take this module. We’ll help you understand key statistical techniques and ask thoughtful questions about the power and politics of data. You’ll gain practical and critical skills essential for any well-rounded researcher.
This module develops the practical and critical skills required to analyse social research data. You will use the social research data to communicate findings effectively to a range of audiences.
You’ll learn how to interpret and combine both qualitative and quantitative data, using real-world examples to explore clear ways of presenting research, while considering ethics and aiming for impact.
The module will cover areas such as:
Data visualisation
Writing for academic and non-academic audiences
Reports
Presentations
Policy briefings
Through hands-on workshops and reflective exercises, you’ll gain experience using digital tools to manage data and communicate complex findings in clear, engaging ways.
By the end of the module, you’ll have developed the analytical and presentational skills essential for professional research practice across academic, public, and third-sector contexts.
This module introduces you to the foundations of designing effective and meaningful social research. You’ll explore how different theoretical approaches shape research questions, methods, interpretations and develop a critical understanding of the relationship between theory and method in practice.
In this module, you will examine a range of research philosophies, from positivism to interpretivism and more. You will consider how research philosophies influence the ways we understand and study the social world. You’ll also investigate key ethical issues, reflecting on the responsibilities and dilemmas that researchers face when working with people, communities and data.
You will engage in important debates about disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, encouraging you to consider the value and challenges of working across boundaries. This module equips you with the tools to think critically about research design, enabling you to make informed and reflective decisions in your own research practice.
This practical module gives you the tools to design and carry out qualitative research.
You will investigate complex social questions by applying a range of research methods, such as:
Interviews
Ethnography
Focus groups
Visual research
Alongside practical skills, you’ll explore how different methods relate to theoretical and ethical considerations. The module encourages critical thinking about what counts as data, how to build rapport with participants and how to navigate issues like positionality and representation.
You’ll also gain strategies for analysing qualitative data, including coding and thematic analysis.
By the end of the module, you’ll be able to confidently plan a qualitative research project and reflect critically on the strengths and limitations of different approaches.
This module helps you plan and develop your research ideas into a practical project. You’ll learn how to choose the right research methods, taking into account both ethical and practical considerations. This is a hands-on module where you’ll engage with real-world examples and receive feedback on your own project ideas.When planning research ideas, you will consider:
Timelines
Access
Funding
Challenges of doing research in complex settings
By the end of the module, you’ll have a solid foundation for conducting high-quality, ethically responsible research that reflects your own interests and ambitions. It’s excellent preparation for your dissertation and for working in research environments beyond university.
In this module, you’ll design and carry out an independent project on a topic of your choice.Guided by a supervisor, you will complete your independent project to include:
Meaningful research questions
Choosing appropriate methods
Engage in relevant literature
Analyse your findings
You’ll draw on the theoretical methodical and practical skills developed throughout the programme to produce original work that reflects your intellectual interests and research strengths.This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of a project that inspires you and make a contribution to your chosen field. The dissertation can also be a springboard to further study or research-based careers.
Optional
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This module provides an overview of the key theoretical debates and empirical issues that have developed with respect to the topic of violence within criminology. It facilitates research-led debate and discussion on prevention and response to violence in national and international realms and thinks critically about policy and practice in this area.
What is violence? How is it defined, and by whom? Should there be a hierarchy of what we consider violence, or is violence enacted as part of a continuum? You will engage with these complex questions in relation to the macro and meso, from state and corporate violence to the infliction and survival of interpersonal abuses.
Subjects covered may include:
State violence
Structural violence
War crimes and crimes against humanity
Torture
Border related violence
Gendered violence
Interpersonal violence
Zemiology (the study of social harm)
Gain a strong understanding of contemporary methodological issues by examining various critical methods through practical techniques and case studies related to media analysis.
You will explore different research practices, including:
Textual and discourse analysis
Visual analysis
Ethnography
Participatory approaches
You will focus on how who we are, how we differ and the power we hold shape our experiences in today’s hyper-complex media and cultural environment. You will draw on recent examples of media and cultural research at Lancaster University and examine their theoretical and practical implications.
By the end of this module, you will have a good understanding of the key elements in planning and carrying out independent research projects.
What ethical and political questions can we ask about ‘smart’ digital infrastructures that are typically overlooked by engineers and tech corporations? How can we approach the social connections forged by ‘smart’ digital infrastructures?
In this module, you will consider the forms of power and control underpinning algorithmic cultures and data. You will explore the progression of technology and how it has made the relationship between the digital and non-digital more complex.
You will consider how technology doesn’t always work as planned, whether it affects people differently or leads to unexpected consequences, such as:
The messiness of datafication
Algorithmic culture tied up with affective contagion
Unpredictable ecosystems
Electronic waste straddling the planet
Although keyword searches are a common gateway to analysing digitised and digital collections, many new, innovative approaches are being developed that enable humanities researchers to ask questions of their sources.
In this module, you will learn basic methods for analysing text, images, and other types of data in a variety of computational environments, from common desktop- or browser-based software to Jupyter notebooks or RStudio. With origins in linguistics, statistics, computer science, geography and more, these methods have been adapted and reimagined for scholarship in history, literature, and other humanities disciplines. As you refine your analytical skills, you will explore how these methods move between disciplines, the role of the humanities in methodological innovation, and how the emergence of AI is changing this methodological landscape.
Ethnography is both a way to share real human experiences and a method for studying them, which makes it a powerful form of research.
In this module, you will explore how ethnography is used to understand the experiences of both criminal justice practitioners and those impacted by the justice system. These studies look at everyday life in areas like drug cultures, the sex trade, human smuggling networks, policing, prison life and more. The study of ethnography can help us see how justice and criminalisation can be similar or different across different countries and cultures.
You will critically examine questions such as:
How do ethnographers understand and engage with the ethics and politics surrounding "criminality" or "criminal justice work"?
How does ethnography make otherwise neglected or marginalised justice cultures and criminological contexts accessible and intelligible?
What distinctive advantages and disadvantages does ethnography as method provide scholars of criminology?
The results from digital methods will often be very different from the evidence humanities researchers collected and synthesised before digital interventions began to change our working practices. How do we work with big data? What is the relationship between quantitative and qualitative results? How do we combine more traditional forms of close with the types of distant reading often produced by digital methods?
This module prepares you to select appropriate methods for your sources, frame research questions that are answerable with digital methods, and distil results into significant claims. You will explore claim-making across different disciplines and how scholars make successful arguments at the intersection of traditional humanities disciplines and DH. You will thus develop skills essential to conducting larger studies, including developing a dissertation proposal.
Humanities researchers interact with sources in ways that were unimaginable a generation ago – photographing archival documents, searching full-text collections online, and automatically transcribing text from document images. But what ideas, methods, standards, and tools enable these tasks?
This module prepares you to access, create, curate, structure, enrich, store, and share historical materials such as books, newspapers, official publications, letters, maps and photographs – exploring opportunities and challenges when these are undertaken by individuals compared to organisations.
Along the way, you will review the history of digitisation and discuss key debates around the politics, economics, and cultures of digitisation around the world. This in-depth exploration of how and why sources are converted into machine-readable collections prepares you to make critically informed decisions about your own research and in future professional engagements with digital collections.
In this module, you will develop your own feminist practice with a creative project that could take many shapes, from an activist campaign to artwork. You will reflect on the ethical underpinnings of this work, and on its contribution to wider communities.
You will engage in your own practices of feminist world-building, informed by intersectional feminist ideas of reflexivity, responsibility and situated knowledge.
You will explore a variety of themes, such as:
Power – Who makes knowledge and for whom?
Political – How can we serve different communities through our work?
Knowledge – How is knowledge always shaped by history and social context?
This module engages with history and contemporary developments in intersectional feminist thought. It focuses on feminist research and knowledge, highlighting the importance of cross-cultural work in Women’s and Gender Studies and the sensitivity to questions of difference and diversity.
You will explore different approaches, including:
Intersectional
Transnational
Interdisciplinary
You will engage with a diverse range of case studies and material to explore ways in which Women’s and Gender Studies has critically engaged with issues of equality and justice globally. You will participate in lively, critical debates about important contemporary issues, considering how theoretical perspectives can help to shed light on the world around us.
The media industries employ millions of people around the globe. This module examines key historical and theoretical foundations that shape a critical understanding of the media and cultural industries.
You will analyse major advancements in media production and how they have been influenced by regulation and cultural policy.
The module explores inequalities within the cultural industries, including:
Issues of diversity
The realities of creative work
The cultural and economic dimensions of the industries
By examining these aspects, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the media and cultural sectors. The module encourages critical thinking and engagement with contemporary issues, helping you develop a deeper understanding of how media, culture and society interact.
In this module, you will examine the methodological and ethical considerations involved in researching environmental issues through a social and cultural lens.
You will address ecological challenges through ideas and methods, such as:
Research design
Ethical frameworks
The role of social sciences in interdisciplinary environmental research
Qualitative approaches
Reflexive practices
Culturally grounded methods
Case studies
You’ll explore decolonising methodologies and show how power shapes who gets heard and whose knowledge counts. You will learn to evaluate, select and apply appropriate methods in your own work, leading to the production of a project presentation.
Fees and funding
Location
Full Time (per year)
Part Time (per year)
Home
£12,190
£6,095
International
£25,320
£12,660
Additional fees and funding information accordion
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2025, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
Application fees for 2025
For most taught postgraduate programmes starting in 2025 you must pay a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.
Application fees for 2026
There is no application fee if you are applying for postgraduate study starting in 2026.
Paying a deposit
For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, tuition fees are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status and course. You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.
Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.
The information on this site relates primarily to the stated entry year and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our Charter and student policies.
