Modern Middle Eastern Studies (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

MSc
The MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies is a twelve-month, taught master's course, offered jointly by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA).

The MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies offers research training for students already familiar with the Middle East region and its languages.

The course provides a common foundation in the methods and disciplines relevant to the study of the Middle East. It provides intensive training in several fields of knowledge based on a combination of lectures, tutorials and essay writing. This will allow you to develop research and writing skills with training in appropriate theoretical and methodological approaches, through supervision of a dissertation on a subject of your choice. The MSc teaches both qualitative and quantitative methodologies through assessed work.

To complement your studies, the Middle East Centre (MEC) serves as both the University's Middle East Studies centre and as a Centre of St Antony’s College. It hosts a weekly seminar, and an annual lecture - The George Antonius Annual Lecture in trinity (summer) term.

MPhil
The MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies is a two-year taught course offering intensive Middle Eastern language training, research methods, and thematic study of the region across social sciences and humanities.

The MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies accepts students who are complete beginners in a Middle Eastern language (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Turkish). The course also accommodates students in Turkish and Arabic at an advanced level, as well as Arabic at an intermediate level. If you already have research-level proficiency in one of these languages you will be required to take a different language.

For the full description, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course pages via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas