Heritage Management degree - MA

Program Overview

The MA Heritage Management program at Bath Spa University equips students with expertise in various heritage fields through placements, research projects, and industry partnerships. The program emphasizes critical thinking about heritage's social, political, and economic contexts and provides opportunities to apply knowledge through practical collaborations with heritage organizations and experts.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The MA Heritage Management program at Bath Spa University is a dynamic course that combines placements and projects with robust conceptual thinking. It is designed to help students develop expertise in areas of heritage that most interest them. The program is taught by leading heritage practitioners and offers opportunities to work in partnership with major heritage organizations, specialists, and researchers. It provides opportunities to apply their understanding through a range of research and practice-based projects with regional, national, and international partners.

Outline:

Trimester Two:

• Independent research project: Students plan and undertake an independent research project, allowing them to ask key questions about an aspect of current practice that inspires or concerns them.
• Placement: Students complete a 25-day placement with one of the program's many partners in the heritage sector.

Trimester Three:

• Culmination of studies: Students complete an extended piece of research through a dissertation, design and deliver a new project in collaboration with a heritage site, museum, archive, or community group, or work with artists, teachers, health professionals, and developers.

Course Modules:

• Contextualising Heritage: This module explores the changing and contested ideas about the nature of heritage.
• Heritage Management: This module examines the social, political, and economic context in which heritage is defined and managed.
• Placement: This module provides students with practical experience in the heritage sector through a 25-day placement.
• Heritage in Practice: This module focuses on best practices in heritage management.
• Heritage Project: This module allows students to design and deliver a new project in collaboration with a heritage site, museum, archive, or community group.
• Dissertation: This module provides students with the opportunity to complete an extended piece of research.
• The Country House in Context: This module explores the history and significance of country houses in the UK.
• Cultural Landscapes: This module examines the relationship between culture and landscape.

Assessment:

Students are assessed through a mix of project work, formal essays, reports, and a final dissertation or project. For a final project, students could produce a film, develop a website, or prepare learning materials. Alternatively, a more traditional dissertation might lead to further research and a PhD.

Teaching:

The program is delivered through intensive workshops, often run by leaders in their own field in the heritage sector. These are complemented by guest lectures, offering students the chance to become involved in thinking about major heritage issues as they develop, and by sessions which students run for the group, as they develop their own expertise. The program poses challenging questions about thinking and practice, and offers students the opportunity to explore this through a series of practical projects, working in partnership with a wide range of heritage organizations across Bath, the region, and beyond.

Careers:

Careers in the heritage sector include:

• Collections management
• Education and learning
• Exhibition planning and implementation
• Community engagement and outreach
• Marketing and fundraising
• Operational management
• Events planning
• Retail and visitor services
The course includes a range of skills and opportunities aimed at those interested in the voluntary sector, social enterprises, fundraising, and a wide range of administrative and management roles. Some graduates go on to complete postgraduate research, and there is a growing cohort of PhD students working in the field of heritage studies.

Other:

• Study Abroad: The program offers an optional exchange visit with Claremont Graduate University, comprising a week’s study in Bath and California, usually in June and July.
• Field Trips: The program makes extensive use of the extraordinary heritage of the city of Bath and the surrounding area, including two World Heritage Sites: Stonehenge and Avebury, and Bath itself.
• Work Placements, Industry Links, and Internships: The program works closely with organizations such as the Bath Preservation Trust, the Holburne Museum, and Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, and has links and partnerships with bodies throughout the region, nationally, and internationally.
• Digital Skills: Bath Spa University is one of only three Adobe Creative Campuses in the UK, providing all students with access to the full Adobe Creative Suite.
• Facilities and Resources: The program is taught at the Newton Park campus, other venues such as museums, sites, and archives, and the Virtual Learning Environment.
Students can hire out equipment using SISO, Bath Spa University’s free equipment loan service.