Master of Arts in History The University of British Columbia (UBC)

Program Overview

Historians study the past to better understand the present. They analyze the forces and influences that have affected human experiences and shaped different societies over time. For more than 80 years, our graduate program has promoted this analysis from social, cultural, political, and intellectual perspectives in diverse contexts throughout the world. Our graduate students have done research in such diverse locations as the Philippines, China, Japan, India, Russia, Germany, Britain, Mexico, Cuba, the United States and Canada and in fields spanning Aboriginal History, Gender History, History of Science, International Relations, and Migration History, among others.

What sets the UBC program apart?

The Department comprises over 30 full-time faculty members and over sixty graduate students who work collaboratively in vibrant research clusters covering all the continents and organized thematically around themes such as Culture/Power/History; Environmental History; First Nations, Aboriginal, and Indigenous History; History of Children and Youth; History of Science, Technology, and Medicine; and International Relations. It is the center of a community of history scholars at UBC that also includes faculty members and student colleagues from other departments and research institutes across the University who have numerous occasions to meet, especially during colloquia and workshops. Faculty and graduate students have access to library resources which are among the best in North America. The UBC Library is the second largest research library in Canada, with especially strong collections in the fields of East Asia, Canada, Britain and Central and Eastern Europe.

Career Options

Our M.A. and Ph.D. programs in History are designed to prepare students for employment in the public and private sectors, or to pursue further studies at the doctoral or postdoctoral levels. Recent graduate students have become college and university faculty, lawyers, public policy analysts, diplomats, museum curators, librarians, archivists, journalists, school teachers, historical researchers and consultants, as well as entrepreneurs. Those looking to pursue a Ph.D. in history have gone on to studies at Harvard, NYU, Michigan, Minnesota, and Cambridge, among others, while some continued on in our own Ph.D. program.

Entry requirements for this course

Contact The University of British Columbia (UBC) to find course entry requirements.

View foundation and pathway programmes to help you meet academic and language entry requirements.