SHS MA Programme

Students in the MA program gain a broad acquaintance with historical methodologies and historiography as well as undertake coursework with specific, closely defined topics on a variety of historical periods and through a variety of materials. Students’ coursework is separated into core, elective, and language courses.

A student must complete a total of 64 credits. This includes completion of core, elective, and language courses along with the completion of an MA Dissertation.

Structure of MA Degree

1. Course Curriculum
2. MA Dissertation
3. Grade Policy

1.   Course Curriculum

• 10 Core courses equivalent to 30 credits (3 X 10)
• 7 Electives equivalent to 21 credits (3 X 7)
• 4 Seminar courses equivalent to 4 credits (1 X 4)
• Dissertation equivalent to 9 credits

Total: 64 credits

Year 1 (Semester I) Foundation Courses

• 4 Core courses
• 1 Elective
• 1 Seminar

Year 1 (Semester II) Bridge Courses

• 3 Core courses
• 2 Electives
• 1 Seminar

Year 2 (Semester III) Advanced Courses

• 2 Core Courses
• 3 Electives
• 1 Seminar

Year 2 (Semester IV) Specialized Courses

• 1 Core Course
• 1 Elective
• 1 Seminar
• Dissertation

2.  MA Dissertation

In their fourth semester, students shall prepare the master’s thesis that will be an original piece of research. They will select a theme of their academic interest in consultation with the thesis supervisor/s. In their master’s thesis, students shall demonstrate their capacity to carry out independent research based on the primary and secondary sources. It is expected that the thesis will have academic rigour and originality so that it can potentially be published in a peer-reviewed research journal. In view of these considerations, the maximum word limit of the thesis will be 10,000 to 12,000, including notes (but excluding bibliography).

Style-sheet and Thesis Format

The thesis shall adhere to the Chicago Manual of Styles and shall have the following specifications

• Student should provide a thesis abstract not exceeding 250 words.
• Student should provide a thesis abstract not exceeding 250 words.
• Any font, preferably Times New Roman, equivalent in scale to 12pt. Script, italic, or ornamental fonts should not be used excepting in cases of non-English words and quotations, which may be italicized.
• Font color must be black, without highlighting.
• Line Spacing

Double space: abstract, acknowledgments, table of contents, and body of the thesis, except for quotations as paragraphs, captions, items in tables, lists, graphs, charts.

Single space: footnotes, bibliographic entries (with a line space between each entry)

• Each page of the thesis should be numbered consecutively and page numbers should be printed on each page with the exception of the title page.
• Footnote numbering should be continuous throughout the thesis.
• Students must also provide a bibliography listing all the sources used to preparer the thesis including the sources listed in the footnotes. The bibliography may be subdivided in primary and secondary sources.
• The thesis should begin with a title page in specified format. Please see the attached file for a sample title page.
• The title page should be followed by a table of content that must list the chapters, figures, maps, tables, and their corresponding page numbers.
• Each part of the thesis, including chapters, acknowledgement, bibliography, should begin on a new page. Sections within chapters can continue on same page.

Citation and Bibliography

For citation and bibliographical reference please follow “Turabian and Chicago Styles Citations” https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/05/ OR any other standard citation format such as the Harvard, etc.

Although footnotes are strongly recommended, it is entirely on students and their respective supervisors to either have footnotes or have endnotes or have in-text citations. However, citation style, either footnote, endnote, or in-text, should be consistent throughout the thesis.

For more on citation please refer to this web link: http://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/c.php?g=246210&p=1640153

Plagiarism

Any academic work (assignments/thesis) submitted by students for assessment at Nalanda University must be their own. For more information, please consult the anti-plagiarim guidelines of the university.

3.  Grade Policy