Durham University has established a new partnership with Southwestern University (Georgetown, USA), creating a streamlined progression route for qualified Southwestern graduates onto a selection of Durham taught Master’s programmes, including many in Arts and Humanities.
Built around the UK’s distinctive one-year taught Master’s model, the pathway is structured as a ‘4+1’ route — four years of undergraduate study followed by one year of postgraduate study at Durham — enabling eligible graduates to progress straight into advanced study.
Professor Janet Stewart, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Durham, said:
“This partnership is a fantastic opportunity on both sides: Southwestern graduates can build on their liberal arts foundation through Durham’s intensive one-year Master’s programmes, while Durham benefits from welcoming talented students into an international community drawn from over 130 countries — bringing fresh perspectives to teaching, research, and collegiate life. For those joining Arts and Humanities, the experience is shaped by our Transformative Humanities approach — connecting ideas across disciplines and linking humanistic knowledge to real-world challenges — with Faculty-wide elective modules offering both depth and breadth alongside specialist study.”
“This partnership is a fantastic opportunity on both sides: Southwestern graduates can build on their liberal arts foundation through Durham’s intensive one-year Master’s programmes, while Durham benefits from welcoming talented students into an international community drawn from over 130 countries — bringing fresh perspectives to teaching, research, and collegiate life.
For those joining Arts and Humanities, the experience is shaped by our Transformative Humanities approach — connecting ideas across disciplines and linking humanistic knowledge to real-world challenges — with Faculty-wide elective modules offering both depth and breadth alongside specialist study.”
A distinctive feature of taught postgraduate study in Durham’s Arts and Humanities is the balance between a disciplinary core, an independent research project, and access to postgraduate taught elective modules across the Faculty, enabling students to shape their degree around their interests and ambitions. This interdisciplinary culture is aligned with Durham’s Transformative Humanities framework, which brings together humanities research and education across six thematic strands.
Both universities bring a strong sense of heritage to the partnership, having been founded within a decade of each other. Southwestern traces its origins to 1840, and Durham was established in 1832, creating a shared nineteenth‑century foundation for this new collaboration.
About Southwestern University
Based in Georgetown, Texas, Southwestern University is a private liberal arts university with a close-knit undergraduate community, offering a wide range of programmes across arts, sciences, and the creative disciplines.
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