MA/PgDip Intelligence and Security Studies

  • Part-time study available
  • International students can apply

The course is taught through a combination of:

  • lectures, supported by worksheets, videos, and directed reading
  • seminars, which involve activities such as group discussions, case studies and presentations
  • guest lectures
  • conferences
  • Personal supervision

Assessment

Module performance is usually assessed by two essays of 3,500 words (50% each). In addition, MA students are required to submit a 12,000 word dissertation.

Staff Profile

Dr Christopher J. Murphy (Programme Leader)

I am interested in the history of the British intelligence community, from the origins of the Security Service (MI5) and Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6) from 1909 to the present day. I also have a specific research interest in the work of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War.

Selected Publications: Security and Special Operations: SOE and MI5 during the Second World War (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). ‘Command, rather that consultation: Organising Special Operations – the case of SOE’, Public Policy and Administration 25(1) (2010), pp.67-84. ‘SOE’s Foreign Currency Transactions’ in Neville Wylie (ed.), The Politics and Strategy of Clandestine War: SOE, 1940-1946 (London: Routledge, 2006). ‘The Origins of SOE in France’, The Historical Journal 46(4) (2003), pp.1-18. ‘SOE and Repatriation’, Journal of Contemporary History 36(2) (2001), pp.309-323.