General entry requirements

Minimum requirements

2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent).

English language requirements

You can find out more about our English language requirementsLink opens in a new window. This course requires the following:

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

International qualifications

We welcome applications from students with other internationally recognised qualifications.

For more information, please visit the international entry requirements pageLink opens in a new window.

Additional requirements

There are no additional entry requirements for this course.

Core modules

Approaches to the Digital

Computer networks, devices and infrastructure today undergird nearly all form of societal, political and cultural life. Police and hospitals, schools and transport, traffic lights and government bodies, elections, museums and artists rely on software systems for their everyday performance, which now increasingly includes the incorporation of artificial intelligence.

Whether used for tracking, organising, evaluating, creating, designing, thinking or communicating, digital technology and its use irreversibly transforms the fabric of everyday life, defining the horizon of the future. Given the widespread implications of such ‘digitalization,’ this module offers an introduction to how different disciplines beyond computer science have approached the digital methodologically and epistemologically.

Digital Methods

In the era of networks, big data and the digital turn, traditional objects, such as documents, pictures, data, groups, events or patterns, open up to new methods of research. Emerging digital research methods also become means through which such objects are sustained, thus co-creating dynamic objects, such as networks, databases, platforms, data visualizations, maps and many other new forms of social, cultural and public life.

This module offers an insight into these new and emerging societal and cultural entities and methodologies. We will take a number of digital objects relevant to the social sciences and humanities and analyse them using digital methods, including network analysis, software studies, content analysis, issue mapping, and others. Digital media research sits alongside social studies of computational technologies and cultural theory as the fields that emerging digital methods take inspiration from.

The module is open to students from all disciplines; no specific prior knowledge is required.

Dissertation

The dissertation is a piece of work (10,000 words) which addresses a single student-selected subject. The topic may concern any aspect of the subject matter of their Master's programme.

The dissertation is an exercise in independent study in which you can pursue a topic of interest. It allows you to further develop a range of independent research skills, including literature search and bibliography construction, theoretical argument, and generation/appraisal of empirical evidence.

Optional modules

Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:

• Data Visualisation in Science, Culture and Public Policy
• User Interface Cultures: Design, Method and Critique
• Visualisation Foundations
• Digital Sociology
• Platform, Economy and Society
• Data Science Across Disciplines: Principles, Practice and Critique
• Generative AI: Histories, Techniques, Cultures & Impacts
• Adventures in Interdisciplinarity
• Global Digital Health and Human Rights

Teaching

Modules in this course make use of a range of teaching and learning techniques, including, for example:

• Online Virtual Learning Environment
• Student Group and Project Work
• Lectures
• Seminars
• Reading and Directed Critical Discussion
• Independent Research by Students
• Practice-Based Activities

Class sizes

A typical workshop for this course contains 20-30 students and a seminar around 16 students.

Typical contact hours

There are around 8-10 hours contact hours per week, depending on type and number of optional modules chosen.

Assessment

A combination of essays, reports, design projects, technical report writing, practice assessments, group work and presentations and an individual research project (10,000 word dissertation).

Reading lists 

If you would like to view reading lists for current or previous cohorts of students, most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library on the Talis Aspire platformLink opens in a new window. 

You can search for reading lists by module title, code or convenor. Please see the modules tab of this page or the module catalogueLink opens in a new window.  

Please note that some reading lists may have restricted access or be unavailable at certain times of year due to not yet being published. If you cannot access the reading list for a particular module, please check again later or contact the module’s host department.  

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules shortly before joining us.

Your career

Graduates from our courses have gone on to work for employers including: AXA, BaiDu, GroupM, Just Eat, Skyscanner, The Labour Party and University of Warwick. They have pursued roles such as: authors, writers and translators; business and financial project management professionals; buyers and procurement officers; data analysts and product managers; marketing associate professionals; quality assurance and regulatory professionals and researchers.

Our department has a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant offering impartial advice and guidance together with workshops and events throughout the year. Previous examples of workshops and events include:

• Warwick careers fairs throughout the year
• Careers in AI and Data Science
• Discovering Careers in the Creative Industries
• Discuss What’s Next After Your CIM Master’s Degree

Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM)

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM) was established at Warwick in 2012 to foster innovative and experimental forms of knowledge production through a sustained focus on methodology. CIM is dedicated to expanding the role of interdisciplinary methods through new lines of inquiry that cut across disciplinary boundaries, both intellectually and institutionally.

Method is central to the formation and transformation of disciplinary knowledges, and the challenge of working across and in between disciplines is both exciting and pressing. Our research team is drawn from across the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences, with expertise in a variety of substantive domains.

Within Warwick, CIM is an advocate of interdisciplinary research and study. Beyond Warwick and beyond the academy, CIM explores new forms of public engagement, both with potential research users and with the experts, experimenters and institutions in business, civil society and government that are at the forefront of applied methodological innovation.

Find out more about us on our website.

Our Postgraduate courses

• Big Data and Digital Futures (MSc/PGDip)
• Data Visualisation (MASc/PGDip/PGCert)
• Digital Media and Culture (MA)
• Interdisciplinary Studies (MPhil/PhD)

Tuition fees

Tuition fees are payable for each year of your course at the start of the academic year, or at the start of your course, if later. Academic fees cover the cost of tuition, examinations and registration and some student amenities.

Find your taught course fees  

Fee Status Guidance

We carry out an initial fee status assessment based on the information you provide in your application. Students will be classified as Home or Overseas fee status. Your fee status determines tuition fees, and what financial support and scholarships may be available. If you receive an offer, your fee status will be clearly stated alongside the tuition fee information.

Do you need your fee classification to be reviewed?

If you believe that your fee status has been classified incorrectly, you can complete a fee status assessment questionnaire. Please follow the instructions in your offer information and provide the documents needed to reassess your status.

Find out more about how universities assess fee status

Additional course costs

As well as tuition fees and living expenses, some courses may require you to cover the cost of field trips or costs associated with travel abroad.

For departmental specific costs, please see the Modules tab on the course web page for the list of core and optional core modules with hyperlinks to our Module Catalogue (please visit the Department’s website if the Module Catalogue hyperlinks are not provided).

Associated costs can be found on the Study tab for each module listed in the Module Catalogue (please note most of the module content applies to 2022/23 year of study). Information about module department specific costs should be considered in conjunction with the more general costs below:

• Core text books
• Printer credits
• Dissertation binding
• Robe hire for your degree ceremony

Scholarships and bursaries

CIM Bursaries 2025-26

Further details, including a link to the application page can be found hereLink opens in a new window.

How to apply

Applications are now open for courses that start in September and October 2025.

Applications will close on 2 August 2025 for students who require a visa to study in the UK, to allow time to receive a CAS and complete the visa application process.

Places are often limited, so we recommend that you submit your application as early as possible.

How to apply for a postgraduate taught course