LSE-NUS Double Degree MA Asian and International History

This new and exciting two-year programme is taught by the National University of Singapore and the London School of Economics. It’s designed for students interested in studying Asia from an international perspective. The programme is also well-suited for those interested in decentering international history by studying it from an Asian perspective.

During your first year at NUS, you’ll be introduced to a wide range of contemporary historical methods, focusing on major historians, current debates about historical practice, theoretical history, and historical interpretation.

This is complemented by a choice of electives covering modern Southeast Asia, Singapore, modern East Asia, China, America, and modern Europe. You’ll also study topics like imperialism and empire, the Cold War, military history, cultural history, and oral history.

In your second year at LSE, you can choose from a wide selection of International History courses ranging from the Ottoman Empire to twentieth-century Southeast Asia. Thematically, courses cover everything from war and peace, to the history of race and gender. While you’ll have the option to study European, North American, South American, and African History, this degree allows you to centre your studies on Asian history in all its rich variety.

These Asian history courses can be further complemented by specialist options on Asia from the Departments of Economic History, Government, Anthropology, and Geography.

Throughout the programme, you’ll engage with the latest academic research in the field, and you’ll undertake your own research-based term papers and third term dissertation. The dissertation is one of the highlights of this degree, where you’ll pursue specialist research on a subject with an Asian focus under the supervision of a leading expert in the field.

Previous graduates of this double degree have gone on to work in academia and research, education and teaching, and the public sector in the UK or abroad. Others work for international organisations and NGOs, charities, as well as a wide range of other sectors, including journalism and media.

General reading

• Antony Best, Jussi Hanhimaki, Joe Maiolo, and Kirsten Schulze, International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Routledge, 2014 3rd edition)
• Kristina Spohr, Post Wall, Post Square, How Bush, Gorbachev, Kohl, and Deng Shaped the World after 1989 (YUP, 2020)
• O. A. Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (2011)
• Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century (1999)

Subject specific recommendations

• Jeremy Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World (2015)
• Elizabeth Economy, The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State (2019)
• Sunil S. Amrith, Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons have shaped South Asia’s History (Penguin 2018)
• Sunil S. Amrith, Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants (Harvard University Press, 2015)
• Antony Reid, A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)
• M.C. Rikleffs (et al), A New History of Southeast Asia (Red Globe Press, 2010)
• C. Tsuzuki, The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan 1825-1995 (Oxford, 2000)
• K.W. Larsen, Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Choson Korea, 1850-1910 (Cambridge, MA, 2008)
• Frederick W. Mote, Imperial China, 900-1800 (Harvard University Press, 1999).
• Frederic Wakeman, Jr. The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China (University of California Press, 1985).
• J.D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (3rd edition, New York, 2013)
• CHEN Jian, Mao's China and the Cold War (University of North Carolina Press, 2001)
• Tongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1994)
• Christopher Goscha, Vietnam: A New History (Basic Books, 2016)

First year, at National University of Singapore

Students must take the mandatory core module, "Historiography: Theory and Archive", and either nine elective modules or seven elective modules plus a 10,000-word thesis. Only candidates with an average 4.0 and above CAP (A- & above) at the end of the first semester are permitted to write the thesis.

Second year, at LSE

At LSE, you'll complete three full units in addition to the dissertation.

At least two of these three units must be chosen from the wide range of "international history" and "Asian history, politics, and society" course offerings. You may complete a third unit in another department at LSE, provided that both the academic tutor at LSE and the teacher responsible for the course approve.

Watch our HY course videos

Dissertation

You'll also take the year-long Dissertation course which is designed to help you research and write your dissertation and to think about where you would like to take your career after your time at LSE has finished. It provides a specialised forum for discussion and debate on what it means to write history and to be an historian.

The dissertation is an exercise in using primary sources to write on a precise topic in International and Asian History. The only formal limit on the choice of subject is that it must fall within the syllabus, ie, it has to be a topic in International History with an Asian angle, and the dissertation has to be a study in the discipline of history.

Students must pass the dissertation to receive a degree.

While in London, students preparing dissertations can take advantage of numerous world-class research libraries and archives. These include the National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office), the British Library, the libraries of specialised schools of the University of London such as the Institute for Historical Research, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and the LSE's own library, the British Library of Political and Economic Sciences. The LSE's archive also contains much valuable research material, as do the collections of the Imperial War Museum, the Warburg Institute and many others.

History is a wide ranging and challenging subject to study. It seeks to understand the past and to make sense of the present, adding an important dimension to the understanding of many aspects of human society. The department is world renowned in its field, offering a unique perspective on the history of relations between states, peoples and cultures. We pride ourselves on giving students the benefit of ground-breaking research throughout our teaching programmes.

Our degrees will give you a broad international perspective on the past. We give attention both to domestic and international issues and many of the courses we offer deal with major events in the history of international relations.

Since the behaviour of countries in the international arena cannot be understood without a knowledge of their distinct social, political, economic and cultural characteristics, we provide courses covering major aspects of the history of ideas and mentalities.

LSE was founded in 1895 originally as an institute of higher education for graduate students. The department reflects this tradition and takes its responsibility for undergraduate teaching and supervision very seriously. We admit nearly as many undergraduate students as master's students. We have one of the most cosmopolitan undergraduate communities in London and one of the most vibrant and dynamic.

Learn more about our programmes, research, public events and people.

Department of International History

Who's who

Qingfei Yin

Programme Director

We welcome applications from all suitably qualified prospective students. At LSE, we want to recruit students with the best academic merit, potential and motivation, irrespective of background.

We carefully consider each application and take into account all the information included on your application form, such as your:

• academic achievement (including predicted and achieved grades)
• statement of academic purpose
• two academic references
• CV.

See further information on supporting documents.

You may need to provide evidence of your English language proficiency. See our English language requirements.

Applications are reviewed by both universities, however you apply via the LSE.

Data sharing

Double degrees and certain other degrees and scholarships require that LSE shares personal data with another university or partner. In our agreements we will use the School’s standard data sharing template for universities and partners in the EU and EEA and in an adequate country. Standard contract clauses will be used for any other country. If you have any questions about this or how your personal data will be treated by LSE, please contact the Data Protection Officer, Rachael Maguire, via glpd.info.rights@lse.ac.uk or check our Student Privacy Notice.

Programme and admissions enquiries

For questions related to your application or the admissions process, please check our admissions frequently asked questions page.

If you have any queries which aren't answered on the website, please contact the department's Graduate Admissions Advisor.

The NUS-LSE double degree MA Asian and International History aims to cater to:

• students from Europe, the United States and elsewhere who are interested in specialising in all areas of Asia for future employment prospects in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office or diplomatic services of other countries, think tanks or private enterprises with interests and involvement in Asia
• students from Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia but also South Korea, Japan and China who would like to study Asia in combination with Global History, and from a global history perspective.

You'll develop knowledge of historical events and debates, engage in critical reflection, learn to devise their own research questions and conduct independent research. You'll develop skills in formal academic writing, oral presentations, time-management and work-planning as well as hone their ability to work effectively with others.

Year 1 (at NUS, 2025/26):

Home students: SGD 39,350

Year 2 (at LSE, 2026/27):

Home students: £30,400 (provisional)

Year 1 (at NUS, 2025/26):

Overseas students: SGD 39,350

Year 2 (at LSE, 2026/27):

Overseas students: £30,400 (provisional)

Through an MA History degree, you'll develop highly transferable skills that are valued by employers and can be used and put in practice in numerous roles and sectors, and listed below:

• research skills and different research methods, intellectual rigour and independence
• ability to select and organise information, critical reasoning and analytical skills, including the capacity for solving problems and thinking creatively
• communication skills including writing skills and presentation skills, the ability to construct an argument and communicate findings in a clear and persuasive manner
• ability to discuss ideas in groups, and to negotiate, question and summarise
• capacity to think objectively and approach problems and new situations with an open mind
• manage large quantities of information, different expert options.

LSE International History postgraduate destinations are broad and include the following sectors: academia and research, education and teaching, public sector in the UK or abroad, interest groups, international organisations and NGOs, charities, public affairs, as well as a wide range of other sectors, including journalism and media, museum, heritage and archive, consultancy, environment, creative arts, HR, retail, business, investment banking.

LSE history students continue to have one of the best rate of employability and earnings after graduation in the UK. The Complete University Guide 2020 places History at LSE 6th overall for job prospects. Guardian's University 2021 League Tables placed History at LSE in 2nd place for percentage of graduates who find graduate-level jobs, or are in further study at professional or HE level, within fifteen months of graduation. The 2019 report on Graduate Outcomes Subject by Provider from the Department for Education places History at LSE top of the table with earnings superior to any other university in the UK with 2010-11 LSE graduates' median salary at £43,200 5 years after graduating.

A report on relative labour market returns, also from the Department for Education, which calculated the difference in earnings by subject and university choice throughout Britain five years after graduation, ranked History at LSE number 1 in June 2018. The report illustrates the average impact the different universities and subjects would have on the future income of an individual. History at LSE averaged a lifetime earnings boost of £14,000 for men and £15,000 for women when compared with studying history at any other university in the UK, including Oxford, St Andrews, Cambridge, KCL and UCL.

We're committed to supporting students' options after graduation in the world of work or futher studies by organising a careers programme tailored specifically to International History students with the help of LSE Careers. Also, many leading organisations give careers presentations at the School during the year, and LSE Careers has a wide range of resources available to assist students in their job search.

Find out more about the support available to students through LSE Careers.