University of Exeter, MA Magic and Occult Science

The University of Exeter launched the MA in Magic and Occult Science in 2024, the first taught masters degree of its kind, and its 2027 entry cycle is open. A global top-150 university with a Centre for Magic and Esotericism behind the program, Exeter built the degree on collaboration across disciplines to study the history of magic and the occult sciences from many angles, an area where the university holds internationally recognized expertise.

The program is deliberately flexible: one year full time or two part time on the Streatham Campus, with an interdisciplinary core module, Esotericism and the Magical Tradition, that surveys magic in Greece and Rome, occult texts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the history of witchcraft, magic in literature and folklore, deception and illusion, and the history of science and medicine. Students design their own course of study across esotericism, witchcraft, ritual magic and occult science, taught research-style by top scholars from different fields.

Exeter frames the field on purpose. Housing the program in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies puts the Arabo-Islamic heritage back at the center of the history of magic: the medieval Middle East as the crossroads where Indic, Greco-Roman and Jewish traditions were joined and reimagined by Arabic-speaking authors whose work fed the magic, philosophy and science of Western Europe. The MA leads to a PhD route, and the Centre for Magic and Esotericism welcomes students to regular meetings and local field trips. The institution's stated mission: To study the history of magic and the occult sciences from many different angles.