MA Mathematics/Scottish Literature
About this course
Mathematics and Scottish literature is a combination that might initially seem surprising, but it reflects an important truth about intellectual life: the most interesting minds are rarely confined to a single mode of thinking. Mathematics trains rigorous logical reasoning, abstract thought, quantitative analysis and the capacity to solve problems by building and testing formal models. Scottish literature opens a rich tradition of poetry, fiction, drama and cultural analysis, demanding close reading, critical argument and the kind of humanistic attention to language and meaning that is quite different from mathematical reasoning. Studying both develops a genuinely unusual intellectual range. At the University of Glasgow this four-year full-time programme includes a year abroad and gives you considerable choice in how you develop your studies across both disciplines in the honours years. Glasgow's description of the programme notes the breadth of options available and the ambassador scheme, which gives students the chance to spend time in schools, experiencing teaching at first hand and developing workplace skills. This is a useful indication that the combination is well suited to students who may be considering careers in education, where the ability to communicate clearly across different modes of thinking is particularly valuable. Your mathematical studies will cover pure and applied mathematics, analysis, algebra and statistical methods, while your Scottish literature studies will develop knowledge of the tradition from the medieval period to the contemporary moment, in Scots, Gaelic and English. The combination develops analytical precision and interpretive sensitivity alongside each other, producing graduates who can move comfortably between numerical and humanistic modes of inquiry. Graduates pursue careers in education, data science, the civil service, publishing, research, financial services and management. Postgraduate study in mathematics, education, literary studies or data science is also an option for those who want to specialise further.
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