Digital Sociology MSc

Level: Postgraduate taught

Subject: Sociology

Year of entry: 2027

Study options

Mode of study

On campus

Full-time
  • MSc | 1 year | Start date: September 2027

Key facts

School

School of Social and Political Science

College

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Study location

Central Area

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About the degree programme

Study our MSc Digital Sociology at the UK's top-ranked department for sociological research, and graduate equipped to join the field of knowledge production and practice sitting at the intersection of digital life and the social world.

Read more about our department's REF 2021 results.

What is Digital Sociology?

The world and our societies are changing fast, and Digital is at the centre of this whirlwind. 

As founders of the Edinburgh MSc Digital Sociology programme, faculty members Kate Orton-Johnson and Nick Prior noted in their foundational volume on Digital Sociology, “few spheres of social enquiry are insulated from some form of digital”.

Indeed, as Edinburgh’s Head of Sociology Karen Gregory, writing with MacArthur Fellow Tressie McMillan Cottom and esteemed Professor Jessie Daniels, put it in their own pioneering exposition of Digital Sociologies: “The transformations and challenges of digital technologies offer a chance to reinvigorate the sociological imagination.”

Digital Sociology is a rethinking of our assumptions about society as sociologists that centres digital mediation in new social understandings.

Read more about our faculty members and the work that built the foundation for this programme:

What do Digital Sociologists do?

As Digital Sociologists, we ask questions about how technologies are changing lifeworlds while simultaneously using the most creative and advanced digital and computational research methods to answer those questions. 

Many students in our programme focus on using traditional qualitative methods in interviews adapted to the digital context to advance cutting edge understandings of questions related to the social and the digital.

Others of our students use advanced computational methods to come with new perspectives on classic deep questions of sociology.

Some combine both in the innovative pluralistic approach that represents a unique strength of Edinburgh Sociology.

What research is going on in Digital Sociology right now?

You can learn more about some of the questions our faculty are researching:

Study options

The MSc in Digital Sociology is offered as a one-year full-time programme.

Digital Sociology with Social Data Science pathway

Beginning in the 2025/26 academic year, students wishing to specialise in computational methods for analysing digital society can choose to transition to a dedicated Social Data Science pathway during their first semester. 

Academic staff will provide guidance on the skills required for pathway courses. 

Students who complete 60 credits of computational methods courses (computational sociology, computational text analysis, and social network analysis) will receive the MSc in Digital Sociology with Social Data Science. Students joining the pathway are also expected to use these methods in their dissertation.

The Digital Sociology with Social Data Science pathway is suitable for students with some prior experience with statistics and/or statistical programming, or a strong motivation to acquire these skills.

Tuition fees

Tuition fees by award and duration

Tuition fees for full-time and part-time options are listed for one academic year.

Full-time

Graduate discount

If you are a University of Edinburgh graduate, you will be eligible for a 10% discount on your tuition fees for this programme. You may also be eligible if you were a visiting undergraduate student.

Find out how to receive your graduate discount

Deposit

You do not have to pay a deposit to secure your place on this programme.

Costs

Accommodation and living costs

You will need to pay for your accommodation and living costs (such as rent, food and utility bills) for the duration of your programme.

For 2026-2027, we estimate that it will cost an average of £18,504 each year (£1,542 each month) to live in Edinburgh as a postgraduate.

The exact amount you spend will depend on different factors, especially the accommodation you choose.

Living costs: estimates explained 

Funding opportunities

Funding for postgraduate study is different to undergraduate study, and many students need to combine funding sources to pay for their studies.

Most students use a combination of the following funding to pay their tuition fees and living costs:

  • borrowing money
    • taking out a loan
    • family support
  • personal savings
  • income from work
  • employer sponsorship
  • scholarships

Explore sources of funding for postgraduate study

Search for other funding opportunities

You can find scholarships, bursaries and other funding you might be eligible for on our Scholarships and Student Funding site.

Postgraduate funding opportunities

These entry requirements are for the 2027-28 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2028-29 academic year will be published in early Oct 2027.

Qualifications

A UK 2:1 honours degree or its international equivalent, in a relevant discipline.

We welcome applications from students with a strong background in the social sciences as well as those coming from a background in statistics, data science, and computer science. Applicants who do not have this relevant background will receive consideration on the merits of their personal statement and other relevant experience.

International equivalent qualifications

To find international equivalent qualifications, select where you studied from the country or region list.

English language requirements

You must prove that your English language abilities are at a high enough level to study this degree programme.

This is the case for all applicants, including UK nationals.

You can meet our English language requirements with one of the following:

  • an English language test (restrictions apply)
  • a degree that was taught and assessed in English (restrictions apply)
  • certain professional qualifications

English language tests we accept

We accept any of the following English language tests, at the specified grade or higher:

  • IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
  • TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition) before 21 January 2026: total 100 with at least 20 in each component We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
  • TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition) from 21 January 2026: total 5.0 with at least 4.0 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
  • C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 169 in each component.
  • Oxford ELLT: total 8 with at least 6 in each component. We do not accept Oxford ELLT Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
  • Oxford Test of English Advanced: total 155 with at least 135 in each component.
How old your English language tests can be
Tests no more than two years old

The following English language tests must be no more than two years old on the 1st of the month in which your programme starts, regardless of your nationality:

  • IELTS Academic
  • TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition)
  • Oxford ELLT
  • Oxford Test of English Advanced
Tests no more than three and a half years old

All other English language tests must be no more than three and a half years old on the 1st of the month in which your programme starts, regardless of your nationality.   

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English-speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration.

UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English-speaking countries (non-MESC).

Approved universities in non-MESC

How old your degree can be

If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old on the 1st of the month in which your programme starts.

This time limit does not apply to your degree if you are a national of a majority English-speaking country.

Find out more about our English language requirements

Find out about other English language qualifications we accept, including professional qualifications.

English language requirements

What you will study

What will you learn as a student in MSc Digital Sociology?

There are two pathways within the MSc Digital Sociology. 

The core pathway is suited for students who are interested in focusing on qualitative methods or theory research, providing an overview of issues and concepts in digital sociology and general research design and ethics for researching digital life. Many students in our core pathway have gone on to PhD research in the field, or to take on roles in marketing, advertising, communications, social media, and beyond.

The Social Data Science pathway is for students who want to come out of their degree ready to be deploy quantitative and computational techniques in social research. This pathway, which grants the degree award titled “MSc Digital Sociology with Social Data Science”, is to designed with two types of students in mind. 

For students with no prior experience in software engineering, mathematics, or data work, the pathway will take you from zero to being a functionally literate data scientist by the end of the year. 

For students with significant background in data science already, the pathway simultaneously provides knowledge and know-how for applying these skills in sociologically meaningful ways—doing data science informed by classical and contemporary social theory, asking questions that sit in conversation with ongoing debates in the discipline, and the nuances and ethics of applying quantitative and computational methods to social data. 

Do you need to be good at mathematics or computers to study Digital Sociology?

Even if you have no background in computing or mathematics, you will still have all the options available to you of any student on the programme, including completing our Social Data Science Pathway.

Likewise, if you are coming to us with a strong background in data, maths, and computing, you will be challenged just the same as the rest—both in extending your technical skills and in deepening your social understandings.

Our faculty composition reflects this mix of students we receive. Some of us use computational or quantitative methods extensively in our research; some of us have never written a line of code. All of us are committed and open-minded to seeing the world in different ways, and to bringing you along with us in that journey of making sense of the newly and constantly unfolding modernity. 

Dissertation

The dissertation, a piece of self-designed research with supervisory support, allows you to put your personal stamp on your studies. You will complete a supervised dissertation project on a topic that you choose based on your interests and career plans.

Compulsory courses

You will study a range of substantive topics in Digital Sociology such as: 

  • AI and authenticity
  • platforms and advertising
  • digital transformation in the creative industries
  • networks and social capital 
  • race and technology
  • self and identity online
  • digital work and labour

Studying in the Social Data Science Pathway will add engagement with topics such as:

  • explanation versus prediction in the social sciences
  • data quality, robustness, and ontologies
  • ethics of AI and using AI in working with social data
  • machine learning for prediction
  • behavioural modelling
  • digital and online experiments 
  • computational text analysis

Find courses for this programme

Find out what courses you can study on this programme and how each of them are taught and assessed.

The courses on offer may change from year to year, but the course information will give you an idea of what to expect on this programme.

Full-time

We link to the latest information available. This may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

The degree combines lectures and seminar teaching on specific topics with individual research supervision by leading researchers in the emerging field of digital sociology.

Hands-on, research-based methods seminars will take place on campus and the programme will draw on interdisciplinary expertise in:

  • Informatics
  • Science and Technology Studies
  • Design Informatics
  • Digital Education

Learning outcomes

As well as providing students with relevant skills, studying for this degree will give you:

  • a foundation in social and cultural theory, as relevant to the study of digital society
  • a foundation in digital research methods relevant for the sociological study of contemporary society
  • the opportunity to learn how to gather and analyse digital data using programmatic tools in R and/or Python
  • the opportunity to engage with ethical issues that are raised by digital sociological work

Support for your studies

You will have access to a range of support services if you need them throughout your degree.

We will assign you to a student adviser, and this should be the first person to contact if you need help. They can guide you to other University service teams depending on what support you need.  

How we support you

Our academic staff

Our faculty are also involved in the Centre for Data, Culture, and Society. Dr. Karen Gregory co-directs the Digital Social Science Research Culture, which regularly hosts research seminars and workshops, which MSc students are welcome to attend.

Our faculty have also brought the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (SICSS) to Edinburgh.

Here is some information on the SICSS event we held in 2022:

Our faculty also convene the British Sociological Association’s Digital Sociology study group:

Career opportunities

This degree is well-positioned for a wide range of careers in the public, private, and third sectors. It is particularly relevant for those who have aspirations for a career in:

  • digital research
  • internet research
  • digital social policy
  • digital media design and development

The programme is also key for those who wish to engage with digital technology and data in their own personal lives, or on a wider scale as an activist, artist, manager, or practitioner.

You will gain highly transferable skills in research, communication, and project management applicable to roles in many fields.

After graduating, you may go on to undertake roles in areas including:

  • social media analysis
  • internet research
  • digital social policy
  • technology consulting
  • journalism
  • education
  • law and government

Career paths could include:

  • social media analyst/consulting/management 
  • entry-level industry AI researcher
  • AI ethics roles
  • technology project management
  • user experience (UX) engineering/research
  • entrepreneurship
  • technology and AI consulting
  • data science
  • marketing, advertising and communications

Further study

After completing this programme, you may wish to consider applying for a PhD or other research programme.

Applying for research degrees

Moving on to a PhD (advice from the University's Careers Service)

The programme also offers a route to a PhD programme in social research.

Sociology PhD at the University of Edinburgh

Graduate profiles

Ginger Adams

""

Degree: MSc Digital Sociology

Year of graduation: 2022

Current work: Recently started her PhD in Sociology at CUNY Graduate Center

I left Edinburgh with a set of hard skills that I would have never gotten at any other point in my educational journey, such as computational text analysis.

Read more of Ginger's story

One of the highlights of the programme was its emphasis on practical skills training in Python and R, which I was eager to apply to social science research.

Masanobu MSc Digital Sociology graduated 2024

Careers Service

Our Careers Service can help you to fully develop your potential and achieve your future goals. 

The Careers Service supports you not only while you are studying at the University, but also for up to two years after you finish your studies. 

With the Careers Service, you can: 

  • access digital resources to help you understand your skills and strengths
  • try different types of experiences and reflect on how and what you develop
  • get help finding work, including part-time jobs, vacation work, internships and graduate jobs
  • attend careers events and practice interviews
  • get information and advice to help you make informed decisions 

Visit the Careers Service website 

How to apply

You apply online for this programme. After you read the application guidance, select your preferred programme, then choose 'Start your application' to begin.

If you are considering applying to more than one programme, you should be aware that we cannot consider more than 5 applications from the same applicant.

When to apply

Due to high demand, this programme operates a gathered field approach to admissions, with two application and selection deadlines as noted below.  

We strongly recommend that you apply as early as possible, especially if you intend to apply for funding or a visa. Applications may close earlier than published deadlines if there is exceptionally high demand.  

If you are considering applying for our pre-sessional English Language programme, please make sure you apply in Round 1. 

Selection deadlines

RoundApply byReceive decision no later than
1Monday 14 December 2026Thursday 18 March 2027
2Monday 31 May 2027Wednesday 30 June 2027

Please note that these are the latest dates by when you will receive a decision. We expect many applicants will receive a decision sooner than these published deadlines. We will make as many offers as possible to the strongest candidates on an ongoing basis. 

When to submit supporting documents 

For an application to be reviewed, it must be a complete application by the application deadline with all supporting documentation uploaded, including your transcripts.  

If you already have evidence that you meet the English language entry requirement, please submit this evidence at the time of your application. If you have not already met the English language requirement, we will still review your application and issue a decision providing it is otherwise complete. 

Application fee

There is no fee to apply to this programme.

What you need to apply

As part of your online application, you will need to provide: 

You will also need to submit some or all of the following supporting documents:

When you start your application, you will be able to see the full list of documents you need to provide.

References

You do not need to provide a reference when you submit your application for this programme.

There may be certain circumstances when a reference will be required, for example if we need to verify work experience. If that is the case, we will contact you after we have reviewed your application to request a reference.

Apply

Select the award, duration and delivery mode you want to study. Then select the start date you want to apply for.

After you apply

Once you have applied for this programme, you will be able to track the progress of your application and accept or decline any offers.

Checking the status of your application

We will notify you by email once we have made a decision. Due to the large number of applications we receive, it might take a while until you hear from us.

Receiving our decision

What to do if you receive an offer:

Accommodation

We guarantee an offer of University accommodation for all new, single postgraduate taught students from outside the UK and new, single postgraduate research (typically PhD) students who:

  • apply for accommodation by 31 July in the year when you start your programme
  • accept an unconditional firm offer to study at the University by 31 July
  • study at the University for the whole of the academic year starting in September

University accommodation website

Accommodation guarantee criteria

We also offer accommodation options for couples and families.

Accommodation for couples and families

If you prefer to live elsewhere, we can offer you advice on finding accommodation in Edinburgh.

Accommodation information from the Edinburgh University Students' Association Advice Place

Societies and clubs

Our societies and sports clubs will help you develop your interests, meet like-minded people, find a new hobby or simply socialise.

Societies

Sport Clubs

The city of Edinburgh

Scotland's inspiring capital will form the background to your studies — a city with an irresistible blend of history, natural beauty and modern city life. 

Find out more about living in Edinburgh

Health and wellbeing support

You will have access to free health and wellbeing services throughout your time at university if you need them.

The support services we offer include: 

  • a student counselling service
  • a health centre (doctor's surgery)
  • support if you're living in University accommodation
  • dedicated help and support if you have a disability or need adjustments

Health and wellbeing support services 

Disability and Learning Support

General enquiries

Postgraduate Admissions Team

Graduate School of Social & Political Science
Chrystal Macmillan Building
15A George Square
Central Campus
Edinburgh
EH8 9LD

futurestudents@ed.ac.uk
Phone:+44 (0)131 650 4086
Programme Directors

Academic-related enquiries should be directed to the shared mailbox currently monitored by the programme co-director, Dr Peaks.

Email the Digital Sociology MSc Programme Directors

Academic contact

Dr Marion Lieutaud

Programme Director

Contact details

Dr Peaks Krafft

Programme Director

Contact details

Related degree programmes

Other degrees in Sociology