College offers 'macabre' Masters

A post-graduate degree about death is being offered for the first time by the University of Bath.

It is thought the Masters course will appeal to students with a background in healthcare and those planning a career linked to the funeral industry.

Among the topics being investigated is how dying, death and grief differ in different societies.

Students will be based at the Centre for Death and Society which opened at the university last September.

Director Dr Glennys Howarth said: "There are many people who work with dying or bereaved people who are interested in exploring the wider issues associated with death, dying and loss.

"The multi-disciplinary approach we are offering through the course will stimulate thinking beyond professional boundaries.

"It will also foster a sense of inquiry as to how societies, in the present and the past, organise, theorise, symbolise and ritualise death."