This British University offers a real-life Hogwarts style degree in magic and witchcraft

Ever wanted to channel Harry Potter and study magic? Well, there's actually a course on the subject.

Since 2024, the University of Exeter has offered the "innovative" MA in Magic and Occult Science, and according to the course leader, the degree was launched due to the "recent surge in interest in magic."

During the year-long course described as "one of the only postgraduate courses of its kind in the UK", students will learn the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science, as well as the role of magic in the West and the East.

“This MA will allow people to reexamine the assumption that the West is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition," said course leader, Professor Emily Selove, when the programme was first announced back in 2023.

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"Magic and the occult have been and remain an enormous part of Western culture, and it is foolish to deny this or to refuse to take it seriously. Rigorous study of these subjects allow us to reexamine the relationship of humans to the natural world and of different human cultures to one another.

“By housing this degree in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, we acknowledge the profound debt of Western culture and science to the Arabo-Islamic world, a history that has been erased in creating our false picture of the West as uniquely rational.”

In recent years, the increased interest in magic and the occult has appeared in various ways online, including the tarot card content creators along with the rise of Etsy witches, where you can pay to allegedly control your fortune.

Elsewhere from Indy100, University students fight artificial intelligence with vintage typewriters, and Just how powerful are Etsy witches? Buying 'spells' is the new way to 'control' your fortune.

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