Education and recognition

The route past having no first degree.

Now: ICA Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance (Level 7, awarded in association with Alliance Manchester Business School), completing April 2027 — and with it FICA.

The unlock: that diploma is the stated entry requirement for the University of Manchester MSc top-up (Financial Crime and Compliance in Digital Societies) — twelve months part-time, online, no first degree required. A Russell Group master's by autumn 2028.

What a master's opens: the Polish external doctorate (tryb eksternistyczny), where the requirement is a master's, not a master's in history — the book as the dissertation, the directory article as the qualifying publication, a supervisor via a discipline council (Łódź the obvious one). And the UK routes: PhD by publication (Essex, Westminster, Huddersfield) and conventional part-time PhDs.

Without any degree, now: Royal Holloway MA Holocaust Studies (research-experience clause), Open University MA History (distance), Birkbeck; the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education 30-credit online module (applications January).

Recognition: Royal Historical Society Fellowship after a publication; Zasłużony dla Kultury Polskiej (foreigners eligible, nominated by an institution); honorary citizenship of Wieluń — held by eight people, four of them historians of the town, and never to be asked for.

Two emails to send: Manchester, on top-up eligibility and fee for September 2027; the Institute of History at Łódź, on whether the council would consider an external doctorate on the destruction of Wieluń.