The School of Archaeology and Ancient History offers supervision for the degrees of:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - full-time and part-time

Master of Philosophy (MPhil) - full-time and part-time

These degrees are available to study on campus and are available by distance learning.

We offer supervision in Archaeology and Ancient History in areas compatible with the research interests of our academic staff including:

Ancient History

Bioarchaeology

Prehistoric Archaeology

Greek Archaeology

Roman Archaeology

Material Culture Studies

Medieval and Historical Archaeology

Landscape Archaeology

PhD description

PhD students complete an independent research project under the guidance of a supervisory team. The maximum period of registration permitted before thesis submission is 4 years full-time / 7 years part-time.

Active research (including all experimental work, laboratory work, field work, and data collection) will typically take 3 to 3.5 years full-time / 6 to 6.5 years part-time. On completion of active research students may request approval to register for a writing-up period of up to 12 months. The period of active research and writing-up together must not exceed the maximum registration period.

The thesis should not normally exceed 80,000 words and must make an original contribution to knowledge and contain work of publishable quality. The thesis must then be defended in a viva voce (oral) examination before a degree can be awarded.

The PhD in Archaeology and Ancient History can be completed either as campus based study here at Leicester or by distance learning.