Overview

We pride ourselves on the quality of our research and the support that we give to our postgraduate research students. The School has an excellent track record of supervising PhDs and MAs by Research. In the last ten years, more than eighty students have graduated from the School with a research degree.

We are currently home to a cohort of 30+ research students, all of whom are members of the Faculty’s Doctoral Training Programme and the University’s Graduate College. As a research student, you will be encouraged to become involved in the School’s research activities and will have the opportunity to work alongside academics who are at the forefront of a number of world-leading research projects.

We offer supervision across the range of subject areas contained in the School and welcome inquiries in all of them: communication and media; criminology; history and history of art and philosophy.

PhD

There are two routes toward obtaining a PhD.

MPhil/PhD route

By far the most popular and common is the MPhil/PhD route. This entails students initially registering for the degree of MPhil/PhD, before transferring to full PhD status, should sufficient progress have been made with their work. Transfer to full PhD status normally happens after 18 months for full time students and after roughly 24-26 months for part time students.

Thesis: 80,000 - 100,000 words.

Length of study: minimum of three years full time and four years part time.

Career prospects

We are passionate about fostering the careers of our researchers and ensure that they gain research skills training, leadership experience and teaching practice as part of the doctoral programmes we offer.

Bespoke careers advice is also embedded into our programme as we think this is a key element of your personal and professional development during your time with us.