Politics and International Relations at Leicester 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 both on campus and by the PhD by distance learning.

Supervision and research areas

We offer PhD and MPhil supervision in Politics and International Relations in areas compatible with the research interests of our academic staff including:

International Relations and Security Studies

Political Theory

Institutions, Participation, Public Opinion, Parties, and Comparative Politics

PhD description

PhD students complete an independent research project under the guidance of a supervisory team.

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 or distance learning.

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 or distance learning. On completion of active research students may request approval to register for a writing-up period of up to 12 months.

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.