Academic requirements

Our Integrated PhD programme is competitive, and we seek motivated, talented individuals with demonstrably high intellectual ability who are committed to excellence in research.

Minimum requirements are a bachelor’s degree at a First or Upper-second level (or equivalent) from a recognised university and English language proficiency, with most successful applicants also having a good master’s degree (or equivalent) from a recognised university.

Research proposal

There are two main routes to a doctoral project, depending on applicants’ areas of interest and intellectual preferences. Candidates may choose either to:

• lead the development of their own research project in conjunction with and under the guidance of their supervisors; or
• apply for a defined, supervisor-led project largely determined by an existing wider research programme.

Choosing to develop your own research project

Identify a lead supervisor:

If you decide to develop your own research project, you must first find an academic who would be interested in being your lead supervisor. You can find potential lead supervisors on the School of Management faculty website. You can also browse Pure, the University’s research portal, for profiles of individual academics as well as the research centres, institutes and units to which they belong. Your proposed research area will need to be related to the academic's research interests.

Make contact and discuss your proposed research:

Potential academic supervisors are happy to discuss potential PhD projects and advise on the broad suitability of topic areas and approaches. At this point, you are likely to be asked to prepare an original proposal for consideration before consideration of making an offer is made.

Tips on writing a research proposal

Different academic faculty members will specify different requisites for research proposals. However, few successful proposals will be less than 3,000 words, and all will need to be original, based upon extant scholarly literature and the product of applicants’ own work. Many potential supervisors will generously provide advice and guidance about what they expect, but generally PhD research proposals are expected to include the following:

Aims and objectives: What are the central aims and research questions that will guide your research? Why are such aims, questions, proposition and/or hypotheses intellectually interesting, academically worthwhile and practically purposeful?

Rationale: Contextualise your aims and objectives in a broader field of study, identifying the main literature, authors and audiences that you are addressing.

Methodology: Explain how you intend to conduct your research; what information you would need, how you would collect it and how you are going to analyse it. This only needs to be indicative at this juncture.

Timeline: Provide a summary of what you are planning to do and when.

Bibliography: Provide a short bibliography of key academic papers related to your research question.

Choosing to apply for a defined project

If you wish to apply for a defined, academic-led project, you can see which opportunities are currently available and get an initial idea of the particular application requirements online via the Find a PhD website.

Please note that whether you apply to the Integrated PhD programme with your own proposed PhD project or for a defined project, all Integrated PhD candidates require a supervisory team comprising a minimum of two supervisors. Hence, you will need both a named lead supervisor and at least one secondary supervisor. Usually, a willing potential lead supervisor can assist in identifying possible secondary supervisors.

Other requirements

If English is not your first language, you are required to attain a minimum overall standard on a recognized English proficiency test. Your performance should demonstrate proficiency across all sections of the test, and it must have been completed within the two years prior to your start on the Integrated PhD programme.

English Language requirements

IELTS

You will need an International English Language Test System (IELTS) score of at least 7.0 overall. Your scores for reading, writing, listening and speaking must be at least 6.5.

These results must be no more than two years old from the start date of your MSc course.

Read more on the IELTS website.

IELTS alternatives

We also accept other language tests, including PTE Academic, TOEFL. iBT, CPE and CAE.

Read more about alternative language tests.

If you have already taken a test but have not met the required standard, you can apply to take a pre-sessional course at the University. Find out more about pre-sessional courses.

If you are already studying in the UK

If you completed all of your undergraduate studies in:

• the UK
• a country where English is the official first language

You may be exempt from our English language requirements.

Combined offers

If you have an overall IELTS score of 6.5 or 6.0 you may qualify for a combined offer.

Five-week course

An overall IELTS score of 6.5 may allow you to take a five-week English course before your MSc. Each of your listening, reading, writing and speaking scores must be at least 6.0.

Ten-week course

An overall IELTS score of 6.0 may allow you to take a ten-week course before your MSc. Each of your listening, reading, writing and speaking scores must be at least 5.5.

Find out more about combined offers.

References

Two references are required. At least one of these should be an academic reference if you have been studying recently.