Education / Lifelong Learning (MPhil / PhD)

As a research student, you will be interested in your own development as a lifelong learner and will seek to engage in critical debate and key issues of education and lifelong learning. You will develop your skills as an independent and active learner, and apply your research skills with theoretical perspectives and understandings of lifelong learning. On completing an MPhil/PhD degree you will have developed advanced skills in research and scholarly writing, and will be able to use these to embark on, or further, a career in research.

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research.
We have academic experts in education after the compulsory phase, including adult, community, further and higher education as well as professional learning, and supervision is offered in a range of areas. These include:

Lifelong learning
Higher education policy and practice
Lifelong learning and widening participation policy and practice
Workplace learning
Transitions from learning to working
The academic workplace
Professional learning and education
Post-compulsory education
Adult education
Continuing education
Gender and education
Education in later life
Education and social class
Community-based learning