Joint PhD

Structure

The PhD Programme is training for research that involves completion of an independent piece of original research. The research will be carried out under the guidance of supervisors from both Partner Universities, with additional support provided by members of an Advisory Board.

Students will have at least one named supervisor from each Partner University. A Lead Supervisor will be identified, which will determine the Lead University for the research student.

Research students will be registered directly for the Joint PhD award, without a preliminary period of registration for the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree. Normally, research students will spend at least six months at each of the Partner Universities. The timing, and possible subdivision, of these periods of residence will be aligned to the needs of the individual research degree study. There will also be opportunities for research students to undertake research in resource-poor countries around the world.

The supervisors will prepare progress reports every six months and they will submit these to the Joint Academic Committee (JAC).

A Qualifying Examination (QE) Panel will review the progress of each research student after 7-11 months of full-time registration (pro rata for part-time registration). Continuation in the Joint PhD programme will be allowed only if the QE Panel is satisfied that the research study and the research student’s progress are sufficiently advanced to indicate that the PhD standard will be reached within the permitted period of registration.

PhD Research Thesis

Students complete a written research thesis for the PhD degree which must be written in English with satisfactory literary presentation, and include a full reference list. The thesis should not exceed 100,000 words in length.