Law Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

Our postgraduate students enjoy a friendly and stimulating research environment and regular, personally-tailored supervisory sessions. Participating fully in the life of the Department, our doctoral students are valued members of a close-knit group of academics.

Our lively annual Postgraduate Research Day is always well-attended and gives postgraduate researchers the opportunity to showcase their work. We understand the importance of fostering doctoral students' professional skills, and fully support them in presenting papers at academic conferences in the UK and abroad. We are committed to our students' success, providing mock vivas, annual reviews, and personal advice on future career paths. Many members of the Department's postgraduate community are from outside the UK, providing an opportunity for the exchange of ideas within an international context.

The Department welcomes applications from suitably qualified and highly-motivated candidates. The application process for our postgraduate research programmes is an interactive one. We place great emphasis on matching prospective students to supervisors’ interests, building on our existing research activities. Interested potential applicants should first refer to our website to obtain a good idea of the Department's research. The Department is only able to consider applications in research areas of interest to its full-time academic staff.

In the first instance, potential applicants should prepare a research proposal, outlining the project that they will undertake if accepted onto the PhD programme. This should be at least 4-5 pages long and should include a brief literature review, the key research questions stemming from this review, proposed methodology and a bibliography. Email this research proposal, along with a brief CV, to the Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Jonathan Gabe.

If the proposal is met with interest by a potential supervisor, the Director of Graduate Studies will invite the potential applicant to discuss their proposal further via email. UK-based applicants may be invited to visit the Department. Promising potential applicants will then be advised to apply formally for a place on our PhD programme.

Potential applicants may contact the Director of Graduate Study with proposals at any stage of the academic year.