A full-time PhD takes three years and a part-time PhD six years to complete. The PhD is a research degree, which means that there are no (compulsory) taught classes or exams. However, a training programme tailored to your background and topic will be arranged for you, which might include attending relevant MA lectures or classes. The outcome of your research project is an academic thesis of between 80,000 and 100,000 words in length. You will have a supervisor and a co-supervisor who are specialists in different aspects of your topic and who will support your research through regular supervision meetings. Where necessary, a specialist co-supervisor from another department (e.g. Applied Linguistics, Computer Science, Welsh) can be appointed.
Before you can apply for a PhD place, you will need to decide on the area in which you would like to work, and the kind of topic you would like to investigate. We know from experience that first ideas tend to be rather general and need refining, and that you might initially be considering research of different types or in several different areas. We will be happy to work with you to develop your ideas and advise you on how to build up a workable project that meets your research objectives.
As part of your application you must submit an outline proposal, which should contain the following elements:
- A research question (‘What I want to find out is…’), and a brief statement of why it is original and interesting
- A succinct overview of existing work in the field
- An outline of the corpus of materials that you propose to investigate
- A methodology for conducting your investigation
- Some indication of the results you think you might obtain, and why they would be significant
- A short bibliography of key texts.
For further information or to discuss an outline proposal, please contact the relevant PhD coordinator:
PhD in Modern Languages: Prof Julian Preece
PhD in Translation: Prof Andrew Rothwell.
Apply today through Admissions!