Course Overview
A PhD or MPhil in Creative Writing enables you to undertake a substantial independent project, which should be of a publishable standard.The PhD takes three years full-time or six years part-time, and the MPhil takes two years full-time or four years part-time.Your work is assessed in two parts: a book-length creative work, and a critical essay. The creative work may take the form of:
- a novel, or
- a collection of short fiction, or
- an anthology of poetry, or
- a long poem, or
- a play for stage or radio (or both), or
- a work of creative non-fiction.
Length
- A work of prose fiction or creative non-fiction should be approximately 80,000-100,000 words.
- The critical essay should be up to 10,000 words.
- An anthology of poems or a long poem should be up to 10,000 words (roughly equivalent to a 50-poem collection).
- A work of drama should take the form of a fully-realised two-act play, suitable for production, each act designed to last about one hour.
This is followed by an oral examination of the thesis (a viva voce examination, or viva).
Your project will be agreed in consultation with supervisors and we recommend these discussions begin before applying, to help draw up an initial proposal.
You will develop and hone research skills needed for high-level work in any field of creative writing, while skills and training programmes available on campus provide further support. You will have the opportunity to deliver presentations to research students and staff at departmental seminars, and at the College of Arts and Humanities Postgraduate conference.
You may also have the chance to teach undergraduate tutorials and seminars from the second year, for which you receive training and payment. Financial support is also provided (subject to approval) for attending conferences or conducting research away from Swansea.
The Research Excellence Framework 2014 reported on postgraduate research in the department.
The environment in the Department is ‘conducive to producing research of mostly at least internationally excellent and at its best world-leading quality’
‘Arrangements for postgraduates were deemed of world-leading quality’
‘There is clear evidence of the development of a research culture into which research students are fully integrated’
‘There are excellent arrangements for support, training and employability’.
