structured phd modules

From October 2008, NUI Galway is offering a new structured graduate education programme which will run over a four year period.  The programme is funded by the Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP) under PRTLI4 and is compulsory for all ISSP funded students within NUI Galway. The aim of this structured graduate education programme is to ensure that our graduate students are equipped with the best range of skills and the  knowledge they need to prepare them for successful careers on graduation.  

There are 6 research centres involved in ISSP within NUI Galway:

Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (Whitaker Institute)

Centre for Disability Law and Policy

Centre for Research on Occupational and Life Stress (CROLS)

Child and Family Research Centre (CFRC)

Irish Centre for Social Gerentology (ICSG)

Irish Centre for Rural Transformation and Sustainability (ICERTS)

The modules within this programme are delivered in block format comprising of multiple themes to ensure a more interactive, multidisciplinary,  learning experience. Each module is  accompanied by assessment exercises.

Students may also take postgraduate modules from partner institutions within the graduate education programme of the Irish Social Sciences Platform. This assures that students receive instruction from a wide variety of faculty and disciplines.

The Programme

As well as their primary research, PhD students funded by the Irish Social Sciences Platform at NUI Galway are required to complete educational activities over the course of their tenure according to the following guidelines.

Structured educational activities must amount to 70 ECTS credits in total.

Accumulated credits must be distributed across generic, domain-related, and discipline-specific activities as follows:

Generic activities:  These should cover generic skills related to academia and scholarship, such as writing and presentation skills, critical thinking, research methods,  research ethics, etc.  It is required that at least 20 ECTS worth of generic activities be completed.

Domain-related activities:  These relate to educational activities within the social sciences in general, such as those topics covered by ISSP summer/spring/winter schools or by ISSP advanced PhD modules operated at NUI Galway or elsewhere.  It is required that at least 20 ECTS worth of domain-related activities be completed.

Discipline-specific activities:  These relate to educational activities associated with the academic subject in which the student’s PhD is located.  In most cases this will be identified in terms of the student’s School or Discipline affiliation, or the student’s affiliation to a Research Cluster within a given research centre or institute.  It is required that at least 30 ECTS worth of discipline-specific activities be completed.

You can download details of modules offered within NUI Galway here:

Evaluation of Public Policy

Communicating Research to Non-Specialists

Innovation and Public Policy

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