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STRUCTURED PhD PROGRAMME

Modules and Structure

A completed PhD will consist of 360 ECTS:

• A thesis (290 ECTS);
• Discipline-specific modules (40 ECTS); and
• Generic skills module (30 ECTS)

Any number of modules can be taken in any year (providing this has been discussed and agreed with the supervisor/supervisory committee). In the final year a maximum of 5 ECTS can be taken.

Year One

The principal objective of the first year will be the submission of a substantial doctoral proposal as well as a literature review and the construction of an extensive bibliography. Students will be expected to perform an oral examination at the end of Year One conducted by the PhD supervisory committee to confirm their PhD status. Any student whose PhD status remains ’unconfirmed’ will repeat the oral examination in September. Those that remain ’unconfirmed’ thereafter will be recommended to transfer to the MLitt (year 2). This will entail completion of an M Litt thesis (40-60,000). In normal circumstances the principal supervisor will remain in place for the duration of the MLitt.

Core Discipline-specific Modules

I. Theory and Practice of Social and Political Research I: Qualitative Research
Module Coodinator: Dr. Ricca Edmondson

This module is intended to equip students with critical, practical and constructive skills to plan, carry out and report on their own research project. The course focuses on qualitative strategies and methods of inquiry. It includes workshops which debate the implications of different methods; in response to these workshops, students will pursue their own research into methodological approaches which are relevant to their work. The course aims to transmit both the pragmatic know-how involved in different qualitative methods and the implications these methods have. The purpose of the course is to introduce participants in a rounded fashion to key aspects of qualitative research that will assist them in preparing their PhD work.

II. Social and Political Research II: Quantitative Research
Module Coordinator: Dr. Henrike Rau

This module is intended to equip students with critical cognitive and practical skills to plan, conduct and report on their own research project. The course focuses on quantitative methods of inquiry and includes a number of practical sessions (e.g. SPSS labs, introduction to secondary analysis of online sources). The purpose of the course is to introduce participants to key aspects of quantitative research, which will assist them in their Ph.D preparation. The course in¬cludes opening and concluding sections in common with the Methods 1 module (Qualitative Research).

III. Social and Political Theory
Module Coordinator: Dr. Mark Haugaard

This is a seminar-based course that provides the theoretical and normative foundations for PhD research. The topics chosen encourage students to engage with competing the theoretical tools to deal with common problems encountered in advanced research. Lecturers will act as a facilitator or guide, rather than use the didactic approaches appropriate to undergraduate teaching. The program consists of four modules; an introductory session, in which core conceptual problems are identified. A three-week research period presages a presentation by students at a collective session. Finally, students prepare for the third session at which they explain the relevance of some of these themes to their research topic.

Years Two and Three

Discipline specific modules (min 40 ECTS)

These currently include:

• Community-Based Collective Action and Natural Resource Management (10 ECTS)
• Gender Research in the Social Sciences (10 ECTS)
• Governance, Sustainable Development and Changing Communities (10 ECTS)
• The Politics of Power: Territory, Ideology and Risk (10 ECTS)

Other ways in which ECTS can be earned:

• External conference attendance (5 ECTS) (2 only).
• External conference presentation (5 ECTS) (max x2)
• Acceptance of article in journal/essay collection (10 ECTS) 
• Academic writing preparation (5 ECTS)
• Academic writing: journal (5 ECTS)
• Academic writing: essay (5 ECTS)
• Academic writing: edited book (5 ECTS)
• Academic writing: report (5 ECTS)
• Book review in an international journal (5 ECTS)
• Conference organisation (5 ECTS)

Year Four

This is primarily reserved for dissertation write-up. Students may complete up to 5 ECTS of their credit requirement as needed.

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