Course Overview

As part of the doctoral training available on the Structured PhD programme, students avail themselves of a range of interdisciplinary taught modules. The wide menu of available options include modules that:

  • are discipline-specific in that they augment the student’s existing knowledge in their specialist area
  • are dissertation-specific in that they supply core skills which are essential to completion of the research project, e.g., additional language skills
  • acknowledge a student’s professional development e.g. presentation of a paper at an international conference
  • enhance a student’s employability through generic training, e.g,. careers workshops, computer literacy.

Each student will be assigned a primary Supervisor(s) and a Graduate Research Committee made up of experienced researchers to plan their programme of study and to provide on-going support to their research.

Both continental and analytic styles of philosophy are encouraged for research in this Discipline . The main areas for postgraduate research are post-Kantian and contemporary continental philosophy, aesthetics and bioethics. Within the Centre for Bioethical Research and Analysis (COBRA), which the Discipline hosts, research projects in areas of bioethics and professional ethics are especially encouraged. Within the area of continental philosophy we have particular interests in Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Art and Culture, and Philosophy of Religion. Postgraduate research is also invited in the areas of Political Philosophy, Modern Philosophy (early and late), Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Psychiatry, Philosophy of Mind and Irish thought.

Programmes Available

Structured PhD (Philosophy)—full-time 
Structured PhD (Philosophy)—part-time
Applications are made online via the University of Galway Postgraduate Applications System

Associated

Learning Outcomes

Entry Requirements

For the Structured PhD in Philosophy we are looking for students with some background in philosophy (or cognate areas) who have, or expect to be awarded, a degree of at least upper-second class standard, or equivalent international qualification.

Who’s Suited to This Course

Current research projects

Please visit: http://www.nuigalway.ie/colleges-and-schools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/history-philosophy/disciplines-centres/philosophy/research/ 

  • Between Immanence and Transcendence: On the Religious Significance of the Hegelian Middle
  • The Two Worlds of Edmund Husserl: World as correlate of Consciousness and World as Life world
  • Ethics and Assisted Dying in Ireland
  • The unknowable self: Implications of Nietzsche's Philosophical Psychology for the possibility of freedom and morality
  • Nietzsche's will to power metaphysics
  • Against computationalism: computation, consciousness, and the limits of the scientific image
  • On the Value of Knowledge: From Plato’s ‘Meno’ to the contemporary debate

Current funded research opportunity

Work Placement

Related Student Organisations

Career Opportunities

Find a Supervisor / PhD Project

If you are still looking for a potential supervisor or PhD project or would like to identify the key research interests of our academic staff and researchers, you can use our online portal to help in that search

Research Areas

  • Phenomenology of Art and Cultures (especially visual arts) 
  • Phenomenology of Religion (especially contemporary French thought) 
  • Classical Phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty) 
  • Bioethics (especially issues concerning disability and new genetic technologies) 
  • Applied Ethics 
  • Environmental Ethics 
  • Professional and Research Ethics 
  • Political Philosophy 
  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Philosophy (especially Kant, Hegel and 
  • Nietzsche) 
  • History of Irish thought 
  • Philosophy of Science, 
  • Philosophy of Psychology and Psychiatry 
  • Philosophy of Mind 
  • Epistemology 

Researcher Profiles

Course Fees

Fees: EU

€5,750 p.a. (€5,890 including levy) 2024/25

Fees: Non EU

€14,500 p.a. (€14,640 including levy) 2024/25

Extra Information


EU Part time: Year 1 €4,250 p.a. (€4,390 including levy) 2024/25

All students, irrespective of funding, must pay the student levy of €140.

Contact Us

Dr. Tsarina Doyle
T +353 91 495 473
E tsarina.doyle@universityofgalway.ie