Structured PhD (Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences) (Political Science and Sociology)

Course details

In the School of Political Science and Sociology, PhD students pursue their research as part of the thematic Research Cluster in which their supervisor is located. The School's Research Clusters are:

• Children, Youth and Families (the Child and Family Research Centre)
• Gender, Empowerment and Globalisation
• Governance and Sustainable Development
• Power, Conflict and Ideologies

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, e.g., Social and Political Theory
• are Dissertation-Specific in that they supply core skills which are essential to completion of the research project e.g. Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods 
• 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.

Entry requirements

The minimum qualification necessary to be considered for a PhD is a high honours primary degree, or equivalent international qualification. Admission to a research degree is at the discretion of the potential Supervisor and Head of School, and is based on a proposal from the applicant following discussion with a potential supervisor.