Overview

The University of Leicester's School of English is a major centre for research. It offers expert supervision, by nationally — and internationally — known scholars and critics, across the full range of literature from the medieval period to the present day, including modern literary theory, editorial and bibliographical studies, and literary biography, as well as major authors and various topics in the historical contexts of literature. We offer a PhD in Creative Writing, and provide supervision in a number of areas of language study.

The School's integrated arrangements for supervision, training, and academic seminars combine with a strong staff profile to provide an excellent environment for research and learning.

Assessment for the degrees of PhD and MPhil is by thesis and final oral examination.

Facilities for Research Students

The University Library, established in 1922 and recently refurbished, offers first-rate provision for research in English Studies and cognate fields. It is particularly strong in sources for the study of nineteenth-century and twentieth-century literature. Special collections include seventeenth-century religious writings, the Fairclough Collection (seventeenth-century history, prints, and social background), and Victorian periodicals.

The University provides word-processing and computing facilities campus-wide.

The School encourages and advises on graduate involvement in the larger network of scholarship, through attendance at conferences, visits to archives and special collections, and publication.

Research Training

Research students are closely and expertly supervised on an individual basis by a main supervisor and a back-up supervisor, or sometimes jointly. Additionally, all students take a one-semester seminar course on research methods, bibliography, and writing skills. A regular "Research in Progress" seminar-series, organised by graduate students themselves, provides a forum for presentations and the exchange of ideas amongst graduate students and staff. The other staff/graduate-student seminar involves the presentation and discussion of formal research papers, often given by speakers from outside Leicester.

The College of Arts, Humanities and Law provides comprehensive research training for all students within the College, including English. A series of training days is provided (see full programme details).

The Graduate School provides an introduction to research at the University in the first week of the autumn term, and the Student Development Zone also provides training courses and practical workshops for postgraduate students during the year.

Registration

The School of English can provide supervision for individual research projects (full-time or part-time) in most periods of English literature and some aspects of American literature - see our School research interests. Research students are normally admitted as Advanced Postgraduate Students, and transfer at a later stage to the degree of either MPhil or PhD. The School has many part-time postgraduate students as well as full-time ones working both for research degrees and for the MAs. All new postgraduate students undertake a course in Bibliography and Research Methods in their first term of registration.

Minimum and maximum periods of registration are: