PhD and MPhil Research Courses in Law

The MPhil and PhD research degrees allow you to comprehensively examine an area of law under the guidance of a supervisor with similar research interests. At the end of your degree you will submit and defend a thesis and receive a qualification that will prepare you for a competitive employment market.

The PhD degree will normally require

• Full-time up to 4 years of research (minimum registration 2 years)
• Distance Learning or part-time, up to 6 years of research (minimum registration 3 years)
• Distance Learning or part-time researchers are expected to spend 10–15 hours study time per week (some researchers use holiday periods for this)
• For the award of a PhD, you must compete an 80,000 word thesis, your work must show evidence of originality and material worthy of publication

The MPhil degree will require

• 1 –2 years of full-time research
• 2 –4 years of distance learning or part-time research
• For an MPhil thesis, depth of analysis is expected. You will complete a thesis of 50,000 words

Students can register as full-time campus based, part-time or distance learning researchers, in January, May, July or October.

Advanced Postgraduate review

All research students are admitted as Advanced Postgraduates (APG). An important stage in the progression of your research is the APG review. This is a formal review of your work and progress, and you receive an honest assessment of your performance and potential. Success in the APG review will result in your registration being upgraded to full PhD student. For full-time researchers, the APG Review is held 9 months after registration. For part-time and distance learning research students, an Annual Review is held at the end of each year of registration and the APG review after 21 months of registration.