Period of registration

MPhil and PhD degrees are normally studied full-time and require at least two years for the MPhil and at least three years for the PhD In exceptional circumstances students may be registered part-time for a research degree. 

Training and assessment

Postgraduate research supervision is provided on a one-to-one basis. Individual tutorials are held on a regular basis to focus on the student's individual work and to enable supervisors to closely monitor each student's progress. First year research students are normally registered as advanced postgraduate students and are required to follow the MA Mass Communications course. By the end of the course, students will have acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to develop their research proposals and to carry out their research.

Students are normally formally registered for the degree of MPhil or PhD after successful completion of their first year of full-time registration.

Assessment for all research degrees is by thesis and an oral examination (viva voice). 

Facilities

Research students have access to their own office accommodation in the Attenborough Building, containing computers and providing on-line access to a range of computing facilities, the internet and the university library's catalogue and bibliographic databases.

All research students are encouraged to discuss their work with colleagues in a monthly Ph.D. seminar. A thriving programme of staff/student seminars invites academic and industry researchers and media practitioners from outside the Department to present papers for discussion.

The Department encourages research students to attend conferences outside Leicester and will offer some financial support where a student is an active participant, and his/her paper has been accepted. 

Recent PhD theses

• Saudi Children's Viewing in the Age of Globalisation: a Case Study in Jeddah (2003)
• Policy Making in Portuguese Television and its effects on Programming (2003)
• Media and Government: The Effects of the Press on US Foreign Policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2003)
• How Advertising Influences the Attitudes and Reported Behaviour of Middle Class British Adolescents (2004)
  Sense of Region? Independent Television in the Midlands, 1950-2000. (2004)
  Details of some of our current research students

Funding

The Department has + 3 recognition from the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom for the receipt of postgraduate studentships for UK and EU students. While the Department cannot offer any financial assistance for its students, it will strongly support requests from successful applicants to outside bodies for tuition and maintenance grants. Some overseas students are supported by their own national funding and scholarship provisions, while others have been supported by the British Council, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and WACC amongst others.

The University of Leicester offers a limited number of scholarships and bursaries to students from certain countries. Details are available from the International Office, University of Leicester. LE1 7RH, Tel (0)116 252 2296 or the Admissions Office, University of Leicester LE1 7RH, Tel (0)116 252 2298. 

Requirements for admission:

To be registered for a research degree at the Department of Media and Communication, students should have a good first degree (ie. at least an Upper Second Class Honours or equivalent) and a Master's level qualification or equivalent, although this is not essential.

Where English is not the first language, students are required, prior to admission to the Department, to provide evidence of their proficiency in both written and spoken English. This should usually be a score of 6.5 or above in the British Council IELTS test or a score of 600 in TOEFL (or 250 in the TOEFL computer based test), to include the Test of Written English (TWE) with a score of 4 or above. The University's English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) offers full-time preparatory courses in English Language and Study Skills for overseas students. Our International Office can provide further help and guidance. 

Applications

Students should apply to study for degrees by research, by submission of a University of Leicester postgraduate application form, together with a detailed outline of their proposed research. This should take the form of a brief paper (4 to 5 pages) which should state: 

• Their reasons for choosing the proposed topic
• The main aims and objectives of the research
• An indication that they are familiar with related research and relevant literature
• Details of the methodology they propose to use
• And any possible applications of the work
• Applications can be submitted online or by post. 

Application Form in pdf format which you can print yourself and send by post.   Research Ethics information

Once completed, applications should be posted to:

The Graduate Office
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester, LE1 7RH
United Kingdom

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