Entry Requirements and How to Apply

Details of how to apply for a place on our Research Programme - including guidelines for writing research proposals - can be found on the School of English web pages.  Applications are made through the School of English, in which the Victorian Studies Centre is housed, but we welcome applications to carry out work on Victorian Studies topics from any suitable qualified applicants. We offer single-subject as well as interdisciplinary supervision.

How to apply (School of English page)

Facilities for Research Students

The University Library, established in 1922 and recently refurbished, offers first-rate provision for research in Victorian Studies. It is particularly strong in sources for the study of nineteenth-century literature. Special collections include 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 Victorian Studies. 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 Centre can provide supervision for individual research projects (full-time or part-time) on many topics within Victorian Studies. 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 module in Bibliography and Research Methods in their first term of registration.

Minimum and maximum periods of registration are: