Postgraduate study
Degrees by Research
The Department of English and Drama at Loughborough University welcomes informal inquiries and applications from prospective doctoral students in most fields of literary and cultural studies, drama and theatre studies, linguistics and related areas, in addition to creative writing. For a full range of research interests, prospective students should refer to the staff pages of individual members of the Department (or follow the link to the Staff Research Interests page on the right).
Initial queries should be addressed either to Professor Julian Wolfreys (J.Wolfreys@lboro.ac.uk) or Mrs C.J. Flynn-Ryan (C.J.Flynn-Ryan@lboro.ac.uk), either of whom will be happy to answer queries concerning application and suitability of research areas proposed.
Below you will find a list of frequently asked questions, with responses.
New Research Students' FAQs
What should I expect from my supervisor?
The supervisor is the person you will meet regularly for guidance on your research. The supervisor will know well the field you are working in and will help you make discoveries--contributions to the world's sum of knowledge--and keep you out of dead-ends. The supervisor will give you guidance and advice on research methods appropriate to your field, and will report to the Director of Research on your progress. Remember, though, that it is your research. The supervisors will expect you to plan the work to be done, will encourage you to question advice that is given to you and to reach independent decisions on what work needs to be done. In the last resort the supervisor will defer to your decisions wherever possible.
What should I expect from my Director of Research?
You may not see much of this person, for the Director of Research's job is to oversee the supervision and make sure that progress is being made on the research. Your Director of Research may well have no expertise in your specific field, but will be a senior academic from within our Department and will know in general terms what you are working on.
What is the Postgraduate Research, or PG(R), Coordinator for?
From your perspective, the main thing is that this person keeps a watchful eye over all the research students, and knows (or can find out) all the rules and regulations. The coordinator deals with all MPhil/PhD enquires and applications, oversees the competition for the annual Faculty Research Studentships, will advise you on such things as applications to this country's main research funding body for our subject, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). There are also postgraduate research seminars and skills workshops that we run here and at other nearby universities (De Montfort, Leicester, Nottingham), and the Research Coordinator manages those. The Research Coordinator also collates the regular reports on your work that are produced by you, your supervisor and your Director of Research and chairs the meeting that takes place once a year to review your progress and follows up problem cases. Finally it is also the Research Coordinator's job to produce leaflets and posters to publicize postgraduate opportunities here at Loughborough, and to produce the publicity material for the university prospectus.
What is the Department's Research Committee for?
The Research Committee exists to advise the Head of the Department on the promotion of research undertaken by staff in the Department--remember that every academic here is doing research just as you are--and to advise on the well-being of the Department's research students and on the development of initiatives relating to research activity and income.
What kinds of research training can I (or must I) undertake?
As a PhD student, you are expected to complete 30 days of dedicated transferable skills training during your registered period of study. This may be spread evenly (say, 10 days per year for full-time students) or may be weighted so that up to 20 days are completed in the first year, with a minimum of 5 days completed in each year. For part-time students, the annual requirement is halved. Training sessions that contribute to your total requirement are run by the University's Professional Development unit, and training is also offered by the Deparment. Other options are through self-guided study, or by attendance at training sessions organised by nationally-recognised bodies, such as UK-Grad. You need to keep a record of these training days and present it in your annual Student Self Report that you submit to the office and that is read by the panel that meets to monitor your progression. There's more detail on the Graduate School website.
Details of forthcoming training courses are available on the Staff Development website.
What are the set points in the calendar I need to look out for?
You should meet with your supervisor(s) regularly, at least once a month. You should meet with your Director of Research at the end of each semester, and you should attend the annual 'guidance meeting' for all research students given by the Head of Department. Further waypoints on your progress are:
• In the first year you should give a brief paper to Postgraduate Work-in-Progress Seminar. You should also begin to look out for conferences, both to hear others' research papers and to give a paper of your own. Ask the Department if it can offer you some undergraduate teaching. At the end of the year you should (if you are full time) submit 10,000 words to get upgraded from MPhil to PhD registration and be allowed to enter the second year. If you are part-time, it's 5,000 words and the upgrade can wait another year. You must also complete what is called a Student Self Report form telling us what you have done. In this year your supervisor will produce two half-yearly reports on you that you should read.
• In the second year give a paper at the Department's Research Seminar. Consider submitting an article to an academic journal. Again, to progress, you will produce a Student Self Report and your supervisor will produce two half-yearly reports on you that you should read.
• The third year is the final year of full-time research; this is often followed by up to a year of writing up. You should (with your supervisor's approval) give the university notice that you are going to submit your thesis. This will be a document of (60-80,000 words) that will be read by two examiners, one external and one internal, who will conduct a vive voce examination.
How long have I got to complete?
Normally 3 years full time or 5 years part time. An additional extra one year is allowable, although you have to present your reason for wanting it.
What should I do if there are any problems?
If you can't resolve a problem by talking with your supervisor, then you (alone or together with the supervisor) may consult your Director of Research. If that doesn't produce a solution, turn to the Postgraduate Research Coordinator, and failing that the Head of Department. If all that fails you can go higher still, but we'd feel pretty bad about ourselves if all those avenues within the Department failed to produce a solution.
Is there a more formal statement of the above that I can refer to? Yes, full details are provided in the Codes of practice and regulations.