Politics PhD

The University of Brighton welcomes applicants for a PhD in politics, one of its major academic strengths. You will work within a thriving and supportive academic environment, with membership of one or more of our specialist centres, normally the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics.

Students with interests across disciplinary boundaries can develop supervisory teams and methodologies from across the university including human geography, history, political art theory and practice, dissonant sexualities, criminology, globalisation, and many aspects concerning social justice and equality.

We encourage you to approach a possible lead supervisor in the first instance. If this is successful then they will help you to shape a project and draw on the necessary expertise from our inter-disciplinary researchers across the university.

We welcome approaches to discuss suitable projects and can provide advice on application, proposals and any suitable funding. Your Politics PhD project may lend itself to a social sciences methodology or a humanities-based approach. You should consider this when you are shaping your proposal and approaching a supervisor. Please see staff working within the School of Humanities and Social Science.

Career opportunities include academic posts as lecturers and postdoctoral research assistants at the University of Brighton and elsewhere, as well as roles in central and local government, non-governmental organisations, social research, teaching, journalism and the media.

Politics-focused research is undertaken across the university. We advise applicants to look closely at the research centres and schools detailed on this page in order to find a suitable lead supervisor, who will then help progress the application.

Key information

Your PhD will be supervised by expert academics who will also guide you towards career decisions and allow your work to draw on and contribute to the wider academic society at Brighton and at partner universities.

As a Politics PhD student, you will

have a supervisory team comprising two members of academic staff. Depending on your particular area study you may also have additional supervisors from other research institutions or external partners.
become part of an active and engaged community of research learning, leading talks, and social events with opportunities to present your work as it progresses and network with other researchers.
be part of an active research centre: the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics
have desk space and access to a computer in a space specifically designed for research students.
have access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s online library, as well as to the physical books and journals at St Peter’s House Library in central Brighton and other campus libraries.

Academic environment

Our research excellence is represented in our cross-school Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs) and students would normally be based in one or more of these.

Research themes in the centres include:

Social Movements and Radical Global Politics
Critical Theory and Radical Politics
Environmental and climate change
Human migration
Sustainability and tourism
Power and inequality in/through specific spaces and environments –
New social and ecological visions

As well as our Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence, the university also supports research through Research Excellence Groups, all of which are available to Politics PhD students for membership and for networking. Of particular interest may be the Law, Society and Justice Research Excellence Group

We recommend that you explore the centres and groups further to fully appreciate the range of expertise in co-designed and creative research methodologies and find a supervisor for your proposal.

These, and the university schools, offer a range of social and research events and activities, with opportunity for researchers to share their work and contribute to the development of each other’s research. There are annual festivals of research in specialist disciplinary areas.

Centres and groups whose members supervise PhD Politics

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the University of Brighton through our online application portal. When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of Brighton staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2024–25

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
	Full-time	Part-time
UK	£4,786	£2,393
International (including EU)	£15,900	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£14,500	N/A

PhD by Publication
Full-time	Part-time
N/A	£2,393

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of Brighton we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.