Overview

Our research programmes provide a combination of formal research training and individual supervision within a supportive environment, with regular interaction between staff and students. For example, the School runs a weekly Graduate Research Training Seminar, where students are encouraged to present their work and receive feedback from peers and staff.

Students enjoy regular meetings with a supervisor and supervisory team, and are also given opportunities to collaborate with other members of staff through the staff research seminar and the activities of the four research centres.

Students are encouraged to participate in the annual postgraduate research conference, during which various staff members discuss the work of research students, and outside speakers offer plenary lectures. Research students will also be able to benefit from the skills training offered by the University’s Graduate and Researcher College.

Choosing a topic

Although sometimes we have specific PhD research projects related to funding awards, most of our research students choose their own research topics. Once you have decided on the nature of your project, you should then contact the member of staff in the School whose expertise and interests most closely match your area of research and ask them if they will act as your supervisor. Master's by Research applicants should also follow this procedure.

You then work with your proposed supervisor on refining your research proposal which provides the starting point for your subsequent research.

The breadth of expertise within the School enables us to provide research supervision on a wide range of topics across the area of Comparative Politics. Current projects of students studying in this area include:

• Party System Institutionalization in the Post-Soviet region: The Case of Kyrgyzstan
• The Impact of New Social Media on Political Behaviour
• Support for the European Union: The Misleading Case of the Republic of Ireland
• Glafkos Clerides: Transformative Leadership and the Revision of Greek Nationalism in Cyprus

This programme is based at our Canterbury campus.