Program Overview

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Law MPhil/PhD

Course Overview

With a research degree from Middlesex University, you'll make a lasting contribution to social justice through academic study or professional practice.

Why Study MPhil/PhD Law at Middlesex University?

The School of Law at Middlesex has a vibrant and diverse MPhil/PhD programme with some 70 students engaged in research on a variety of topics spanning law, politics, international relations, criminology, and sociology. Students are based either at our campus in London or overseas, including at our campuses in Mauritius and Dubai. Within the School, you will benefit from supervision by world-leading academics and a multidisciplinary research environment, bringing together doctoral students, researchers, practitioners, and professionals from both within and outside the academy. Middlesex is home to outstanding centres of research and practice, such as the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre.

A graduate from the Middlesex PhD programme will have developed advanced skills in research, analysis, and writing, public presentations, and, in many cases, teaching at university level. A hallmark of the doctoral programme at Middlesex is that students are encouraged and supported to publish their research, whether as a monograph, as journal articles, or in academic blogs. Our graduates are strongly placed to pursue careers in the global academic world, as well as high-level work in international institutions, governments, non-governmental organisations, and the commercial sector.

Doctoral students based in London benefit from proximity to the city's vast cultural resources and world-class libraries, such as the British Library and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

About Your Course

What Will You Study on MPhil/PhD Law?

Research degrees are quite different from undergraduate or taught Masters degree programmes. Under the guidance of your Director of Studies and supervisor(s), you will conduct empirical or theoretical research that will lead to new knowledge in your chosen field and write a thesis of around 80,000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography).

Our diverse range of programmes – including traditional PhD programmes provided full-time, part-time, and via distance learning, and PhD by Public Works – provide different pathways to doctoral study to suit your prior experience and commitments.

The route to a PhD at Middlesex University takes a minimum of three years for full-time students and six years for part-time students. This includes taking a structured PhD training and development programme at University-level and having access to a wide-range of activities to build our doctoral student community within the School of Law.

There are three stages of the PhD: the first stage is registration, which for full-time students takes place within six months of enrolment. The second stage is the transfer from the MPhil to the PhD programme. The transfer panel assesses whether sufficient progress has been made to progress to the PhD and takes place within 18 months of the start date for full-time students. The final stage of the programme is the writing up and submission of the final thesis at the end of the third year. This involves the production of a final draft of your thesis and its submission for examination (the viva). Timescales are extended commensurately for part-time students.

Teaching and Learning

How is the MPhil/PhD Law Taught?

A Director of Studies and at least one supervisor from the University will conduct your research supervision.

Your supervisors will act as personal tutors, helping you to clarify your initial objectives, structure your research, and develop supplementary skills. They also advise on subject reading, relevant taught courses, research seminars, and workshops.

Academic support and guidance is constantly available, whether you work individually or as part of a team. There are regular research tutorials, plus seminars and meetings with research students, staff, and guest speakers.

Collaborations with External Partners

If you're working in partnership with an external organisation, you may be jointly supervised by academics from Middlesex University and the collaborating partner.

Where collaboration is involved, you should ensure that from the outset the responsibilities for provision of fees, equipment, and any other resources are fully understood and accepted by the partners.

Facilities and Support

Student Support

We offer lots of support to help you while you're studying, including financial advice, wellbeing, mental health, and disability support.

Additional Needs

We'll support you if you have additional needs such as sensory impairment or dyslexia. And if you want to find out whether Middlesex is the right place for you before you apply, get in touch with our Disability and Dyslexia team.

Wellness

Our specialist teams will support your mental health. We have free individual counselling sessions, workshops, support groups, and useful guides.

Work While You Study

Our Middlesex Unitemps branch will help you find work that fits around uni and your other commitments. We have hundreds of student jobs on campus that pay the London Living Wage and above. Visit the Middlesex Unitemps page.

Entry Requirements

Qualifications

For doctoral research, applicants are expected to have at least one of the following:

• An undergraduate degree, usually with class 2:1 or equivalent in a relevant subject
• A relevant master's qualification or equivalent evidence of prior professional practice or learning that meets the higher education provider's criteria and guidelines for the recognition of prior learning for the purpose of meeting entry requirements for a programme (including, for example, the required amount of prior publications or other output specified for applicants for the award of PhD by published work)

PhD

• If you'd like to enrol for our PhD course, you'll first need to enrol for the MPhil and then transfer to a PhD once you've made enough progress with your research – typically after 18-24 months.

Eligibility

UK/EU and international students are eligible to apply for this course.

Interviews, Entrance Tests, Portfolios, and Auditions

Entry onto this course will require an interview.

Fees and Funding

Fees

The fees below are for the 2024/25 academic year.

• UK students: £6,300 per year (full-time), £3,150 (flat fee per year, part-time)
• International students: £15,700 per year (full-time), £7,850 (flat fee per year, part-time)

Funding

Funding for research degrees is limited, and most research degree students are expected to pay their own fees and subsistence costs.

Research Areas

We welcome applications for Law in the following fields:

• Arbitration and dispute resolution
• Business and commercial law
• Child and family law
• Comparative constitutional law
• Criminal law
• Employment law
• Environmental law and governance
• Equality and discrimination
• European Union law
• Gender, migration, and citizenship
• Global law and governance
• International criminal law
• International humanitarian law
• International human rights law
• International organisations
• International trade and maritime law
• International whistleblowing law and practice
• Land law
• Legal regulation of the use of force
• Legal theory
• Media law
• Medical law
• Minority and indigenous peoples' rights
• Public international law
• Public law
• Regulation of new and emerging technologies
• Rule of law (practical and doctrinal issues)
• Tort
• Transitional justice

We welcome applications for Politics in the following fields:

• Critical geopolitics
• Development studies
• Diasporas and international relations
• Ethnicity and nationalism
• Foreign policy/geopolitics
• Global governance
• International environmental governance
• International migration
• International political economy
• International relations
• International security politics
• Peace and conflict studies
• Political violence and terrorism
• Politics of Europe
• Politics of globalisation
• Politics of the Middle East and Northern Africa
• Security politics
• Social movements
• Statelessness
• Sustainable development

We welcome applications for Criminology in the following fields:

• Child abuse (online and offline)
• Crime of the powerful
• Criminal justice process
• Criminal law
• Criminological theory
• Cybercrime and cyber security
• Domestic violence
• Gender and Crime
• Green criminology
• Human rights
• Media and crime
• Mental health
• Organised crime
• Policing
• Political violence and terrorism
• Prison
• Probation
• Race
• Sentencing and punishment in the criminal courts
• Substance use
• Research methods and ethnographic research
• War
• Young people accommodated in state care and care leavers
• Youth crime and youth justice

We welcome applications for Sociology in the following fields:

• Critical theory
• Ethnographic research
• Feminism, gender, and sexuality
• Islamic studies
• Migration, ethnicity, and identity
• Race & class/intersectionality
• Radicalisation
• Social movements
• Technology and culture
• Young people and the (online) media