PhD Museum Practice / Course details

Our pioneering PhD Museum Practice doctoral programme is specifically designed for people working in museums and galleries who want to undertake advanced research which builds on their professional knowledge and practice.

The structure of the programme is devised to enable you to develop your career while simultaneously studying for a doctoral qualification.

This PhD is one of a suite of professional practice-focused doctorates overseen by the Institute for Cultural Practices that aim to engage experienced professionals in advanced research.

It takes explicit account of the professional practice base of the student and integrates this as a central knowledge base for the research project.

We aim to support the development of dynamic knowledge outcomes that can have an impact across academic and non-academic contexts, as well as of reflective practice that can respond to and influence the complex unpredictable and shifting social and cultural contexts within which museums and their staff operate.

The programme will introduce you to a range of dynamic and challenging concepts and methods with which to reflect critically and constructively on your professional practice.

You will be supported through a bi-annual residential programme in addition to standard supervisions which sustain the cohort for peer learning.

The structure of the programme is designed to support people who are embarking on advanced research and are combining doctoral study with a career. The PhD is frequently undertaken part-time to provide time for engagement in professional practice.

You can find out more about our  research  on the Institute of Cultural Practices website, and see what our  current PhD students  are working on.

Graduate School

All of our postgraduate students become members of the Graduate School when you start at Manchester. It has dedicated facilities for students and offers opportunities to collaborate with other postgraduates.

Students join together in a learning environment to investigate the principles of reflective practice, practice-based research, and to engage in research methods training and group learning about relevant areas of social and cultural theory.

This pedagogical approach enables your professional context to become your primary research resource.

You will receive individual supervision from an academic supervisor with a specialism related to your field of research, as well as opportunities to develop reflective enquiry into practice via group-based learning exercises with other practitioners at two three-day meetings per year.

You will also attend research training sessions at artsmethods@manchester , our programme of skills training for postgraduates on both taught and research programmes.

You will receive monthly individual supervisions and work towards key milestones over the course of the programme.

Progress is also supported via attendance at two three-day-long meetings per year in autumn and spring (Thursday to Saturday).

Written and practical work produced for each milestone is revised for the final thesis submission. Assuming that the PhD is undertaken part-time over a six-year period, the key milestones are:

• Year 1: literature review (12,000-15,000 words in total)
• Year 2: revised research proposal and portfolio of reflective practice (10,000 words in total).
• Year 3-5: individual targets appropriate to the completion of the thesis research, including practical work, draft chapters, reflective writing.
• Year 6: work towards submission of thesis of 80,000 words or practical outcome accompanied by a 20,000 to 50,000-word thesis.

The PhD can be completed via a written thesis or PhD 'by practice' (practice-based research process complemented by a written thesis).

The programme is structured on the basis that the most suitable pathway is the part-time route. However, there is a negotiable full-time route in special cases (which may be more desirable, for example, for researchers who have accessed funding to support an extended break from the profession, or for retired professionals).

Full-time students will have 12 individual supervisions per year, twice-yearly 'research panels' and access to additional support at twice yearly workshop meetings to ensure that they can meet key milestones.

Research and teaching in museology are supported by rich resources within the University, including in the collections of the University of Manchester Library with its unique Special Collections housed in the refurbished Deansgate building, the Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery , as well as in other distinguished Manchester archives.

Manchester is home to one of the UK's five National Research Libraries - one of the best-resourced academic libraries in the UK and widely recognised as one of the world's greatest research libraries.

Find out more about libraries and study spaces for postgraduate research students at Manchester.

We also have one of the largest academic IT services in Europe - supporting world-class teaching and research. There are extensive computing facilities across campus, with access to standard office software as well as specialist programmes, all connected to the campus network and internet.

Every student is registered for email, file storage and internet access. If more demanding computer access is required, our specialist computing division can provide high-end and specialist computing services.

The Graduate School offers dedicated state of the art facilities to research students, including common rooms and workstations.

Find out more about facilities for Institute for Cultural Practices students.