PhD Archaeology / Overview

Year of entry: 2024

Degree awarded
Doctor of Philosophy
Duration
3 Year [Full-time], 6 Years [Part-time]
Entry requirements
  • Bachelor's (Honours) degree at 2:1 or above (or overseas equivalent)
  • Master's degree in a relevant subject – with an overall average of 65% or above, a minimum mark of 65% in your dissertation and no mark below 55% (or overseas equivalent) 
  • Any strong relevant professional experience will be considered on a case by case basis.

Full entry requirements

How to apply

Apply online 

Please ensure you include all  required supporting documents  at the time of submission, as incomplete applications may not be considered.

Application Deadlines 

For consideration in internal funding competitions, you must submit your completed application by  12 January 2024.

If you are applying for or have secured external funding (for example, from an employer or government) or are self–funding, you must submit your application before the below deadlines to be considered. You will not be able to apply after these dates have passed. 

  • For September 2024 entry:  30 June 2024 
  • For January 2025 entry:  30 September 2024 

Programme options

Full-time Part-time Full-time distance learning Part-time distance learning
PhD Y Y N N

Attend an open day

Discover more about Archaeology

Programme description

Our PhD Archaeology programme will see you undertake substantial original research leading to a thesis that constitutes a genuine contribution to archaeological knowledge. You can undertake your PhD as either a full-time or part-time programme.

Archaeology students often undertake some form of fieldwork as part of their PhD, such as small-scale excavation, survey, rock art recording, and working with museum collections and archives.

You could also carry out qualitative social research in the realm of heritage studies (eg conducting qualitative interviews or participant observation).

Archaeology research at Manchester is characterised by a number of themes, which give a distinctive flavour to our research and teaching. These include the study of:

  • history, theory and practice of Archaeology;
  • the archaeology of cultural identity;
  • landscape, monuments and architecture;
  • technology and society;
  • death and the body
  • archaeological heritage and the contemporary significance of the past.

Our doctoral students participate in a thriving disciplinary research culture with regular research seminars.

Many of our students undertake some undergraduate teaching following appropriate training.

Find out more about what it's like to be an Archaeology PhD student at Manchester and see what our current PhD students are working on.

Open days

Find out what it's like to study at Manchester by visiting us on one of our  open days . Potential graduate applicants are always welcome to visit the department outside of open days, and these visits can often be arranged to give you a chance to meet existing graduate students and/or to attend one of the graduate seminars.

Please contact Dr Ina Berg (ina.berg@manchester.ac.uk ) for more information.

Fees

Fees for entry in 2024 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2023 were as follows:

  • PhD (full-time)
    UK students (per annum): £4,712
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £21,000
  • PhD (part-time)
    UK students (per annum): £2,356

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

Please note for the majority of projects where experimentation requires further resource higher fee bands (where quoted) will be charged rather than the base rate for supervision, administration and computational costs. The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive and, therefore, you will not be required to pay any additional bench fees or administration costs.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of the course for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for International students, for the course duration at the year of entry). For general fees information please visit: postgraduate fees . Always contact the Department if you are unsure which fee applies to your project.

Scholarships/sponsorships

There are a range of scholarships, studentships and awards to support both UK and overseas postgraduate researchers, details of which can be found via the links below. 

To apply University of Manchester funding, you must indicate in your application the competitions for which you wish to be considered. The deadline for most internal competitions, including AHRC NWCDTP and School of Arts, Languages and Cultures studentships is 12 January 2024. 

All external funding competitions have a specified deadline for submitting the funding application form and a separate (earlier) deadline for submitting the online programme application form, both of which will be stated in the funding competition details below.  

 For more information about funding, visit our funding page or use our  funding database to search for scholarships, studentships and awards you may be eligible for.  

Contact details

School/Faculty
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
Contact name
Humanities Doctoral Academy Admissions
Email
Website
https://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/
School/Faculty

See: About us

Programmes in related subject areas

Use the links below to view lists of programmes in related subject areas.

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You can find regulations and policies relating to student life at The University of Manchester, including our Degree Regulations and Complaints Procedure, on our regulations website.