- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Duration
- 3 years [full-time], 6 years [part-time]
- Entry requirements
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- Bachelor's (Honours) degree at 2:1 or above (or overseas equivalent)
- Master's degree in a relevant subject – with an overall average of 70% or above
- Any strong relevant professional experience will be considered on a case by case basis.
- How to apply
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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 |
Programme description
Our PhD Creative Writing programme gives you the opportunity to work on a significant piece of creative writing while developing your research skills.
You will benefit from creative supervision by an experienced poet or fiction writer and draw on the range of expertise within the University to find a supervisor for your critical element.
There are two elements to the programme. The first is a creative element that can be a novel or a collection of short stories of up to 100,000 words, or a book-length collection of poetry of up to 60 poems.
The PhD also has a critical element, which is a piece of literary or cultural criticism of 30,000 to 50,000 words maximum.
Open days
Find out what it's like to study at Manchester by visiting us on one of our open days.
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:
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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). Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your project.
Read more about postgraduate fees .
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 to browse for scholarships, studentships and awards you may be eligible for.
- AHRC North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) PhD Studentships 2024 Entry
- School of Arts, Languages and Cultures PhD Studentships 2024 Entry
- China Scholarship Council - The University of Manchester (CSC-UoM) Joint Scholarship Programme 2024 Entry
- Trudeau Doctoral Scholarships 2024 Entry
- Commonwealth PhD Scholarships (High Income Countries)
- Humanities Doctoral Academy Humanitarian Scholarship 2024 Entry
- Commonwealth PhD Scholarships (Least Developed Countries and Fragile States)
- School of Arts, Languages and Cultures New Generation PhD Studentships
- President's Doctoral Scholar (PDS) Awards 2024 Entry
Contact details
- School/Faculty
- School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
- Contact name
- Humanities Doctoral Academy Admissions
- HUMS.doctoralacademy.admissions@manchester.ac.uk
- Website
- https://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/
- School/Faculty
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See: About us
Programmes in related subject areas
Use the links below to view lists of programmes in related subject areas.
Regulated by the Office for Students
The University of Manchester is regulated by the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS aims to help students succeed in Higher Education by ensuring they receive excellent information and guidance, get high quality education that prepares them for the future and by protecting their interests. More information can be found at the OfS website.
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.