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PhD thesis formatting

There is no official pre-made departmental or University-wide style template for PhD theses. Some argue that learning (and advancing!) the art of beautifully typesetting a thesis is a crucial part of getting a PhD.

Here are some practical recommendations, examples, and useful starting points.

Most PhD authors in the Computer Laboratory prefer LaTeX as their typesetting system (under both Linux or Windows), mainly because of its

excellent and yet unmatched support for mathematical formulae;
good support for managing bibliographic references;
good support for high-quality typography;
easy integration with software-engineering tools (make, revision control, etc.);
very safe and robust handling of large documents;
long-term stability;
comprehensive free tool support.

A common approach is to use the report style, with a suitable title page added, margins changed to make good use of the A4 format, and various other changes to suit submission requirements and individual tastes (e.g., other fonts).

For preparing publication-quality diagrams, some of the most powerful and popular tools used include:

PGF/TikZ – the probably most sophisticated drawing package for LaTeX
matplotlib – Matlab-style function plotting in Python

Official requirements

There used to be detailed Student Registry PhD format requirements , regarding font sizes and line spacing, but most Degree Committees have dropped these, recognizing that they were mainly motivated by past typewriter conventions. The rules left are now mainly about the word count .

In particular, it is no longer necessary for dissertations to be printed single sided or in “one-and-a-half spaced type”. If you still like to increase the line spacing, for easier proofreading, you can achieve this in LaTeX by placing into the preamble the line “ \usepackage{setspace}\onehalfspacing ”.

Recommendations

One Cambridge thesis-binding company, J.S. Wilson & Son , recommend on their web page to leave 30 mm margin on the spine and 20 mm on the other three sides of the A4 pages sent to them. About a centimetre of the left margin is lost when the binder stitches the pages together.

Write your thesis title and section headings in “sentence case”, that is use the same capitalization that you would have used in normal sentences (capitalize only the first word, proper nouns and abbreviations). Avoid the US-style “title case” that some conference-proceedings publishers require.

Sentence case is normal typographic practice in the UK (see any UK-published newspaper, magazine, journals such as Nature , etc.).
The catalogues of both the University Library thesis collection and our departmental Technical Report series record titles this way, and you don't want the cataloguers mess with your title capitalization when your thesis finally reaches them.
It preserves useful information about the correct capitalization of any names or technical terms used.

Page numbers

Use a single page-number sequence for all pages in your thesis, i.e. do not use a separate sequence of Roman numerals for front-matter (title page, abstract, acknowledgements, table of contents, table of figure). In LaTeX that means using the report style, not the book style.

PDF viewers number pages continuously starting from 1, and using anything else as printed page numbers causes confusion.
This will save you some reformatting when submitting your thesis as a techreport .

Bibliographic references

If you use purely-numeric bibliographic references, do not forget to still mention authors’ surnames, as a courtesy to both the authors and your readers. Also, try to add the exact page number on which the quoted point is found in the reference; LaTeX supports this really well. (“suggested by Crowcroft and Kuhn [42,p107]”)

Technical Report submission

After a thesis has been approved by the examiners, the author normally submits it for publication as a Computer Laboratory Technical Report .

It is a good idea to read early on the submission guidelines for technical reports , as this may reduce the need to change the formatting later.

If you want to minimize any changes needed between your submitted thesis and the corresponding technical report version, then – in addition to applying all the above advice – you can

make page 1 the title page,
make page 2 the required declaration of originality,
make page 3 the summary, and
choose a layout suitable for double-sided printing (required for techreport, since 2010 also allowed for final PhD submission).

This way, there is a very high chance that turning your thesis into a techreport could be as simple as replacing pages 1 and 2 with the standard Technical Report title page (which the techreport editor can do for you).

More information

The Computer Laboratory house style page explains where to find the University identifier that many put on the title page of their thesis.
Markus Kuhn’s simple PhD thesis template ( snapshot ) is just one possible starting point.
The cam-thesis LaTeX class is a collaborative effort to maintain a Cambridge PhD thesis template for Computer Laboratory research students, initiated by Jean Martina, Rok Strniša, and Matej Urbas.
Effective scientific electronic publishing – Markus Kuhn’s notes on putting scientific publications onto the web, especially for LaTeX/LNCS users.
International Standard ISO 7144 Presentation of theses and similar documents (1986) contains also some general guidelines for formatting dissertations that may be of use.
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Submitting your thesis for examination (PhD, EdD, MD, BusD, MLitt, MSc)

Format of the thesis.

The thesis must:

be written in British English, apart from quotations and recognised technical formulae

be in A4 portrait format

use one-and-a-half spaced type

include any photographs or other illustrations scanned into the text

be saved in the electronic format and naming style specified by your Degree Committee

Examiners are not expected to edit work. They will deal with errors of fact and typographical errors that affect the meaning of your work, as well as larger structural issues. The extent to which the text has or has not been properly prepared may influence their recommendation concerning the award of the degree. You are therefore advised to check your thesis thoroughly prior to submission to ensure clear, formal British English has been used throughout and that there are minimal typing and/or spelling mistakes.

How and when to present the thesis for examination

You must submit an electronic copy of your thesis for examination, and any required accompanying documents, to your Degree Committee by your submission deadline (which can be found under 'Thesis Submission details' on the Academic tile in your CamSIS self-service). You are required to submit your thesis for examination by your deadline even if the date falls over a weekend or holiday period.

Your Degree Committee should provide you with guidance for electronic submission; please contact them directly if you require any assistance.

The thesis you submit to your Degree Committee will be the thesis forwarded to the examiners for examination. It is not possible to 'retract submission' or to send a revised copy directly to your examiners. Therefore you should carefully check the file(s) you upload when submitting your thesis.

Postgraduate students must keep a minimum number of terms of research before they can submit (for example, 9 for the full-time PhD or 15 for the part-time PhD or EdD) unless they have been granted an allowance or exemption of terms . If you attempt to submit too early and have not had an allowance or exemption of terms approved, your thesis submission will not be accepted or will be kept on hold and not forwarded to your examiners until the first day of your 9th (full-time) or 15th (part-time) term.

Requirements

You must include the following bound inside your thesis:

1. A title page displaying:

the full title of the thesis

your full legal name (as it appears on your passport, marriage certificate or deed poll)

your college

the date of submission (month and year)

a declaration stating: "This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy/Doctor of Education/Doctor of Business/Doctor of Medicine/Master of Science/Master of Letters (as appropriate)."

2. A declaration in the preface stating:

This thesis is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the preface and specified in the text.

It is not substantially the same as any work that has already been submitted before for any degree or other qualification except as declared in the preface and specified in the text.

It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the [insert relevant] Degree Committee. (For more information on the word limits for the respective Degree Committees see Word Limits and Requirements of your Degree Committee )

3. An abstract/summary of your thesis

4. [if applicable] the list of additional materials that were approved for submission alongside the thesis

You must also submit the following documents (not included inside the thesis):

Required: One declaration form

Optional: Research Impact Statement If pandemic, war/conflict, or natural disaster have significantly impacted on your research, you are invited to submit a Research Impact Statement with your thesis using the template provided. The purpose of the statement is for you to describe any restrictions or difficulties experienced in undertaking your research as a result of pandemic, war/conflict, or natural disaster, and to provide details of any alternative arrangements made to complete the work for your thesis. Further details for students and supervisors can be found in the Research Impact Statement guidance and the Research Impact Statement form can be downloaded here .

Inclusion of additional materials

Students other than those in the Faculty of Music must seek permission through their CamSIS Self Service page if they wish to submit additional materials for examination alongside their thesis. Additional materials are integral to the thesis but in a format that cannot be easily included in the main body of the thesis (for example, 3D graphics). You should refer to the ' Policy on the inclusion of additional materials with a thesis ' before making an application to include additional materials. This process should be initiated prior to the thesis submission. If a thesis is submitted with additional materials and without permission to include them, it will be held by the Degree Committee until approval is confirmed.

Please bear in mind that if you are granted permission to submit additional materials, you are required to upload the same materials to the University repository, Apollo , when you submit your approved thesis post-examination (doctoral candidates only). Therefore, the inclusion of additional material that contains uncleared third-party copyright or sensitive material may affect the access level that is most appropriate for your thesis.

Submitting a revised thesis

If you are resubmitting your thesis following a viva outcome of being allowed to revise and resubmit the thesis for examination for a doctoral degree, you need to follow the same procedure as for the original thesis submission .

What happens following submission of the thesis for examination

When you submit your thesis for examination the Degree Committee will check the submission, acknowledge receipt, and inform Student Registry you have submitted. The Student Registry will update your CamSIS record.

The Degree Committee will forward your thesis to your examiners. If you have not received confirmation of the date of your viva (oral examination) within six weeks of submitting your thesis, or if you have any questions with regard to your thesis at this stage, you should contact your Degree Committee.

Your Examiners should not ask you for a printed copy of your thesis or other material in advance of your viva (oral examination). If they do, please seek advice from your Degree Committee.

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The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is the Department's principal research degree for postgraduate students and the majority of our students are registered for this degree. The PhD is intellectually demanding and applicants will need to have a high level of attainment and motivation to pursue this programme of advanced study and research.

Completion normally requires three to four years of full-time study, including a probationary period. Students will normally be required to be resident in Cambridge during that time.

The examination involves the submission of a 60,000-word thesis and subsequent oral examination.

The PhD represents a significant and original contribution to the understanding of Psychology. This may be through the discovery of something new, the connection of previously unrelated facts, or the development of a new theory, taking into account all previously published work on the subject.

The Postgraduate Virtual Open Day usually takes place at the end of October. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions to admissions staff and academics, explore the Colleges virtually, and to find out more about courses, the application process and funding opportunities. Visit the Postgraduate Open Day page for more details.

See further the Postgraduate Admissions Events pages for other events relating to Postgraduate study, including study fairs, visits and international events.

Key Information

3-4 years full-time, 4-7 years part-time, study mode : research, doctor of philosophy, department of psychology, course - related enquiries, application - related enquiries, course on department website, dates and deadlines:, michaelmas 2024.

Some courses can close early. See the Deadlines page for guidance on when to apply.

Funding Deadlines

These deadlines apply to applications for courses starting in Michaelmas 2024, Lent 2025 and Easter 2025.

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The PhD programme

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The PhD is awarded after three to four years of full-time research (or five to seven years of part-time study) on the basis of a dissertation of 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography, but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words exclusive of bibliography, table of contents and any other preliminary matter). Examination for the PhD involves an oral examination (viva) by two examiners.

Research students who intend to undertake PhD research are in the first instance automatically registered for a one-year research training programme leading to the Certificate of Postgraduate Study (CPGS) in Legal Studies. They are assigned a supervisory team by the Degree Committee of the Faculty, ordinarily consisting of a supervisor (who is principally responsible for directing and assisting the research) and an advisor (who provides a second point of contact for academic advice). At the end of the first year, the Degree Committee decides whether students should be registered for the PhD. This decision is taken on the basis of the student’s personal progress log, first-year dissertation of 15,000 words, viva conducted by two assessors from within the Faculty, and outline of plans for the full research project. Candidates who successfully complete the requirements of the CPGS and the first-year progress review are retrospectively registered for the PhD.

All full-time PhD students are ordinarily required to be resident in Cambridge for the duration of their research (save where given leave to work away from Cambridge for academic reasons or whilst undertaking fieldwork), and during the first year in particular must attend weekly research training sessions in the Faculty.

This overview of the PhD programme must be read in conjunction with the detailed information available under the 'Courses' section (see, in particular, the Course Directory) of the Postgraduate Admissions website . Further information on postgraduate admission to research courses in the Faculty of Law is available from [email protected] or +44 (0)1223 330039.

The Faculty of Law The David Williams Building 10 West Road Cambridge CB3 9DZ United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 1223 330033 Email: [email protected]

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PhD First Year Probationary Review Requirements

You need to submit a report as part of the first year probationary review assessment process, as well as attending the compulsory elements of our training programme. You can find detailed information regarding the first year probationary review here . This webpage includes important information that is specific to the Chemistry Department and includes information on submission, assessment and outcome.

In your first year, you are registered for the PhD (Probationary) in Chemistry. Towards the end of your first year you will need to write a report for the probationary review process, in which your progress and aptitude for continuing to doctoral research is carefully assessed. If all goes well, you will emerge from this process registered for the PhD. If it goes less well, a range of options exist to try to help get you back on track or identify a suitable pathway for you.

The format of the report is not strictly laid down and quite flexible however, in addition to covering the research work completed in this year it should contain a review of the appropriate literature and a clear indication of the way in which you expect your PhD project to develop (future work). There is no minimum length but it must not exceed 12,000 words, including summary/abstract, tables and footnotes, but excluding table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, list of figures/diagrams, list of abbreviations/acronyms, bibliography, appendices and acknowledgements. The Degree Committee will not normally accept any reports that go over the word limit.

Your Supervisor will advise on length, style and content and will have examples of recent reports you can look at: you should also find a ‘good’ report or thesis in your lab before you start to give you an idea of what you should be aiming for. Please also take note of the university plagiarism rules and research best practice before you begin.

Note 1 : Derivations, code and spectra should routinely be included in the first year report as Appendices, unless they form part of the connected argument presented in the report.

Note 2 : Experimentalists who find that their experimental section is taking them over the 12,000 word count should retain only the key compounds in the Experimental Section (part of the main report body, i.e. included in the word count); all other compounds (including preparation method and experimental data) should be moved to an Appendix entitled 'Supporting Information', i.e. rendering them excluded from the word count.

Note 3 : Occasionally, it may be necessary to submit information electronically that it is not possible to include in the printed version, e.g. datasets, movies/simulations or computer code. If you need to take up this option and are unsure of how to do this, please contact the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator . It will not be included as a part of the materials uploaded onto Moodle in the Degree Committee submission process.

Note 4 : For the first year report, there is no requirement to include a Declaration at the beginning of the report because it is all included in the form which you submit where you will also required to declare that you have completed all of the first year compulsory elements. For a PhD however, a Declaration is required as part of the thesis; details of what this needs to say can be found at here.

What if I am Missing Some Data?

It is not completely unusual to have missing analytical data at the time of your first year report submission however, you should aim to have a complete report including all analytical data if possible. However, if you are missing some data and are worried, please get in touch with the Postgraduate Education Team or inform your supervisor.

What to Submit and Where?

By the deadlines for you first year report, all students must upload to the Degree Committee Student Submissions course in Moodle:

A pdf of your report. Please name your report file in the format of [Surname]_[FirstName]_Report
A completed Probationary Review Declaration & Certificate of Submission form ( Submitting your first-year report ) saved as a .pdf with the naming format of [Surname]_[FirstName]_Certificate.

Please also note that no reports should be submitted by students to Assessors via email: you may only be Assessed on copies uploaded to Moodle.

Should you wish to make a voluntary disclosure of any disability/chronic illness that might affect the conduct of your viva please complete this disclosure form and submit to the email a copy to the Postrgaduate Student Co-ordinator and Degree Committee . You should do this up to two months in advance of the submission deadline to allow the Degree Committee to make appropriate arrangements for your viva - you should not wait until you are ready to submit to notify the Degree Committee as this could delay the date of your viva.

When to Submit?

Your submission deadlines vary according to when you begin your PhD. The current report submission deadlines can be found here on the degree committee website.

If you are unable to meet your submission deadline then, where there is a genuine problem, it may be possible to obtain an extension. You should contact the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator as soon as you anticipate having to submit late .

** Please note that if you need to obtain approval from an Industrial sponsor before submitting your report this should be taken into account during the planning stages of your report. Sponsor approval DOES NOT constitute a valid reason for applying for an extension to your deadline for either a First Year Probationary Report or ultimately your PhD.

How do I organise my viva?

1. Before your submission date you will be informed as to who your two Assessors will be: one of whom is your Academic Mentor and one recommended by your Supervisor, both officially appointed by the Degree Committee. We will also invite you to submit a form if you wish to make a voluntary disclosure of any disability that might affect the conduct of your viva . You will need to submit the form (should you require it) and your provisional viva date to the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator at your earliest convenience.

2. You may then contact your Assessors to arrange a provisional viva date and time: in order to allow sufficient time following submission for checks, release of reports to Assessors and completion of pre-oral reports, please arrange this no sooner than two weeks from submission date . No provisional vivas should be arranged to take place before this and you may find that some Assessors prefer to wait until your report is in hand before they agree to set the provisional viva date. If you have any difficulty organising your provisional viva date, please let the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator know and we will assist you.

What Happens After Submission of the Report?

Degree Committee will check and release your report to your assessors, who will then be able to download directly from Moodle.
If you do not already have your provisional viva date and time set, you need to do so as soon after submission as possible.
The Assessors will read your report and each prepare a brief independent preliminary report on it before the oral examination.

Please note: Assessment should ideally be completed within 2 months of submission and within 4 weeks of submission wherever possible.

What Happens in the Viva/ Oral Assessment?

You should be prepared to give a 10 minute talk, introducing your project background, aims, results and projected future work to your Assessors (check with them beforehand the best format for this, e.g. projecting ppt onto a screen, using ppt on the computer, ‘chalk and talk’).
You will be asked about all aspects of your report and possibly about your training by the Assessors in a session usually lasting for around one hour, sometimes longer.

What Happens After the Viva/ Oral Assessment in Straightforward Cases?

In most cases, the situation is straightforward (around 90% progress onto PhD) and the following process occurs:

The Assessors submit their independent pre-assessment and joint post-assessment reports to the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator; these are then uploaded to Moodle.
The Degree Committee will send the Assessors’ reports to you as feedback. The reports will also be sent to the Department's Postgraduate Education team and to your Supervisor.
Your Supervisor will be asked to comment on your progress in the light of the Assessors’ reports by email, and to indicate his or her support for the assessors recommendation, as well as to confirm your PhD project title.
The Department's Postgraduate Education Team will consider the Assessors’ reports together with your Supervisor’s comments and recommend an outcome to the Degree Committee on CAMSIS. The Degree Committee will then confirm to Student Registry on the details of your registration, and your status on CAMSIS should change shortly thereafter.

What Happens if There is a Negative or Inconclusive Recommendation?

In some cases it is less clear and the Department/Degree Committee will then recommend alternative pathways to students . The Departmental actions described below are IN ADDITION to the procedures set out for First Year Probationary Review by the Degree Committee and designed to provide the smoothest path possible for students who do not progress to PhD in a straightforward way.

In such cases, the Degree Committee will consider appropriate future steps in consultation with the Department. Anybody for whom Assessors recommend some specific action (e.g. resubmission of the 1st year report) or who are experiencing difficulties at the end of the first year will meet with a member of the Postgraduate Education Team so that, in conjunction with advice from your Supervisor, your Assessors and yourself, we can work out how best to support you at this stage and give the right outcome.

a) Continue to PhD following acceptable resubmission of first year report within three months of initial Assessment :

In all cases of this type, the following procedure is usually followed:

Upon the submission of Assessor forms which indicate that a report needs to be rewritten, the Degree Committee will notify you, your Supervisor and the Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator (GSC).
With the Assessor comments in hand, the Postgraduate Education Manager will speak with the student and their Supervisor (in a joint meeting) to ensure the pathway being followed is optimal for the student.
This conversation and the agreed pathway forward will then be communicated by email to the student, Supervisor, first year report Assessors and Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator: all parties are then invited to make alterations to the proposed plan of action and areas in which the student needs to demonstrate improvement. The Postgraduate Student Co-ordinator will retain all this information, as an accurate record agreed by all those involved, including any future communications.
Following resubmission/assessment of an acceptable report, the Assessors may if they wish allow the student to proceed without a second viva , subject to the quality of the revised report and the other actions that the student has taken following their initial recommendations.
The student’s Supervisor will follow Degree Committee guidance (which is communicated by email and bespoke to each individual case) for registration of student following successful completion of First Year Probationary Review at this second opportunity.

b) Other options :

Every student who does not undergo a satisfactory first year probationary review will normally be first given the option of re-writing their report within three months to a standard appropriate for progression to PhD. However, there may be cases where the report is still not of this standard or it is agreed prior to such a re-write that the student will progress via an alternative route and in these cases, the following recommendations are possible:

Change Degree Registration from PhD to MPhil
Leave with a Certificate of Postgraduate Studies (CPGS)
De-registration and withdrawal with no formal outcome

If you are asked to leave at the end of the first year with either a CPGS or MPhil for a variety of reasons, the following procedure will be followed:

The student will normally be interviewed by the Postgraduate Education Manager;
A summary of the discussion and conclusion will be sent to the Postgraduate Student Coordinator, the student and the student’s Supervisor;
Student will need to confirm that they agree with the summary, have discussed the recommendation with their Departmental Academic Mentor and College Postgraduate or Senior Tutor prior to taking the next steps.

The Degree Committee will consider the Assessors reports and the Department’s recommendation and make a considered recommendation on how to proceed to the Board of Postgraduate Studies. The next steps will vary depending on what that recommendation is and are as follows:

If the recommendation is to change degree registration from probationary PhD to MPhil:

The student will write up and submit the MPhil thesis in a time-frame agreed by the Department, their Supervisor, the Degree Committee and Student Registry (normally not more than three months).
The MPhil thesis will be examined by two Examiners (usually one internal, one external) and a viva carried out with the Examiners and student.

If the recommendation is to write up and leave with a Certificate of Postgraduate Studies (CPGS) :

If it is considered that a student will not be able to generate sufficient material for an MPhil, they will usually be offered the opportunity to have their first year’s work considered for a CPGS and then leave.
The student will then write up and submit a CPGS report in a time-frame agreed by the Department, their Supervisor, the Degree Committee and Student Registry (usually one month, normally not more than three months).
The report submitted will normally be examined by two Examiners (usually both internal) and a viva carried out with the Examiners and student.

If the recommendation is to remove you from the University Register of Students with no formal outcome (also applies to MPhil students), we will do everything we can to properly support you through this process.

Funding: all students who embark upon a PhD will do so with funding which is specifically intended for students carrying out a full PhD. If the decision is made to transfer Degree Registration from Probationary PhD to MPhil or write up and leave with a CPGS, extensive consultation with student and supervisor will be carried out, including a full financial assessment. Normally, up to 3 months funding will be offered where required to complete any dissertation/thesis, typically drawn from the same source of funds that is currently supporting the student, unless the Sponsor objects, in which case it will be from Department reserves.

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Natural History in the Age of Revolutions, 1776–1848
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MPhil students are required to submit two essays and a dissertation. Each of them must be on a topic approved by the Degree Committee that falls within one of the specified subject areas . The essays should be on topics from two different subject areas.

You are encouraged to explore a range of different topics, balancing them so that they are both relevant to your interests and also span the subject of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine.

You are permitted to write your dissertation in the same general area as one of your essays, but the dissertation and essay must address different questions, and the dissertation must show evidence of a substantial new research effort. Any use of the essay in the dissertation has to be appropriately referenced, just like any other primary or secondary source, as if the essay were written by a different person.

Similarly, if an essay or dissertation builds on previously examined, graded or published work it is essential that this is clearly identified in the text and is appropriately referenced, as if it were written by a different person. The assessors should be in no doubt as to what work you have completed in your current degree course and it is this that will be assessed.

Finding a supervisor

The Department publishes a list of members of the Department and associates who are willing to supervise MPhil essays and dissertations, together with the topics on which they are prepared to supervise. You are not permitted to work with the same supervisor for more than two pieces of coursework.

Dissertation and essay supervisors

Your supervisors will see you on a very regular basis, but it is up to you to schedule those meetings according to your needs. As a rule of thumb, you can expect the following supervisions:

3 for each essay;
4 for the dissertation.

If you would like to work with an external supervisor – someone who is not a member of the Department – you must obtain permission from the MPhil Manager.

Topic forms

Online topic forms for the essays and dissertation will be available on Moodle .

You should complete each form by stating the topic of the essay or dissertation, selecting one of the ten subject areas , and entering the name of your supervisor.

The deadline for completing each form is shown on key dates and deadlines .

Changing the topic, subject area or supervisor

Once the Degree Committee has approved the topic, subject area and supervisor for an essay or dissertation, you must apply for permission if you want to change any of them. Permission is not automatically granted. See key dates and deadlines for the last dates for changing topics.

To change the topic, subject area or supervisor, you should complete the request form . The request must be approved by the MPhil Manager.

The University and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science take plagiarism very seriously. Please read our advice about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

Plagiarism guidelines

The Department uses the text-matching software Turnitin UK to blanket screen all student work submitted in Moodle.

Use of Turnitin UK

Referencing

For guidance about using correct and consistent referencing, see this page:

Human participants

If you are planning to collect data from human participants, or use data collected from human participants, you will need to plan well in advance to ensure that you have obtained ethical approval before starting work on your project and have given consideration to how you are going to handle the information you collect.

Working with human participants: ethical approval and data protection

Examined work should be uploaded to the 'HPS MPhil Coursework' site on Moodle before 12noon on the day of the deadline. Paper copies are not required.

Please note:

The work should have numbered pages, footnotes and a bibliography.
You cannot upload more than one file for each submission.
The following file formats are accepted: DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF.

The essays and dissertation will be marked anonymously, so it is important that your name does not appear anywhere on them.

Please give the following information on the first page:

Subject area (the same as the one you selected on your topic form)

You are advised to check your email the day after you have submitted to ensure there are no queries about your work.

The Senior Examiner will advise the Examiners' Meeting of any late submissions and, unless there are exceptional circumstances, this will normally entail the cumulative loss of marks for each day's lateness beyond the published deadline: i.e. within one day, one mark will be deducted; within two days, two additional marks will be deducted (making three marks in total); within three days, an additional three marks will be deducted (making six marks in total), etc. Given that problems can and do occur (such as computers crashing), students are advised that their work should be ready almost a week in advance of the formal deadline.

Please note that the Department will retain a copy of your dissertation and essays and may make them available to future students unless you make a written request to the contrary to the Departmental Administrator.

All requests for an extension to the submission date for coursework must have a good reason and must be supported by a College Tutor and Course Manager. You are advised to discuss potential extension requests with the Course Manager before submitting a formal application.

Where an extension is granted, the deadline is 12noon on the new date.

For an extension of up to seven days the student should complete the coursework extension self-certification form .

For an extension longer than seven days the student should download and complete the extension form . The form must then be signed by the College Tutor and the Course Manager.

Students are reminded that extensions are not cost free : they reduce the amount of time you can devote to subsequent pieces of work, limit opportunities for you to receive feedback and participate in other aspects of the course, and may delay the approval of your degree. A granted extension does not mean that your supervisor will be available beyond term time.

The word limit is:

5,000 words for Essay 1
8,000 words for Essay 2
12,000 words for the Dissertation

This includes footnotes but excludes the bibliography and prefatory matter.

Figures may be included in the work and should contribute to the argument. They should be captioned only so as to specify the source; such captions are excluded from the word count. Formulae may be used where appropriate and are also excluded from the word count.

The word limit is strictly enforced. Each piece of work will be inspected to ensure that the word limit has been respected. If work is over the limit, the candidate will be asked to revise the work so that it does conform to the word limit. Given that the inspection will take place at the time of the deadline, the rule governing penalties for late submission will be applied (i.e. if the revised work is submitted within one day, one mark will be deducted; within two days, two marks will be deducted, etc).

The Department uses Microsoft Word to check word counts. If you use coding software, such as LaTeX, you should be aware that this software may give a different word count. You may find it helpful to use TeXcount , an online tool that analyses LaTeX code to provide an accurate count of words, formulae, captions and footnotes. If using software other than Microsoft Word you should submit a screenshot to demonstrate the word count from the software used.

Policy on data, editions, translations and bibliographies

An essay or dissertation should be self-contained, including or citing all information needed for an examiner to follow its argument.

The word limit normally includes text and footnotes but not the bibliography. However, in certain cases permission may be obtained for materials relevant to the argument of the essay or dissertation to be submitted for the information of the examiners in the form of an appendix, with such materials excluded from the word count. Materials falling into this category may include primary source materials (texts and images) that are not readily accessible, transcriptions, translations, questionnaire responses, statistical tables, formal proofs, technical descriptions of objects, analytical bibliographies and other data produced by the candidate that they wish to make accessible.

Conversely, material contributing to the word count should normally consist of the candidate's own discussion and analysis of such materials. Exceptionally, when a critical edition or translation, a formal proof, an analytical bibliography, or a technical description of objects and their provenances is based on substantial original scholarship and cannot be easily separated from the argument of an essay or dissertation, permission may be obtained for it to be included within the body of the essay or dissertation, hence contributing to the word count. No more than one third of an essay or dissertation should consist of such material.

Applications for such permissions should be sought, in consultation with the supervisor, from the Senior Examiner via the MPhil Managers.

Feedback to MPhil students

During the course of their studies, students receive feedback in person from their supervisors, and from the Course Manager, as well as from termly online supervision reports. Essay 1 is examined prior to the end of the Michaelmas Term in order to provide students with early feedback on their performance so they can gauge the level of achievement which the course requires, and so they have reliable pointers as to future applications for the PhD, whose deadlines are often early in the academic year. Essay 2 is examined at the start of Easter Term, and feedback is given on this shortly afterwards together with a provisional overall mark for the essay component of the course.

After each Board of Examiners meeting, the MPhil Managers meet with students, report the provisional agreed class and provide copies of the non-confidential parts of the reports. At these meetings the work is discussed and assessors' remarks are put in context for future work. Students may contact their supervisor after this meeting if they want to discuss the reports in more detail.

Marks are subject to moderation up until the final Board of Examiners meeting, and require approval by the Degree Committee in late June. At the end of the course a transcript with details of individual marks will be available on CamSIS.

Feedback on the overall performance of each year is provided by Senior and External Examiners' Reports which are submitted at the end of the year. Students may find it useful to see examiners' comments on the previous year's work, particularly mark distributions and recommendations.

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All candidates for the PhD Degree are admitted on a probationary basis. A student's status with the Student Registry is that he or she will be registered for the CPGS in Computer Science . At the end of the first academic year, a formal assessment of progress is made. In the Department of Computer Science and Technology, this takes the form of a single document of no more than 10,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, bibliography and appendices.

The document is principally a PhD Proposal . That is, a document that demonstrates a clear path from the candidate's current position to a complete PhD thesis at the end of the third year. The document has two purposes: (i) to help the candidate to reflect on and plan their research project and (ii) to allow the Computer Laboratory to assess the student's progress and planned research.

In the document, the candidate should do the following:

Identify a potential problem or topic to address for the PhD.
identifying the seminal prior research in the topic area
the most closely related prior work, and
their strengths and weaknesses.

The goal is to show the limitations (or lack) of previous work. One method that could be employed to do this is to provide both a taxonomy of prior work and a gap analysis table: a table whose rows are the closest related work, the columns are the desired attributes of the solution, and each table entry is a Yes or a No. This would then clearly show that no prior work meets all the desired attributes.

This section of the document might be expected to form the basis of part of the candidate's final PhD thesis.

Candidates should have already done some preliminary research. This may be early attempts at proofs, a detailed analysis of existing methods, a critique of existing systems, assembly and testing of investigative apparatus, conduct of a pilot experiment, etc. This section of the document may form the basis of a chapter of the final PhD thesis. It is common for the candidate to have produced an academic paper (even if this is a minor paper for a workshop, for example), where they are the main author. The paper does not need to have been published, but the assessors should be able to see that it is of potentially publishable quality. Such a paper can be submitted as an appendix to the document; in this case the material in the paper should not be reproduced in the document, but should be summarised briefly in a self-contained way.

This should indicate, at a high level, the research that might be undertaken in the second and third years of the PhD. It needs to show that there is a viable route to a thesis in two years' time. In particular, it must state the specific research question or questions that are being addressed. If there are more than one question being addressed, it needs to be made clear how they are interconnected and how answering them would result in a coherent thesis story. They need to also be accompanied with a brief discussion of why they are important and interesting questions that are worthy of a Cambridge PhD, and why they are new (the gap analysis table could be used for this). Next, the candidate needs to describe the proposed method of attacking the questions, for example, by listing the major steps to completion through the next two years.

Some candidates find it useful to structure this as a cohesive one-page summary of the proposed thesis, with a tentative title, a paragraph setting the context, and three or four paragraphs describing chunks of the proposed research, each of which could be the basis for an academic paper and each of which could be expected to be a chapter of the final thesis. The chapters should make a cohesive overarching narrative of the thesis, rather than be stand-alone pieces of work.

A paragraph identifying criteria for success is recommended where the candidate explains how they will convince the research community that their approach is successful.

Potential risks are recommended to be identified: what could derail this methodology (technically) and if this happens what is plan B?

Timeplan: provide a detailed timetable, with explicit milestones for each term in the next two years against which the candidate will measure their progress. This would ideally include technical tasks that are planned to be accomplished during each time chunk.

It is essential that the supervisor(s) agrees that the document may be submitted. The document will be read by two other members of staff (assessors), who will interview the student about the content of the document in a viva. It should therefore give sufficient information that the assessors can satisfy themselves that all is well. It is expected that the interview will take place before the end of the first year.

Submission deadlines (electronic)

For students admitted in Michaelmas Term, by June 30, 23:59
For students admitted in Lent Term, October 30, 23:59
For students admitted in Easter Term, by January 30, 23:59

All submissions should be made electronically via the filer.

Electronic version (in PDF format) should be provided via the PhD report and thesis upload page . This deposits uploaded files on the departmental filer at /auto/anfs/www-uploads/phd = \\filer.cl.cam.ac.uk\webserver\www-uploads\phd.

Students intending to take up research placements during the vacations which begin on, before, or shortly after the submission deadlines must submit their report one month before departure to enable the examination process to be completed before the internship begins . No other extensions will be permitted unless otherwise authorized by the Secretary of the Degree Committee.

Oral examination

The student will be invited to discuss the documents with two assessors appointed by the student's principal supervisor. Neither of the assessors should be the student's principal supervisor though one may be the student's second advisor. Occasionally, the principal supervisor may be invited to clarify elements of the PhD Proposal and to attend the viva as an observer.

Where the initial PhD Proposal document is unsatisfactory, the assessors must ask for a revised submission and arrange a further discussion. Where the PhD Proposal is acceptable, it may still help the student to record suggested modifications in a final version of the Proposal. A copy of the revised document must be submitted to the Secretary of the Degree Committee.

The PhD Proposal document is internal to the Laboratory. However, since it is the basis for formal progress reports including registration for the PhD Degree and those made to funding bodies, assessors should endeavour to arrange a meeting where the documents should be assessed and discussed by the end of the student's first year at the latest. The Secretary of the Degree Committee should be informed of the result by the assessors and by the supervisor on the Postgraduate Feedback and Reporting System as soon as possible thereafter.

The report will be considered by the Degree Committee which will make its recommendations on the registration of the student to the Board of Graduate Studies.

In those cases where the student's progress is wholly inadequate, the supervisor should give them a written warning by 15 September (or the appropriate corresponding date - 15 December or 15 March) that they are in danger of termination, with copy to the Secretary of the Degree Committee.

The word limit is a maximum; it is not a target. Successful PhD Proposal documents can be significantly shorter than the limit. Writing within the word limit is important. It is part of the discipline of producing reports. When submitting reports (and the final PhD thesis), students will be required to sign a Statement of Word Length to confirm that the work does not exceed the limit of length prescribed (above) for the CPGS examination.

Originality

Attention is drawn to the University's guidance concerning plagiarism. The University states that "Plagiarism is defined as submitting as one's own work that which derives in part or in its entirety from the work of others without due acknowledgement. It is both poor scholarship and a breach of academic integrity." The Faculty's guidance concerning plagiarism and good academic practice can be found at https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/exams/plagiarism.html .

Reports may be soft-bound in comb-binding or stapled.

Secretary of the Degree Committee September 2013, updated September 2021, updated March 2022

Department of Computer Science and Technology University of Cambridge William Gates Building 15 JJ Thomson Avenue Cambridge CB3 0FD

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How Long Is a PhD Thesis?
Doing a PhD

It’s no secret that one of the most challenging aspects of a PhD degree is the volume of work that goes into writing your thesis . So this raises the question, exactly how long is a thesis?

Unfortunately, there’s no one size fits all answer to this question. However, from the analysis of over 100 PhD theses, the average thesis length is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A further analysis of 1000 PhD thesis shows the average number of pages to be 204 . In reality, the actual word count for each PhD thesis will depend on the specific subject and the university it is being hosted by. This is because universities set their own word length requirements, with most found to be opting for around 100,000.

To find out more about how these word limits differ between universities, how the average word count from STEM thesis differ from non-STEM thesis and a more detailed breakdown from the analysis of over 1000 PhDs, carry on reading the below.

Word Count Differences Between Universities

For any PhD student writing a thesis, they will find that their document will be subject to a word limit set by their university. In nearly all cases, the limit only concerns the maximum number of words and doesn’t place any restrictions on the minimum word limit. The reason for this is that the student will be expected to write their thesis with the aim of clearly explaining their research, and so it is up to the student to determine what he deems appropriate.

Saying this, it is well accepted amongst PhD students and supervisors that the absence of a lower limit doesn’t suggest that a thesis can be ‘light’. Your thesis will focus on several years worth of original research and explore new ideas, theories or concepts. Besides this, your thesis will need to cover a wide range of topics such as your literature review, research methodology, results and conclusion. Therefore, your examiners will expect the length of your thesis to be proportional to convey all this information to a sufficient level.

Selecting a handful of universities at random, they state the following thesis word limits on their website:

University of Edinburgh: 100,000
University of Exeter: 100,000
University of Leister: 80,000
University of Bath: 80,000
University of Warwick: 70,000

The above universities set upper word limits that apply across the board, however, some universities, such as the University of Birmingham and the University of Sheffield, set different word limits for different departments. For example, the University of Sheffield adopts these limits:

Arts & Humanities: 75,000
Medicine, Dentistry & Health: 75,000
Science: 80,000
Social Sciences: 75,000-100,000

Although there’s a range of limit, it’s safe to say that the majority fall within the 80,000 to 100,000 bracket.

Word Count Based on Data from past Theses

A poll of 149 postdocs.

In mid-2019, Dr Eva Lantsoght, a published author, academic blogger and Structural Engineering Professor, conducted a poll which asked postgraduate doctoral students to share the length of their final thesis. 149 PostDoc students responded to the survey, with the majority reporting a length falling within the ‘80,000 – 120,000 words’ bracket as seen below.

DiscoverPhDs_How-long-is-a-PhD-Thesis_Poll

Analysis of 1000 PhD Theses

Over a three-year time period, Dr Ian Brailsford, a then Postgraduate Learning Adviser at the University of Auckland, analysed 1000 doctoral thesis submitted to his university’s library. The PhD theses which formed the basis of his analysis were produced between 2008 to 2017 and showed:

Average number of pages = 204
Median number of pages = 198
Average number of chapters = 7.6

We should note that the above metrics only cover the content falling within the main body of the thesis. This includes the introduction, literature review, methods section, results chapter, discussions and conclusions. All other sections, such as the title page, abstract, table of contents, acknowledgements, bibliography and appendices were omitted from the count.

Although it’s impossible to draw the exact word count from the number of pages alone, by using the universities recommended format of 12pt Times New Roman and 1.5 lines spacing, and assuming 10% of the main body are figures and footnotes, this equates to an average main body of 52,000 words.

STEM vs Non-STEM

As part of Dr Ian Brailsford’s analysis, he also compared the length of STEM doctorate theses to non-STEM theses. He found that STEM theses tended to be shorter. In fact, he found STEM theses to have a medium page length of 159 whilst non-STEM theses had a medium of around 223 pages. This is a 40% increase in average length!

Can You Exceed the Word Count?

Whilst most universities will allow you to go over the word count if you need to, it comes with the caveat that you must have a very strong reason for needing to do so. Besides this, your supervisor will also need to support your request. This is to acknowledge that they have reviewed your situation and agree that exceeding the word limit will be absolutely necessary to avoid detriment unnecessary detriment to your work.

This means that whilst it is possible to submit a thesis over 100,000 words or more, it’s unlikely that your research project will need to.

How Does This Compare to a Masters Dissertation?

The average Masters dissertation length is approximately 20,000 words whilst a thesis is 4 to 5 times this length at approximately 80,000 – 100,000.

The key reason for this difference is because of the level of knowledge they convey. A Master’s dissertation focuses on concluding from existing knowledge whilst a PhD thesis focuses on drawing a conclusion from new knowledge. As a result, the thesis is significantly longer as the new knowledge needs to be well documented so it can be verified, disseminated and used to shape future research.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

Browse PhDs Now

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MPhil Course Information

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General Information

Mphil course structure, essays - general guidance, dissertation - general guidance, university regulations on work submitted, procedural information for coursework.

Examples of Previous Essays & Dissertations

MPhil Seminar, Postgraduate Seminar, Lectures and Meetings

Oral Examination - ‘viva’

MPhil Results

Final congregation dates, questionnaires, applying for a phd at the faculty of philosophy.

The MPhil code of practice is here .
MPhil students may also find it useful to refer to CamGuides . This is is a free online resource for all Master’s students with a taught element, designed as an introduction to some of the academic, digital and research practices that they will engage in at the University of Cambridge. It encourages students to think about ways they can prepare for their Master’s degree before it starts. CamGuides does not need raven access and students will have access to the resource throughout their time in Cambridge.
Sources of advice and support can be found here.

MPhil students are assigned an MPhil advisor who oversees their studies during the course. The advisor and student will discuss essay topics and potential supervisors. The advisor is the student's first port of call for questions related to the course.

Coursework Overview

MPhil candidates are examined on one essay of not more than 4,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography), an essay of not more than 8,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography), and a dissertation of not more than 12,000 words (including footnotes and appendices but excluding bibliography), all on subjects which must first be approved by the Degree Committee. There are some restrictions on topics – see MPhil course structure for details – but students have a great deal of freedom to select topics of interest to them. There are also deadlines for submission and changing of titles.

Where deadlines are marked '*' below, see the Postgraduate Calendar on the Philosophy website for the exact dates

The first essay is submitted by the end of Michaelmas Term *. Students consult with their Advisors at the start of Michaelmas Term (and by the end of week 1 at the latest) to arrange a topic and a supervisor for this first essay. In case of any doubt, students should consult the MPhil Course Director. Students receive a mark for the first essay and any feedback and guidance which may seem appropriate at that stage, before Christmas.

The second essay is submitted in the last week of Lent Term*. Students are strongly advised to meet with their Lent Term essay supervisor(s) before they depart for the Christmas break.

Before starting work on an essay, students should discuss the suitability of the topic with the essay supervisor (who may or may not be the Advisor). Students submit the first essay title to the Postgraduate Administrator at the beginning of the sixth week of Michaelmas Term*, and submit the second essay title in the first week of Lent Term*. These go to the Degree Committee for approval. Minor amendments to titles of second essays may be accepted until the beginning of the sixth week of term*.

When choosing essay titles, students should keep in mind that the title's main function is to enable the Degree Committee to select suitable examiners. Titles should be direct and specific enough to serve this purpose (without, e.g. misleading witticisms), but not so specific that they make it difficult to make some change of focus. (For example: 'Leibniz' is too vague; 'Leibniz on contingency' is fine; 'Two meanings of "analytic" in Leibniz and how the distinction between them helps us to defend his views on contingency' is probably too specific.) Once a title has been agreed, students can add a subtitle, but the examiners will assess the essay for relevance in relation to the agreed title, not the subtitle.

There is no formal limit on the amount of supervision a student may have on an MPhil essay. The decision on how much to provide rests with supervisors. However, you may expect to receive a total of about 4 hours of supervision for each essay in total. A typical and reasonable supervising schedule would be as follows:

-An initial meeting with the supervisor for orientation, general advice, guidance on reading

-Three further supervisions (comments on preliminary reading and an outline; comments on and discussion of a first draft, with advice for possible improvement; and further comments on a revised draft)

The student would then submit the final version without further supervision.

Titles of MPhil dissertations need to be submitted for approval shortly before the beginning of Easter Term* (with minor amendments possible up to the third week of Easter Term*). Dissertation topics should be chosen carefully, and after consulting the dissertation supervisor. As in the case of essays, students are advised not to be too general or too specific, and choose a title that makes it straightforward for the Degree Committee to appoint suitable examiners.

MPhil candidates hoping to continue to a PhD will often choose essay and dissertation topics with an eye to their proposed PhD research. But students should not be tempted to make the MPhil dissertations too ambitious: students should bear in mind that there is a strict word limit (12,000 words), and a strict submission deadline at the end of Easter Term*. Students should note that no significant part of an MPhil dissertation may be incorporated as it stands in a PhD thesis, although it may of course form the basis for new work.

The MPhil dissertation will be submitted at the end of Easter Term*.

Please note that it is a University regulation that work already submitted for a degree outside Cambridge cannot then be submitted for a Cambridge degree ( https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/pdfs/2020/ordinance07.pdf#page=69 ). If students are in any doubt about this, please consult Advisors, or the Supervisor for the piece of work in question.

How to submit (titles and work) - You must submit your proposed essay and dissertation titles via email to the MPhil Course Director via the Postgraduate Administrator ( [email protected] ) by the deadlines in the PG Calendar. No amendments can be granted to the title of your first essay. Once the MPhil Course Director has approved your title, you will receive an email from the PG Administrator confirming that your title has been approved. If, however, the MPhil Course Director cannot approve your title, for example because there is some ambiguity, you will also receive communication from the PG Administrator asking you to reconsider and resubmit an amended title. It should be stressed that approval of titles is not a pure formality. Students who start work on their essays/dissertation before the titles have been approved, do so entirely at their own risk. If in doubt, consult the MPhil Course Director (via the PG Administrator) early about the suitability of titles. Essays and dissertations should be submitted via Moodle , the Learning Platform used by the University. Further details on the process for submitting work via Moodle will be sent to candidates by the Postgraduate Administrator.
Presentation guidelines - MPhil essays and dissertations must be typed in English, use footnotes rather than endnotes, have numbered pages and properly acknowledge sources of information in notes and a bibliography. You must acknowledge all sources of information, including unpublished ideas and suggestions, e.g. from your supervisor. For essays students are not required to submit a cover sheet or a separate title page. Essays are subject to anonymous marking. Please save essays just using the title of the essay (no reference to student names or student number). Students should not include their name anywhere within the text of the essay. For dissertations, it is usual for your examiners to conduct a viva with you, so marking will not be anonymous. For the dissertation only therefore, student names should be marked clearly on a front sheet and students must incorporate the Student Registry ‘Declaration in the Preface’ (please follow the instructions here https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/examinations/graduate-exam-information/submitting-and-examination/mphilmres ). The Faculty's presentation guidelines for postgraduate students can be found here .
Wordcounts - MPhil candidates are examined on one essay in Michaelmas Term of not more than 4,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography), an essay in Lent Term of not more than 8,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography), and a dissertation in Easter Term of not more than 12,000 words (including footnotes and appendices but excluding bibliography) Please note that the word limit (including footnotes and appendices but excluding bibliography) for both essays and the dissertation will be strictly applied . Examiners may decline to read any material in excess of it. For both essays and the dissertation, candidates are required to include a statement of the word length at the end of their piece of submitted work, before the bibliography. In addition, the word count will be verified by the Postgraduate Administrator, when candidates submit their essays and dissertation.
Coursework deadlines - can be found in the Postgraduate Calendar . Please note that submission deadlines for essays and the dissertation are taken very seriously. In the absence of mitigating circumstances, late submission will attract a penalty of five marks for every working day, or proportion of this for part of a day.
Extensions - We recognise that sometimes students will need to seek an extension to the submission deadline. Students seeking an extension should contact the Postgraduate Administrator and the MPhil Course Director in the first instance.
Students with Student Support Documents outlining their access and reasonable adjustments requirements may request extensions if needed, and are invited to discuss which accommodations they require with the MPhil Course Director.
Short extensions of up to 5 days can be granted by the MPhil Course Director. Students will be required to confirm that they have informed their College Tutor of the extension. Students may self-certify the reasons for these short extensions and are not required to supply supporting documentation.
Extensions longer than 5 days: the MPhil Course Director will request that the student provides supporting documentation from a medical/welfare professional or from the student's College Tutor. The request will be considered by Degree Committee. The length of extensions may be constrained by the dates by which marks have to be approved. Students will be informed if an extension may lead to a delay in the date of their graduation.
Students are advised that extensions are more administratively straightforward for the Michaelmas and Lent Term essays, as short extensions there are unlikely to affect the timing of the student's graduation. For the dissertation, extensions are also possible, but extensions of longer than 5 days are likely to affect the timing of the viva, receipt of marks, and graduation. Further information about this extensions can be found on this webpage: https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/postgraduate-study/y...
Plagiarism/academic misconduct - The Faculty's policy on plagiarism/academic misconduct can be found here . The University’s definition of academic misconduct, including plagiarism, can be found here . MPhil students will be asked to check a box confirming that they have read the University’s definition of academic misconduct when they submit MPhil coursework via Moodle. Students should be aware that the University has the right to use text-matching software to verify the originality of work submitted at any time during the MPhil course. It is the Faculty’s policy to routinely check work submitted for plagiarism .
Assessment of MPhil essays and dissertations - please see the following:

MPhil Examination Procedures

Marking Criteria for the MPhil

Data retention policy for the MPhil can be found here

Examples of previous MPhil essays and dissertations

Previous examples can be found here

There is a weekly seminar for MPhil students, at which they present and discuss their work. The seminar focusses on developing presentation and discussion skills, as well as introducing students to a wide range of philosophical topics. All MPhil students are expected to attend this seminar every week and a register will be taken.

The Faculty also arranges other seminars especially for postgraduate students, including a postgraduate seminar, run by PhD students with no academics attending, fortnightly throughout the academic year.

Postgraduate students are encouraged to attend upper-level Tripos lectures and any other seminars (across Faculties) that are relevant to their work, please consult your Advisor for advice on which to attend.

Postgraduate students are strongly encouraged to attend the Moral Sciences Club , which meets weekly in term to discuss papers normally given by visiting philosophers. Similar meetings are organised in other Faculties (e.g. the 'D' Society for the philosophy of religion).

The lecture list including MPhil seminars can be found here. The University Timetable allows you to construct your own online timetable. Reading lists and handouts for lectures and course readings will be located on the relevant paper's moodle page.

Oral Examination -Viva

MPhil candidates will have an oral examination (‘viva’), on a date to be arranged with them by the Examiners in the week following submission of the MPhil dissertations. Candidates should therefore ensure that they are available for the whole viva period*, excluding the weekend. (The Examiners may in exceptional circumstances waive the oral examination, but candidates must not assume that they will.) If a candidate would like to request adjustments to their viva on the grounds of disability, they should complete a ‘voluntary disclosure form’ and return this to the postgraduate administrator. The form can be found here: https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/files/voluntary_disclosure_form.pdf

The main purpose of the viva is to test the depth of the candidate’s understanding of the issues discussed in the dissertation, and surrounding issues. The viva will usually concentrate on the dissertation, but it may also include questions on the general area of philosophy in which it falls.

Students should bring a copy of the dissertation to the viva in case the examiners wish to ask about specific passages in it.

MPhil vivas typically last around an hour, although some may be significantly shorter or longer than this.

For further information about the viva, see the MPhil Examining Procedures here:

https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/mphil-examining-procedures

MPhil candidates will be told the their final result as soon as possible after their Examiners’ reports have been considered by the Degree Committee at its meeting in late June/early July*. Students will also be able to view their dissertation and overall mark via their CamSIS self service.

The final congregation (graduation ceremony) of the academic year is usually on the third Friday or Saturday in July*. Further information on ceremony dates can be found here . Those hoping to graduate in July should contact the Praelector of their College in early June to check the ceremony date for their College and reserve a place.

We ask MPhil students to provide their feedback at regular intervals throughout the MPhil course, in the form of a questionnaire sent from the Postgraduate Office. Usually there is one questionnaire sent per term. Feedback from students is important in helping us to improve the course, and we ask that all students complete all questionnaires.

MPhil students may apply to continue as PhD candidates. If you are interested in doing so, you should discuss this with your Advisor early in Michaelmas Term, and also notify the Postgraduate Secretary, to ensure that you don’t miss the relevant application and funding deadlines. You will need to complete an online application via the admissions portal, similar to the one you completed in applying for the MPhil. It is available from the Postgraduate Admissions website:

https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/portal/continuer

The deadline will be in early December* or Mid-October if you are a student from the US who wishes to apply for Gates funding. The application requires a research proposal of 500 words, two references, and two writing samples. One of these writing samples should be something produced on the MPhil course (typically a version of your first essay), while the other maybe one of the samples you submitted in applying for the MPhil. Please discuss your research proposal with your potential PhD supervisor before submitting it, and talk to your Advisor about the whole application.

Please note that admission to the PhD is not an automatic consequence of successful completion of the MPhil. The Faculty receives many more applications for the PhD than it is able to accept, and can admit only a minority of qualified candidates. The Degree Committee makes a judgement on each individual case, taking into consideration all the evidence it has available about the suitability of the candidate to complete a thesis on the proposed topic. Ordinarily, several conditions need to be satisfied before the Degree Committee will recommend that an MPhil candidate proceed to work for the PhD. These are necessary but not sufficient conditions:

(i) If you are offered a PhD place it may be conditional on your achieving a specified mark in the MPhil as a whole. Typically, candidates who successfully proceed to the PhD will be those who are achieving marks for the essays and dissertation of 70 or better, although you will not yet know any of your marks at the time you apply to the PhD.

(ii) In addition to satisfactory marks in the MPhil a candidate needs to show an ability to generate and to develop original ideas. (The MPhil marking criteria indicate that it is possible to obtain quite good marks without showing any substantial originality.)

(iii) A candidate who is to be accepted for the PhD needs to produce an acceptable research proposal.

(iv) The Faculty needs to be confident that it can provide proper supervision for the candidate's proposed research.

If you are an MPhil candidate who is then accepted into the PhD programme, and if your PhD research is suitably related to your MPhil work, you will usually be allowed to count some or all of your three MPhil terms towards the residency requirements of the PhD, if you are ready to submit your thesis before the minimum terms of study have elapsed. This means that you may submit a PhD thesis after only six more terms, if you wish. Please see the following webpage for further information:

https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/postgraduate-study/your-student-status/allowanceexemption-research-terms

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PhD in History of Art

MPhil in the History of Art and Architecture

The PhD in History of Art is a three year research degree offering the opportunity for independent research under the supervision of an expert departmental member of staff. The Department of History of Art has expertise and welcomes candidates in many areas of history of art and architectural research, but is unable to offer places to candidates for whom no supervisor is available. Applicants are admitted who meet the course requirements and whose research interests match those of an available established University Teaching Officer. The Department does not offer a taught PhD programme, unlike, for example, many North American Universities.

As well as the research and skills training programme offered by the Department, candidates have the opportunity to attend appropriate courses in associated skills, such as modern languages, palaeography, the use of bibliographic and other databases, and computer skills.

Course Structure & Examination

The PhD in History of Art is a three year programme which commences in October each year. It is also available on a five year part-time basis. Students submit their dissertations of not more than 80,000 words (60,000 words for the MSc degree) at the end of their third full-time year (or part-time equivalent) and will be invited to attend an oral examination which will usually take place during the three months following the submission of the dissertation . The dissertation and the general field of knowledge within which it falls is orally examined by two examiners. At least one of the examiners will be external to the University.

The programme involves minimal formal teaching. Students will usually have their supervisors confirmed before they have begun their course in October and will typically meet for 45 minutes on a fortnightly basis during term time. A bespoke programme is evolved by the student in conjunction with their supervisor and will include attendance at the Department’s programme of research seminars and other relevant graduate courses. Attending lectures is optional but students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of lectures offered in the Department, their college and other departments and faculties relevant to their research topics.

As well as the research and skills training programme offered by the Department, students have the opportunity to develop their research skills by attending numerous courses, such as those related to the use of bibliographic resources and other databases, and specific computer skills. Informal opportunities to develop research skills also exist through mentoring undergraduate students and other opportunities presented by fellow students and members of staff.

Students will be provided with feedback via supervisions and their supervisor's termly reports which are available to them via their self-service pages on CamSIS.

Annual Review of Work

Students undertake an annual review of their work throughout their programme which is realised in different ways; for example, the production of a report or undertaking a presentation. The purpose of the reviews is to ensure that students are on track to submit a successful dissertation by the submission deadline. The first review also serves as a registration exercise, for which students have to submit a report of 10,000 words which is orally assessed by two assessors. The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the student is suited to the demands of PhD research and to address any concerns if there are any.

Examination

Students submit a dissertation, of not more than 80,000 words (60,000 words for the MSc degree) . The dissertation and the general field of knowledge within which it falls is orally examined by two examiners. At least one of the examiners will be external to the University.

At a Glance

Course length and dates:

3 years full-time/5 years part-time, October start.

Examination:

A dissertation, of not more than 80,000 words.

Academic requirement:

A 1st class or a high 2i honours degree and a Masters degree with distinction (if a distinction category exists) in History of Art or a related discipline.

English language requirement:

See Postgraduate Admissions Office .

Applications accepted from:

The preceding September.

Application Deadlines:

The final deadline for applicants seeking funding is early January, for the exact date, please see the Postgraduate Admissions website. Even if you are not seeking funding, we strongly recommend that you submit your application by this date, as no applications will be accepted once this competitive and popular programme is full.

If places are still available on programmes beyond this deadline; self-funded applicants will continue to be considered until the final deadline in March, for the exact date please see the Postgraduate Admissions website No applications will be considered after this deadline.

The Secretary The Department of History of Art 1-5 Scroope Terrace Cambridge CB2 1PX Tel: 01223 332975 Fax: 01223 332960

Contact: [email protected] [email protected]

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The Best Cambridge PhD Proposal Sample

Submitting a PhD proposal is a mandatory aspect of how to get into grad school, so reading and reviewing a Cambridge PhD proposal sample is good preparation. You should also review Cambridge personal statement examples , since a personal statement is also a requirement for the 300+ graduate programs at Cambridge, along with submitting a research resume . The university has four separate graduate schools, and they all received up to 30,000 applications last year, so it is crucial to make your grad school application stand out. This article will present a Cambridge PhD proposal sample written according to the requirements of a PhD program at Cambridge and explain the differences between different graduate school texts.

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Cambridge phd proposal sample .

PhD Program: PhD in Film and Screen Studies

Research Proposal Length: 500–1000 words

To: Professor Kasia Boddy, University Lecturer in American Studies

Name: David Oswald

Title: The Violence You Know: Intimate and Partner Abuse in the Films of Martin McDonagh

Proposed Research Topic: A current of abuse – in romantic and non-romantic relationships – runs throughout the plots of three films by Martin McDonagh. I want to explore this topic as a possible advancement in the way these relationships are portrayed in Hollywood films by comparing them with how the scholarship on domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) describes and classifies abusive relationships.

Abstract: Intimate, partner, and child abuse are present throughout the plays and films of English-Irish playwright and filmmaker, Martin McDonagh. I believe this pervasiveness does not stem from the filmmaker’s desire to shock or attract audiences (although I do not discount it either) or the wish to simply insert an abuse narrative as a plot or subplot device. Rather, I will argue that the depictions of abuse in three of McDonagh’s films, In Bruges , Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , and The Banshees of Inisherin , not only complicate society’s understanding of this type of violence but go beyond the typical portrayals of abuse in Hollywood films, which confine and reduce abuse to stereotypes and recycled tropes. With this complication in mind, I also want to argue that McDonagh’s progression as a writer and filmmaker has been in near lockstep with the scholarly analysis of the causes of intimate violence, which has accumulated new definitions, categories, and prisms of understanding to discuss abuse over the years.

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Objective: The goals of this investigation are both to elevate the work of the filmmaker above other fictional depictions of intimate, partner, and child abuse and connect these depictions to the way scholars and other experts have progressed in their understanding of real-world abuse and its many different causes and manifestations.

Background: Sporadic, spontaneous violence is a common theme within McDonagh’s entire canon, and his early plays (McDonagh began as a playwright) led commentators like Sierz to label McDonagh’s work as “In-Yer-Face” theater. This label was not used pejoratively. Sierz, in particular, felt that McDonagh’s “shock tactics” reinvigorated British drama pre-millennium and were used to trouble “the spectator’s habitual gaze,” which then “implies that you are being forced to see something close up [and] that your personal space has been invaded.” Sierz identified this tactic in not only McDonagh’s early work, but in that of many similar contemporary playwrights, as having an effect on viewers that allowed them to “renegotiate the relationships between the audience and performers.”

The most crucial aspect of “In-Yer-Face" theater for my investigation is its main motivating feature, which Sierz posits “takes the audience by the scruff of the neck and shakes it until it gets the message.” This aspect of contemporary British drama has been both vilified (Weber), and praised (Lachman). Lachman goes so far as to argue that this aspect of McDonagh’s plays is purely a narrative device with little to no “message” behind his shock tactics. Lachman also argues that McDonagh’s “overall project seems to be aesthetic,” and that the playwright’s use of grotesquerie and satire denote an “ironic withdrawal” that prevents “direct transfer of politically or socially determined meanings.” However, what I most want to build on from Lachman’s analysis is his conclusion that ultimately, McDonagh’s true motivation is one of "spectacular provocation." I would argue that it is, but this provocation is in the service of a legitimate, societal grievance, namely how abusers abuse and get away with it.

A Cambridge PhD proposal must be written according to the requirements of your specific program, as they all have different requirements. However, those requirements have mainly to do with length, which can range from anywhere between 1000 to 3000 words. The content, structure, tone, and goals of a research proposal are almost uniform across all PhD programs, as they are meant to show your reader:

Your research proposal is you answering the above questions, which are not that different from grad school interview questions that also ask you about your research interests and goals. If you know how to write an effective statement of intent , then writing a good research proposal should not be that difficult, even though they are very different.

In a statement of intent, sometimes referred to as a statement of purpose, you can write about several topics like “ why do you want to do a PhD? ’ as well as your research interests and goals, but in a much broader sense. A research proposal is about specifics, in all aspects, from the literature (articles, books, journals) you propose to read and research to designing a research plan that is wholly original.

So, writing a research proposal requires more than a little work, much more than learning how to write a CV for grad school or graduate school cover letters . Another aspect that differentiates a PhD proposal from other written materials like a grad school career goals statement is that there are no personal details involved in a research proposal. The only thing about yourself that you should include is your name, with the rest of your proposal being a dispassionate examination of what is out there in terms of current thinking on your subject.

If you are worried about how to get into grad school with a low GPA , your research proposal is an excellent way to show how much you know about your field of study, even if your grades are not that great. You can showcase your knowledge of theoretical approaches (how you plan to interpret and critique what has come before and your own findings). You will discuss your past research and present a case for how your study will contribute to future scholarship or have real-world implications, like changing laws and policies at various levels.

The three elements you want to cover in any PhD proposal are:

The way(s) you will conduct your research are also something you must include. The exact methods are dependent on your field of study and can range from scientific research, and observational studies to qualitative surveys and an in-depth review of existing literature. But, whatever your field or topic, you must present a research roadmap that will lead you eventually to answering your research question. You can borrow these methods from any theoretical school of thought (modernist, post-modernist, Marxist, feminist, queer) that most aligns with your own ideas and educational background. ","label":"Research Methods","title":"Research Methods"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

1. Title Page

The first thing you should write is your title and title page, where you can include your name, the title of your research or thesis, the program you are applying to, and someone from the faculty who could potentially show you how to prepare for a thesis defense .

2. Abstract

This short summary of your proposal should explain to the reader what your investigation is about. An abstract can include your research questions, aims, and methods, but it is usually a very short paragraph (5–6 sentences) , so you want to be as concise as possible. Research proposals in STEM subjects often contain more jargon and technical language, but many PhD admission consultants caution against using overly technical language in other subjects like the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

3. Background

Your background is where you can write in detail about how you came to choose this topic and what about it piqued your interest to begin with. Many thesis writing services advise that you don’t want to get too informal or general by writing things like, “I chose this topic because I like this writer” or “I’ve always been interested in...”. You want to mention specific authors, concepts, and ideas that are germane to your topic; don’t make it specifically about you.

It is not enough to say you want to research this topic because you are interested in it. Your well-educated audience wants to see how familiar you are with all the existing literature and what you will do to contribute to that. You can also mention things about the existing research that are lacking, and then talk about how your investigation will fill in the gaps.

4. Research Plan

Here is where you lay out how exactly you plan to answer your research questions and talk briefly about your methodology. If you will be conducting interviews and gathering responses from a survey, that’s what you talk about here. If you will be setting up an experiment to determine the outcome of your hypothesis, then that’s what you talk about here.

When laying out your research plan, you can also talk about the resources you will use or need and make a connection with the program or school you plan on attending. Connecting your proposed research to the school’s facilities and resources strengthens your overall application if you can present a compelling case that your investigation can only be conducted at this institution.

5. Limitations and Possible Obstacles

Another way to demonstrate how much you know about your topic and scholarly research in general is mentioning what, if any, limitations your research will have or will run into. Sometimes researchers mention limitations after they’ve completed their investigation and realize their study was deficient in one area or another, but this does not invalidate the study entirely and is often expected. Thinking of possible limitations is a positive, since it shows a great deal of foresight and the ability to anticipate problems within your own research .

Writing a PhD research proposal for Cambridge can be intimidating for some, but if you are confident in your knowledge and skills, then it is a great way to show how familiar you are with your field of study and why you are an ideal candidate for this program. There is also a certain amount of creativity on display, as you need to show how your study will be different in several ways, such as the originality of your proposal, the novelty of your research methods, and how it will contribute to larger societal, theoretical, and practical issues.

The outline presented here is only one way to organize your own proposal, but you can consult with a grad school essay tutor or other writing expert to organize it in other ways, provided you keep those core elements of research aims, research questions, and research methods.

FAQs

A PhD proposal is a document that outlines a specific topic of investigation that you plan to carry out as the basis for entering and completing a PhD program. Writing a PhD proposal is the first step in how to publish as a graduate student , but it requires that you set out your research goals, aims, and methods to demonstrate how well-acquainted you are with your field of study, research methods, and what limitations you might encounter.

There is not that much difference between writing a PhD proposal for Cambridge or Oxford or Harvard. PhD proposals should be written according to the specifications of the program you want to enter, not the school you plan to study at, although you can mention why this school is ideal for you to conduct this research. But the main elements you should always include are what you plan to study, why it is important to carry out this study, and how it contributes to all the knowledge that has come before it.

A statement of purpose, sometimes called a statement of intent, is a multi-faceted document that can include several things like your educational background, achievements, and your research interests. But it is not like a PhD proposal at all. One way to think about the two documents is that a statement of purpose is about you (education, background, goals), but a PhD proposal is not. A research proposal should only reflect your creativity, intellectual vigor, and potential to think outside the box, but never autobiographical information.

Yes, if you are applying to a PhD program, submitting a research proposal is almost always a universal requirement, regardless of the school, program, or country. Should you pursue a master’s or PhD , the underlining motivation behind either is to investigate a unique topic and present and defend a thesis. While this is a feature of both, entering a PhD program extends this research into a multi-year project with you writing and defending a dissertation as its culmination.

Cambridge is home to four different graduate schools that cover various disciplines, so it does not have universal PhD proposal requirements. Each individual PhD program at Cambridge stipulates its own content and format requirements.

Usually, a PhD proposal is anywhere between 1000 and 3000 words.

Yes, you should do a lot of research to write a PhD proposal. You are given ample space in your proposal to talk about many different research threads, ideas, concepts, and pieces of literature, so you must thoroughly research your own topic, read academic papers or relevant theoretical literature, and present a compelling reason for why this investigation should exist based on what you have discovered.

You should start researching your PhD proposal as soon as possible, given how well-researched and well-thought-out your proposal needs to be. The research phase alone could take days or weeks, depending on your proposal. Doing your research first is essential and will ultimately make it easier to write. The writing part can take as long as you need, but you should always make sure you have enough time before your submission deadline.

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PhD in Land Economy

Any questions about the PhD in Land Economy should be directed to the Department's Postgraduate Admissions Office via the following email address:

The course director for the PhD in Land Economy is Professor Jorge Viñuales , who can be contacted via the following email address:

Application Information

When applying to study for the PhD in Land Economy applicants are required to submit a detailed research proposal outlining their intended research topic, objectives and proposed methodology. The topic of research is the Candidate’s own choice and will be provisionally approved by the Degree Committee when accepting the applicant to the course.

Applicants are advised to consider carefully the topic of their PhD research. The research proposal submitted with the application should be sufficiently developed to give a clear indication of the research to be undertaken and to show that the topic is suitable for research at PhD level. It must cover the background and aims of the research; the methodology and data to be applied (if relevant); the analysis to be adopted; the possible conclusions to be reached. The PhD is independent, student-led research and the Department does not provide applicants with suggestions for research topics or provide guidance on how an initial research idea should be developed.

In all cases a suitable and available supervisor must be identified before the Department will make an applicant an offer of a place. Normally, it will be a member of the Department.

The Department expects applicants to investigate the research interests and expertise of the academic and research staff prior to making a formal application. More information on the research interests of academic staff in Land Economy can be found at: https://www.landecon.cam.ac.uk/listing-page/academics

The name(s) of academic and research staff who have been identified by the applicant as possible supervisors for the research should be clearly stated in the relevant field of the application form. Information on the Department’s research and the work of academic staff are available from this website. The Department will not accept a student whose proposed research falls outside its areas of interest or if it believes that Cambridge is not the most appropriate place to undertake the research both in terms of location and the expertise available. If a suggested supervisor is unable to accept a candidate, the Department will ensure the application is reviewed by any other members of staff who may be suitable.

Ultimately allocation of a supervisor is the responsibility of the Department's Degree Committee. Informal agreement between a member of staff and a student is therefore not in itself guarantee that an offer of a place will be made, or that the relevant member of staff will be the allocated supervisor. This will only be confirmed following consideration of a formal application.

Please note the Department and its academic staff are not in a position to enter into lengthy discussion with applicants about potential research topics and/or supervision arrangements prior to receipt of a formal application.

Structure of the PhD

Land Economy offers a full-time PhD programme. The Department currently has over 70 PhD students at different stages of the programme, working in a range of areas.

The Department is part of the University's ESRC Doctoral Training Centre for Social Sciences.

Candidates are not registered for the PhD programme in the first instance. They are required instead to come into residence and commence their research, and to be assessed towards the end of their first year of full-time study, or equivalent for part-time study. This assessment is based on a written report submitted by the candidate and a discussion with two assessors. The assessment will take stock of the progress made by the candidate to date, the scope and method of the research and the expected contribution to knowledge. For those then registered for the PhD programme, credit is usually given for all the terms of study successfully completed.

Early in the seventh term there will be a further formal assessment of progress. This assessment follows a similar format to the first year assessment.

Examination for the PhD is by submission of a thesis (up to 80,000 words) and oral examination. The Degree Committee will usually appoint one internal and one external examiner to undertake the examination. Depending on the time of year, the thesis can be “under examination” for between two to four months.

Whilst there are no mandatory taught elements to the PhD degree, on the recommendation of their supervisor Candidate’s may be required to undertake specific additional research training. This will usually be undertaken in the first year of the PhD and may range from advanced research methods to more generic skills. Such training may be desirable either to build upon existing skills, or to equip a Candidate with essential new skills (i.e. those not gained through their Masters course or other relevant prior experience). Students may draw upon modules offered by the Social Science Research Methods Centre (SSRMC) Training Programme, as well as those run by other Departments.

The Department also operates a series of weekly seminars throughout the Michaelmas and Lent terms aimed specifically at PhD students. These seminars cover areas such as the development of individual research programmes, choice of research methodologies, ethics, as well as other transferable skills such as presentation, career development and publication. This programme compliments the University’s own Graduate Development Programme.

Land Economy offers a part-time route to the PhD. This might be suitable for someone who is employed in the Cambridge region and whose employer views such a programme of study as representing valuable staff development; or who works part-time, or who is home based for whatever reason, and wants to develop his-her research skills. Current employees of the University of Cambridge are also eligible to apply. Details on the terms of study are available on the University's website here .

Applicants should note that the part-time route is not a distance learning degree. Students will be expected to live close enough to Cambridge to fulfil attendance requirements and meet regularly with their supervisor. In all cases, applicants to the part-time route are required to undergo an interview before any formal offer of a place can be made.

Further information is available here .

MPhil to PhD

MPhil candidates wishing to pursue a PhD with the Department may apply to continue as a Graduate Student via the Board of Graduate Studies. Each application is considered carefully by the Department and by the Degree Committee. Approval of an application will depend on three criteria:

availability of a supervisor;
the approval by the Degree Committee of a research proposal; and
the achievement of a minimum overall mark and minimum dissertation mark in the MPhil examination as prescribed by the Degree Committee.

Full details of the application procedure for continuing students are given on the Graduate Admissions Office website. Students wishing to continue are advised to apply early in the academic year and to be aware that funding deadlines are also often early in the applications cycle. In all cases, approval to continue is subject to the final examinations results and approval from the Degree Committee.

Course information

Course Length

Full-time - a minimum of 9 terms of study (3 years)

The PhD can also be taken on a part-time basis - please see below for more information.

IMAGES

Cambridge University PhD student quits after lecturer reads N-word in class
Cambridge PhD
The fastest way to get a phd degree from University of Cambridge
Know the Numbers of Pages vs. Research in PhD
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A visit to Cambridge word meaning || Class 8 English reader Chapter 7 word meaning || Honeydew

VIDEO

A week as a Cambridge PhD student
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COMMENTS

Word limits and requirements of your Degree Committee
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree, including the summary/abstract. The table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, appendices, bibliography and acknowledgements to not count towards the word limit.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
A Cambridge PhD is intellectually demanding and you will need to have a high level of attainment and motivation to pursue this programme of advanced study and research. ... The word count of the dissertation is dependent on the department and the Student Registry or Educational Student Policy will be able to tell you the maximum word limit ...
PhD thesis formatting
The rules left are now mainly about the word count. In particular, it is no longer necessary for dissertations to be printed single sided or in "one-and-a-half spaced type". ... The cam-thesis LaTeX class is a collaborative effort to maintain a Cambridge PhD thesis template for Computer Laboratory research students, initiated by Jean ...
The PhD thesis
The PhD thesis. The doctoral thesis should contain material of sufficient originality to merit publication. The original material should be adequate to form a substantial basis of a monograph or at least two journal articles. The thesis should demonstrate the candidate's command of the relevant literature. The thesis should be a coherent piece ...
Fourth Year: writing up and completion
PhD thesis formatting; Writing up and word count; Submitting your dissertation; Papers and conferences; Leave to work away, holidays, and intermission; List of PhD students PAT, recycling, and Building Services; Freshers. Freshers overview; Cambridge University Freshers' Events; Undergraduate teaching information and important dates; Course ...
Submitting your thesis for examination (PhD, EdD ...
The thesis you submit to your Degree Committee will be the thesis forwarded to the examiners for examination. It is not possible to 'retract submission' or to send a revised copy directly to your examiners. Therefore you should carefully check the file (s) you upload when submitting your thesis. Postgraduate students must keep a minimum number ...
Prospective Postgraduates
The word count of 3, 000 - 5, 000 words includes footnotes/references, but excludes bibliography. ... an area of philosophy on which you will concentrate your work and indicate whether you intend to study for the PhD in Cambridge thereafter. Assessment Process. The Faculty of Philosophy Degree Committee will recommend acceptance (usually ...
Thesis formatting
The rules left are now mainly about the word count. In particular, it is no longer necessary for dissertations to be printed single sided or in "one-and-a-half spaced type". ... The cam-thesis LaTeX class is a collaborative effort to maintain a Cambridge PhD thesis template for Computer Laboratory research students, initiated by Jean ...
PhD in Psychology
The PhD is intellectually demanding and applicants will need to have a high level of attainment and motivation to pursue this programme of advanced study and research. Completion normally requires three to four years of full-time study, including a probationary period. Students will normally be required to be resident in Cambridge during that time.
The PhD programme
The PhD is awarded after three to four years of full-time research (or five to seven years of part-time study) on the basis of a dissertation of 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography, but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words exclusive of bibliography, table of contents and any other preliminary matter ...
PhD First Year Probationary Review
Note 2: Experimentalists who find that their experimental section is taking them over the 12,000 word count should retain only the key compounds in the Experimental Section (part of the main report body, i.e. included in the word count); all other compounds (including preparation method and experimental data) should be moved to an Appendix ...
Essays and dissertation
The Department uses Microsoft Word to check word counts. If you use coding software, such as LaTeX, you should be aware that this software may give a different word count. You may find it helpful to use TeXcount, an online tool that analyses LaTeX code to provide an accurate count of words, formulae, captions and footnotes. If using software ...
PDF History Faculty Style Guide
as part of the argument, there the translated words should be counted normally. 5. Calculating and verifying the word count: the word count should be conducted on the main body of the text, excluding prefatory material and bibliography, and setting the 'word count' tool to exclude footnotes from the word count. B. Presentation matters 1.
First Year Report: the PhD Proposal
First Year Report: the PhD Proposal. All candidates for the PhD Degree are admitted on a probationary basis. A student's status with the Student Registry is that he or she will be registered for the CPGS in Computer Science. At the end of the first academic year, a formal assessment of progress is made. In the Department of Computer Science and ...
How Long Is a PhD Thesis?
Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all answer to this question. However, from the analysis of over 100 PhD theses, the average thesis length is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A further analysis of 1000 PhD thesis shows the average number of pages to be 204. In reality, the actual word count for each PhD thesis will depend on the ...
MPhil Course Information
MPhil Course Structure. MPhil students are assigned an MPhil advisor who oversees their studies during the course. The advisor and student will discuss essay topics and potential supervisors. The advisor is the student's first port of call for questions related to the course.
PhD in History of Art
Course Structure & Examination. The PhD in History of Art is a three year programme which commences in October each year. It is also available on a five year part-time basis. Students submit their dissertations of not more than 80,000 words (60,000 words for the MSc degree) at the end of their third full-time year (or part-time equivalent) and ...
The Best Cambridge PhD Proposal Sample
Cambridge PhD Proposal Sample . PhD Program: PhD in Film and Screen Studies Research Proposal Length: 500-1000 words To: Professor Kasia Boddy, University Lecturer in American Studies Name: David Oswald Title: The Violence You Know: Intimate and Partner Abuse in the Films of Martin McDonagh Proposed Research Topic: A current of abuse - in romantic and non-romantic relationships - runs ...
PhD in Land Economy
Any questions about the PhD in Land Economy should be directed to the Department's Postgraduate Admissions Office via the following email address: [email protected]. The course director for the PhD in Land Economy is Professor Jorge Viñuales, who can be contacted via the following email address: [email protected].

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PhD in Psychology

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The Best Cambridge PhD Proposal Sample