For full information on funding options, please click here.
The main form of tuition for a research degree is known as ‘supervision’. You will be appointed a primary supervisor, who will have the expertise sufficient for your chosen topic, and you will meet with them on a regular basis to discuss your work. In particular, the supervisor will:
help you to construct your research topic and structure of the thesis
discuss its substantive themes with you
help you to construct a programme of whatever research training you require
give you written and oral feedback on drafts of your work
The general expectation is that you will meet with your supervisor on a face-to-face basis, but if you are living/working away from Swansea, email contact can take the place of many of the expected meetings.
The university body which has overall responsibility for research students is the Postgraduate Research Faculty. They oversee the progress of all research students and provide many forms of support for their studies, most importantly a series of research training courses. We recognise that most students require extra help and training for the variety of skills required for a research degree, from ‘how to write a thesis’ and ‘time management’ to how to conduct fieldwork, analyse statistics, and suchlike. The Faculty runs regular conferences and seminars on all of these issues and you can work out with your supervisor which ones you should attend. We may also recommend that you attend other, discipline-specific taught postgraduate courses to help you bolster or refresh your knowledge in relevant areas. In your first year of study (known as your ‘probationary year’) in particular, we will help you to acquire all the skills you will need.
The Department of Politics and International Relations and the School of Humanities run regular seminars and conferences on a wide variety of academic themes which research students are normally expected to attend as members of our intellectual community. The students also organise their own discussion groups and seminars, and they are active in the Postgraduate Network of the Political Studies Association, frequently hosting meetings of its south-west section.
Full IT/computing facilities for postgraduates alone are available in the Department, in the School of Humanities and in the Library and Information Centre.
If you have any questions at all about life as a research student in the Department, don’t hesitate to contact Dr Mark Evans:
