All Politics & International Relations (PAIR) research students will be enrolled in PAIR's postgraduate training programme. This offers subject-specific training for doctoral research in political theory, political science and international relations, and examines some of the practical, theoretical and methodological concerns involved in planning and writing a thesis.
The programme aims to assist students in thinking critically about their own research design and project and, by engaging intellectually with other research designs and projects, to reflect more generally on the nature of the PhD itself. It focuses, in particular, on the theoretical, analytical and methodological issues involved in producing doctoral research of a publishable quality and the practical issues that need to be negotiated if this is to be achieved within the specified timeframe. More broadly, the programme is designed not only to help students develop a critical awareness of the nature of the research process but also to develop other skills, such as those pertaining to teaching, funding, publishing and presenting at conferences.
The programme runs over three years (or the equivalent if studied part-time) and students are awarded 10 credits towards the successful completion at the end of each year. The postgraduate training programme is obligatory and its successful completion will enable research students to submit their dissertation and sit the viva at the end of the research period.
As part of the postgraduate training programme, research students who have not previously undertaken research training, or with only partial training, will also be required to attend and pass some of the following modules in year one, which are components of the relevant ESRC-recognised research training MSc programmes:
PAIR6001: Global Politics and International Relations
PAIR6003: Citizenship, Democracy and Political Theory
PAIR6015: Philosophy, Methodology and Research Design
PAIR6002: Survey Design Methods
PAIR6005: Statistical Data Analysis
SOCI6022: Qualitative Methods
The actual package of training courses to be undertaken will be agreed by the student and his or her supervisor(s). Beyond our Division, our research students will also be expected to attend other relevant workshops and courses. All students are required to attend and participate in seminars organised for research students at which work in progress is discussed.