Study for a PhD in Educational Research

Most of our PhD programmes are studied part-time. The exception is the Traditional route PhD which can be undertaken as full-time or part-time study.

This depends on which programme of study you choose. For the PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning and the PhD in Educational Research - Higher Education you must attend some campus-based residentials.

Two of our PhD programmes, the PhD in Higher Education: Research, Evaluation and Enhancement and the PhD in Education and Social Justice, are studied entirely online. Supervision for the Traditional route PhD - independent study can be conducted online or on campus. As Lancaster University students, all of our learners are welcome to visit the campus at any time.

If you decide to apply for a Traditional route PhD then you will have to provide a 1500-2000 word research proposal. For the other PhD programmes, you will need to provide a personal statement.

The fees for our doctoral programmes are given with the "Fees and funding" section of each of the programmes.

Contact details for the different PhD programmes can be found within the web pages describing that programme.

Can’t decide between the two higher education programmes offered by Lancaster University’s Department of Educational Research? Use the comparison table on our Which Higher Education PhD programme should I choose? webpage to inform your decision.

Professor Paul Trowler has provided some Learning resources on topics of interest to doctoral researchers which were originally developed for HEREE doctoral researchers. The resources include videos and interactive exercises on a variety of topics including: writing proposals, research questions, ontology and epistemology, and the "So What?" question.