Location
Streatham Campus, Exeter
The University of Exeter Business School offers the opportunity to study for research degrees in accounting, finance, economics and management (including leadership studies).
Research students are encouraged to integrate fully into the School and participate in the staff/postgraduate seminar programme during term-time. Weekly seminars are given by visiting academics and there is a regular workshop programme at which staff present their own research and discuss new developments in theory and technique. You will be expected to periodically present seminars describing your own research and may contribute directly to one of the School’s Working Paper series.
Without exception, research students initially register for an MPhil. Transfer to the PhD depends on satisfactory progress, although you may apply to study for an MPhil with no intention of proceeding to the higher award.
The period of full-time study for a PhD is three years (two years for MPhil) and a further year is allowed for ‘writing-up’.
Although your research is unique, there follows an indication of what you, as a full-time student intending to complete a PhD, would typically undertake in terms of your own research in addition to research training.
During the first year you will finalise a detailed research proposal, agreed with your supervisor. The proposal, informed by a literature review, should include a theoretical framework or context, the specification of data requirements and appropriate research methods, and an indicative schedule for the completion of the various parts of the thesis. Towards the end of the year you will present a paper at the School's annual research conference or a similar event.
Thesis preparation is the main focus in the second and third years. You will present another paper at the annual research conference at the end of the second year. In the third year the research may lead to one or more papers, possibly co-authored with your supervisor, for presentation at an external conference or for publication as a discussion paper or in an academic journal.
