Planning postgraduate research
Planning has a thriving and lively community of over 25 research students. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) - the government-commissioned review of research at British universities - praised the Manchester PhD programme for "outstanding quality evident in the research culture and student support". Research students are an integral part of our research culture and we aim to recruit high calibre students from diverse backgrounds, be they UK or international students wishing to study full- or part-time. The majority of our students are funded by prestigious research council awards and other scholarships.
We are at the forefront of providing quality training and supervision to research students. We have full research training recognition (1+3) by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) , and are eligible to receive ESRC support for full time '1+3' and '+3' doctoral research programmes, and for collaborative research with public and private sector partners under the CASE studentship scheme. Studentship awards are available from the ESRC and other research funding councils, and from the University. For further information, please visit the University Postgraduate funding page.
In addition, the School of Environment and Development has its own studentships, please visit the School's Postgraduate funding page.
What Our Students Say (Video)
All students are allocated a specialist supervisor and a second supervisor on registering, together with a supervisory panel to oversee their progress. They are expected to undertake the School of Environment and Development's research training programme - a minimum includes taught modules on the research process, on dissertation design, and on quantitative and qualitative methodologies. For those candidates in receipt of an ESRC award (and for others, as required) students will be expected to follow an ESRC accredited research training Masters of Planning (Research) programme which covers both generic social science methodology training and planning specific research techniques and issues.
If you are considering undertaking postgraduate research we would encourage you to send a short CV and an initial research proposal to Professor Graham Haughton. The proposal should include:
- the title of the proposed research topic
- the reason why you want to pursue this particular topic
- a discussion of the main research questions to be addressed, including the research aim and specific objectives
- a statement on the proposed research methodology, including data and analytical requirements
- a suggested work schedule over 36 months, and a bibliographic list of 10 key items from the literature.