The Education PhD is designed for educators and education-related professionals who want to conduct original research related to their professional environment or area of educational practice, both for current and future educational practitioners. Whether you are seeking a beginning or advancement in your professional career in education, this PhD will help you extend your professional understanding and develop advanced skills for research, reflection, evaluation, and dissemination.
Our academic staff have extensive experience working with multi-agency partners, researching professionals at the master and doctoral levels, and leading national and international research-active projects.
As a postgraduate researcher, you will have one-to-one supervision with a lead supervisor and a second supervisor from our Faculty. Your supervisor is the key person who supports and guides your research. With your supervisors' guidance, you will research a topic of your choice in great depth. Your research topic may concern education at any educational phase (from Early Years to Higher Education) or setting (e.g. library, prison, museum or a heritage, health and social care service).
Please view the Faculty's staff profiles to see if our staff specialisms match the topic you would like to study.
Mode | Duration | Attendance | Start date |
---|---|---|---|
Full time | 3 years | You are required to attend supervision meetings, Graduate Research School training sessions, training sessions run by the Faculty, and other research events or training beneficial to your research skills and personal development. |
March 2025 October 2025 |
Part time | 6 years | You are required to attend supervision meetings, Graduate Research School training sessions, training sessions run by the Faculty, and other research events or training beneficial to your research skills and personal development. |
March 2025 October 2025 |
The programme is made up of individual supervision and, as such, can be extremely flexible to accommodate your needs.
As a PhD student, you will be expected to attend the University's research training sessions and a series of in-house seminars. The latter may be online (synchronous or asynchronous) or in-person, take the form of research 'masterclasses' led by experienced academic staff intended to reflect on different aspects of conducting education research or research seminars led by research students who present and discuss work-in-progress. You are also invited to attend research seminars arranged for academic staff members. There will be many opportunities to engage with other doctoral students and staff members beyond your supervisors.
There is also a series of sessions organised by the Graduate Research School on researcher development and managing doctorate (up to the stage of thesis submission and viva examination). The sessions are open to all PhD students and run by various faculty members.
For further information about the Education PhD programme (including the availability of supervision in an area of your interest), please contact Dr Christos Dimitriadis.
You may have the opportunity gain teaching experience, to help you pursue a career in academia.
Once a year, all PhD students are given the opportunity to present to the faculty about their PhD research. This ongoing engagement offers students and staff the chance to share and help each other develop their ideas.
This programme is delivered by the Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education.
Experienced and research-active academic staff from the Faculty are keen to support you in undertaking doctoral research into your area of study or practice to successful completion. Which staff members are appropriate will depend on your research area and the topic you want to study for your doctorate.
Depending on the programme of study, there may be extra costs not covered by tuition fees. Students will need to consider these costs when planning their studies. Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessment and operating University facilities such as the library, access to shared IT equipment and other support services. Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees.
Where a course has additional expenses, we make every effort to highlight them. These may include optional field trips, materials (e.g. art, design, engineering), security checks such as DBS, uniforms, specialist clothing or professional memberships.
There is a wide range of facilities at our Kingston Hill campus, where this course is based.
Kingston Hill is a leafy, hillside campus situated about three miles away from Kingston town centre. It is a quiet, secure place to study with easy access to London, meaning it provides the best of all worlds for our students.
Find out more about the Kingston Hill campus in the virtual tour.
One of the highlights of the Kingston Hill campus is the modern library, called the Nightingale Centre after Florence Nightingale, who was a regular visitor to Kingston Hill.
The library provides a spacious and attractive place for students to meet and study and features a cafe, more PCs and zoned study areas. Long opening hours give you plenty of access to specialist education books, journals and online resources.
Find out more about the Nightingale Centre in the virtual tour.
There are many computers (PCs and Macs) available for you to use across the Kingston Hill campus when you need a place to study. Access to the wireless network across the campus means you can also work from your laptop or mobile device.
Using IT to support your studies is crucial. Kingston has an innovative virtual learning environment called Canvas. This allows you to access course materials and contact fellow students and staff while away from the campus.
As a research graduate, you will be an important part of the research community at Kingston, and remain part of our networks. You will be able to access the Careers and Employability Service for up to two years after you graduate, and benefit from Alumni library membership for just £60 per year.
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Course changes explained.
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.