UCD School of Sociology

Scoil na Socheolaíochta UCD

Application Procedures and Guidelines for Graduate Research Students

The School welcomes applications from prospective PhD Students who wish to undertake research in sociology. We are very pleased to consider applications in any area of sociology in which we can provide appropriate supervision. For information on research areas of staff please click here

Duration of programmes:
PhD: Is normally a 3 year full-time (or 6 year part-time) programme.
MLitt: Is normally a 2 year full-time (or 4 year part-time) research masters programme.

Deadlines:

Registration periods are: September, January and April.
The School strongly recommends entering the programme in September, which is the beginning of the academic year.
Applications should be made at least 4-5 months prior to the Registration deadline.
Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application following an assessment process which takes approximately 10 weeks.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.

A. APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Email: Copies of completed Application Form and supporting documentation (except references) should be emailed to Veronica Barker at veronica.barker@ucd.ie

AND

Post: All original documents (including references) should be posted to:

Veronica Barker, Postgraduate Programme Manager, UCD School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4. Ireland.

Applications will not be considered until complete original documentation has been received.

1 . Applications will be accepted from suitably qualified applicants regardless of nationality or residence. Applicants, however, must make their own visa/consular arrangements to ensure that they are eligible to reside in Ireland for the duration of their studies.

2 . Applicants must normally have a first or upper second-class honours primary degree or masters degree, or the equivalent. In circumstances where examination results are not known at the time of application, the School of Sociology may make a Conditional Offer subject to receiving a complete and final transcript confirming that the applicant has met the above requirements.

3. Applicants must complete the current application form.

3.1 They must include the relevant supporting materials and original transcripts of their full academic record.

Transcripts can usually be obtained from one of the following offices, or their equivalent: the Registrar, faculty, or department/school of the applicant’s institution. All transcripts must be appropriately stamped or endorsed. Please see Application Form for fuller details.

3.2. English Language Proficiency. Applicants whose primary language is not English, must provide a certificate of proficiency in the English language (such as TOEFL, Cambridge or IELTS). Results must be less than 2 years old. Please see Application Form for fuller details.

4. Applications will be evaluated by a School Selection Board on the basis of their excellence, originality and potential. Applications will be evaluated and ranked by the School according to the following criteria.

(a) Description of the PhD/MLitt proposal (no more than 500 words). This should include a brief outline of how the applicant sees his/her project developing from year to year.

(b) Location of the proposed project within the current state of research and bibliography in the area (no more than 500 words)

(d) Methodology (no more than 400 words)

(e) The applicant's record and academic achievements (no more than 250 words).

Applicants must not exceed the word limit of the stated categories.

B. GUIDELINES FOR THE PhD/MLitt

Students are expected to maintain a real presence within the school during the period of their studies, to attend supervisory sessions as defined by their supervisor and Doctoral Studies/Research Masters Panel, to participate in the PhD/MLitt Roundtable discussions organised by the School of Sociology, to take graduate modules offered by the School of Sociology and by the College of Human Sciences Graduate School and to reside within a reasonable travelling distance of UCD

1. Ethical Standards

UCD is committed to the maintenance of the highest ethical standards in its research. Where ethical issues may arise, applicants will be required to submit a written statement to the effect that full consideration has been given to the ethical implications of the research proposal. This statement must further demonstrate the applicant’s proposed resolution of the ethical issues arising. Such applications may, in exceptional circumstances, be referred to the UCD Ethics Board. If a research project requires access to archival material in private custodianship or archival material with restricted access, written evidence of appropriate permission to consult such material must be furnished to UCD. See Structured PhD Programme/Research Maters (MLitt) Programme for links to Research Ethics Website

2. Study/research outside UCD

The School of Sociology acknowledges that students may benefit from travel/research elsewhere. This might entail:

(i) taking courses which are relevant to the student’s training and providing that the case for taking such courses has been made to the student’s Supervisor/Supervisory Panel and with the agreement of her/his Head of School.
(ii) spending part of the academic year resident at archives or other appropriate research sites. Where such research trips are conducted during the regular teaching term of the student’s institution, students must have the prior approval of their Supervisor/Supervisory Panel and Head of School.

3. Conferences and Presentations

One of the core features of doing a PhD/MLitt is sharing your ideas with others. Presenting papers at the Sociology PhD/MLitt Roundtable, School seminars and sociology conferences provides valuable experience in structuring these ideas to communicate them effectively with colleagues in the field, while also offering an opportunity for feedback that may improve, develop or refine your research. Students are expected to attend the Roundtable and School Seminars regularly and should give at least one seminar presentation each year. Papers based on ideas developed from the literature review, or empirical findings from the research, are very suitable topics for conference presentations, which often, in turn, form the basis of individual chapters of the thesis and/or academic publications.

During the course of the PhD/MLitt, students are expected to be active members of the Sociological Association of Ireland (or an equivalent organisation) and presenting a paper on aspects of their research at the annual SAI conference (or its equivalent) is considered the norm. In addition, as PhD students progress through the programme, they are expected to attend major international sociology conferences and present their research there. The School provides limited funding to assist with the costs of attending and presenting at conferences, and university also operates a number of schemes that provide funding for conference presentations.

4. Publications

One of the goals of doing a PhD is to publish the thesis - whether as a book or a series of journal articles, etc. - and thus contribute to public debate about important sociological issues. Therefore, in addition to completing the thesis, the school expects PhD students to become progressively more involved in preparing material for publication. This is viewed as significant both for career development issues and in terms of developing writing and analytical skills that will be of assistance in writing the actual thesis. Throughout the publication process, the student's supervisors are likely to be involved in reading drafts of the submission and suggesting any appropriate changes. In addition, the supervisors may help identify suitable outlets to which the student's work could be submitted. Typically publications are based on conference presentations, which in turn are based on the thesis material itself. In this way there is considerable overlap between these various activities.

During the first year of the PhD, students should seek to publish a short book review or review essay on material relevant to their research. During the second year of the PhD, when significant progress should have already been made on various sections/chapters of the thesis, students should write and submit a paper for publication. This paper may be submitted to publications such as the peer-reviewed Irish Journal of Sociology, the Irish Sociological Chronicles, or any other suitable outlet. In the third year of the PhD, a further paper should be submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal.

5. Teaching

For students wishing to pursue an academic career, gaining experience in teaching is often essential for securing an academic position. During the PhD, students are normally expected to become progressively more involved in the teaching of the School. As such, students typically are involved in teaching undergraduates through tutorial presentation, correcting assignments or lecturing. As the PhD continues, students are also expected to develop a teaching portfolio that reflects their broad sociological knowledge as well as their specific research interests. This can involve contributing to lectures for undergraduate modules under the supervision of a module coordinator. These activities are considered essential for the career development of PhD students, and are strongly supported within the School. In UCD, the Centre for Teaching and Learning provides a range of courses oriented towards the development of effective teaching skills, and students are expected to attend appropriate courses over the duration of the PhD.

6. Supervision (Doctoral Studies Panel/Research Masters Panel)

Each student accepted onto the PhD/MLitt programme will be allocated a supervisory panel - Doctoral Studies Panel/Research Masters Panel. That normally comprises your principal supervisor and two additional advisors. In special circumstances, two members of the panel may be appointed 'main supervisors', although one of these will retain overall administrative responsibility for the student. A Research and Profession Development Plan (RPDP) is required and the student’s Panel will work with them on developing this. The role of the supervisors is to direct and advise the student in developing a focused research question, conducting the research, and completing the thesis. In addition to advice provided throughout the PhD process, an important role of supervisors is to provide detailed written feedback on draft chapters, and to ensure that the student is making satisfactory progress in terms of career development generally. The main supervisor, in particular, can be expected to provide appropriate advice on preparing conference presentations and submitting material for publication in academic outlets.

Panel meetings should be held regularly and they may be held more often at different stages of the research, particularly as the research programme is being focused and refined. In advance of every meeting, the student should submit written work to their Panel. Following each meeting, a formal record should be completed and signed, outlining what has been discussed and detailing any relevant activities that student or supervisor have undertaken to do for the next meeting.

7. The Research Environment at UCD

UCD has a variety of research institutes and centres that help generate and sustain a dynamic research culture within the University. The Geary Institute was established in 1999 under the Higher Education Authority's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, and it plays a major role in the provision of postgraduate training at UCD, providing space and computing facilities to doctoral students and researchers, and also running a series of courses in advanced research methods provided each year to doctoral students in the social sciences. In addition, the Geary Institute also houses the Irish Social Science Data Archive and organises a number of seminars and conferences each year. The Geary Institute and the other major research centres at UCD - including the Social Science Research Centre, the Centre for Equality Studies, the Urban Institute, and the Institute for British-Irish Studies - help provide a stimulating environment in which research students can pursue research of the highest quality.

The School of Sociology reserves the right to revise these application procedures and guidelines at any time.