1) Prospective PhD students contact the supervisor directly (informally) and discuss their project/ formulation of a 1000-1500 word proposal (including proposed methodology) 

2) The student is then invited to submit a full application to SLCL (slclgraduates@ucd.ie). The requirements are as follows:

a) cover letter

b) full CV

c) writing sample

d) two references

e) thesis project proposal (1000-1500 words plus indicative bibliography)

3) Once an application is fully complete online, SLCL office sends this full submission to both supervisor and Head of Graduate Studies.

4) If accepted by SLCL, SLCL will manually add the applicant to the central UCD applications system to create a student record. 

5) If rejected, the student will be provided with feedback on their application/ proposal. This may on occasion include a suggestion to rework their proposal with a view to resubmitting in 6 months/ 12 months.

Please find more information on: http://www.ucd.ie/slcl/study/mlittphd/#

Students who wish to apply for a PhD or MLitt must submit a thesis research proposal in addition to standard application materials (transcripts, personal statement, CV, references, languages requirements). The thesis proposal is not fully binding but allows us to determine the broad area of research that a candidate wishes to do and their interests.

Proposals should include the following information: a precise research question, a discussion of the types of data and (data collection and analysis) methods to be used in the research, a discussion of the academic motivations for the project and an indicative list of references. Before writing the proposal, candidates should contact a potential thesis supervisor at SLCL for a preliminary discussion. Please find our staff's research interests here.

You can find more information and the application form HERE.

Applications are accepted throughout the year and are reviewed on a rolling basis generally until early August.

Non-EU students should apply as early as possible – between January and March, and ideally no later than early May – as most of the scholarship competitions take place between February and April and the issuing of visas may take up to three months, particularly during the summer when there is usually a high volume of applications. For information about funding, please contact the UCD International Office.

All students must normally supply a statement of interest, a CV, a transcript, and two confidential references from academic referees who are able to provide details about the applicant’s academic abilities and motivations. We do only accept written references and are not in the position to request references from referees. References should be send directly to the School ((opens in a new window)slclgraduates@ucd.ie).

Students whose first language is not English and who did not complete their prior education through English (or Irish) must take an IELTS/TOEFL test to provide proof of their English language skills (more information on language requirements and test scores can be found HERE).

Please note that applicants coming from outside Ireland must also provide a passport copy.

For any technical and administrative help with the application, please contact (opens in a new window)slclgraduates@ucd.ie.

IMPORTANT: If you are a non-EU student applying for a Graduate Taught Programme (MA Modern Languages, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics), please contact (opens in a new window)internationaladmissions@ucd.ie

Please find  most frequently asked questions about Scholarships & Awards at UCD here.

If you cannot find an answer to your question please contact Student Records, Administrative Services, UCD Registry: (opens in a new window)awardsandscholarships@ucd.ie

For most courses you must pay a €50 application fee. This covers multiple applications for the same academic session. A receipt of payment will be sent to you by email if you choose to pay online.

More information here.

Graduate applications will be processed once a week, the average time until a decision is made is 2-3 weeks upon completion (5-6 weeks during the summer break between June and August).

An application is incomplete until you provide all required items on the checklist (including the application fee, if applicable).

If you are from outside of the EU, you have the option to pay your deposit and tuition fees in your home country. This is particularly useful if you require a visa to travel or study. Further information about 'Pay to Study' payment method.

Check your eligibility for EU or non-EU fees.

If you accept an offer of a place at UCD, you will be agreeing to UCD's payments and refunds policy.

Please note that fees may be subject to change. Visit www.ucd.ie/fees for a full list of fees.

IMPORTANT: Only Graduate taught (MA) students will need to pay the deposit. PhD applications do not have to pay the deposit.

Academic regulations as published will allow a student complete the PhD Degree in three calendar years if registered on a full-time basis throughout those three years and they can complete the taught 30 credit element requirement within those three years.

Yes, but a charge of €500 will be applied to any applicant who receives a deferred offer of a place on a graduate taught course. The charge will be set against the tuition fees for the subsequent year and is not an additional financial imposition on the applicant. 

Deferral students will no longer be required to submit an application for the subsequent term. Instead the Applications unit will manually transfer the application to the subsequent term, for any student who has received a deferred offer and paid the deferral charge.

Please find more information here: http://www.ucd.ie/registry/admissions/Apply_deferral.html

As another option you can withdraw and re-apply. Students who do not want to defer their application to the next year have the option to withdraw their application and apply again the following year in the normal way and be assessed in competition with other applicants.

IMPORTANT: Students can only defer once. Students who wish to defer a second time, will need to reapply to the programme and go to the application process a second time.

This decision will be made at the discression of the School. Please contact (opens in a new window)slclgraduates@ucd.ie if you wish to apply for a refund.

With some exceptions, courses open for application on 1 October each year and generally remain open to applications until all places are filled. The earlier you apply to the programme, the better your chances are of being offered a place.

Please contact the UCD Student Desk if you have questions regarding the payment of fees.

Find full Academic Regulations (opens in a new window)HERE.

Student workload is the amount of time spent by students on university study, including both scheduled contact time (lectures, tutorials, laboratories, workshops, etc.) and individual (or group) study and is measured through the allocation of ECTS credits. Where a Programme Board determines that the overall workload for a particular student in a particular semester or academic session is unsustainable, the Programme Board will require such a student to adjust their workload.

Graduate Taught:

2.3.3 Full-time Graduate: The normal workload for a graduate student registered full-time to a taught programme will be 30 ECTS credits per semester/term, up to a maximum of 90 ECTS credits in a full calendar year.
However, to permit flexibility and facilitate student choice, a full-time graduate student may pursue a greater or lesser number of credits in a single semester, subject to the approval of the Programme Board. The academic workload for a full-time graduate student will not exceed a maximum of 40 ECTS credits or be less than a minimum of 20 ECTS credits in a given semester, and no graduate student may attempt a workload in excess of 90 ECTS credits in any given academic session.

2.3.4 Part-time Graduate: Where a graduate student is registered to pursue a programme on a part-time basis, they will be required to register for and attempt modules equivalent to a minimum of 30 ECTS credits per academic session, unless exempted from this restriction by the Programme Board.

Graduate Research (PhD):

PhD students are required to take 30 credits. Sometimes 20 of those 30 credits may be pre-accredited to modules already taken elsewhere at BA or MA level. However, we do encourage students to register for modules taht are of critical use to them.

Students are permitted to take up to 90 credits for 'free' at UCD during their PhD. However, we would absolutely not recommend aiming for that because students should really be focused on their main project (the PhD).

There is another option for students who are interested in gaining information: PhD students are welcome to apply to a module convenor to 'audit' a module. i.e. sit in on lectures but not take assessment. Depending on your interests, this can be an excellent alternative.

All modules will be selected in consultation with your Principal Supervisor. 

Graduate Research (MLitt):

Students registered to the MLitt Degree or PhD Programme are not required to undertake the 30 taught credit requirments. There is a large selection of modules available across the university, both discipline-specific modules to broaden and deepen your knowledge of your discipline and research skills modules to provide advanced training in relevant research methodologies. All modules will be selected in consultation with your Principal Supervisor. 

The MA in Modern Languages can be an important step on the road to an academic career, however, potential applicants with a teaching career in mind should know that the MAML is not in itself a teaching qualification. In order to gain a teaching qualification applicants will need:

1. to take the Professional Masters in Education. We do recommend that applicants contact the School of Education and get their view on what would be needed in terms of language-content modules (see contact details here: (opens in a new window)https://www.ucd.ie/education/t4media/UCD_Prog_PME_FINAL_2017.pdf).
2. to contact the (opens in a new window)Teaching Council of Ireland and ask them for information on what would be needed in terms of university qualifications in your chosen language.

Applicants who decide to apply for the MA can find more infromation here:  http://www.ucd.ie/slcl/study/postgraduateprogrammes/mainmodernlanguages/

The MA in Linguistics or the GradDip are useful in order to obtain the necessary credits in linguistic for applying for a speech and language therapist programme which requires linguistics modules. These qualifications can be acquired via full or part-time study.