PhD by Portfolio

PhD by Portfolio

The PhD by Portfolio is a route to a research degree open only to current members of staff who have been employed by the University for at least 2 years at the point of application and to former members of staff who left the University's employment within the last two years and who were in post for at least two years.

The 'portfolio' is a collection of the individual's outputs from research.  This may include publications, such as monographs, journal articles and book chapters, but may also include a range of other work, such as research reports, software programmes, creative artefacts such as films, paintings and photographs.  The portfolio must be coherent and not bring together unrelated work.

The portfolio must be supported by a critcial review of about 10,000 words which should explore how the portfolio fits together and how the portfolio shows the candidate's development as a researcher.

Fundamentally, the candidate must demonstrate that their portfolio is of a PhD standard, that it is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

This is a route that will best suit staff who have an established track record of research outputs.  It is possible for an individual with few or even no outputs to take this route and to develop a portfolio under the guidance of an appropriate mentor.  It should be stressed, hwoever, that this potentially a long and difficult route and staff in this position might be better served purusing a research degree via thesis.

A guide to PhD by Portfolio can be found here.