MPhil/PhD in Psychology

Length: 3 years full-time or up to 6 years part-time.

About the Programme
Our postgraduate students are offered a stimulating study environment in which to research their higher degree.

We have a thriving postgraduate school with some 40 current students on full-time and part-time programmes, including mature students and students from the EU and overseas.

We provide training courses in research methods in your first year, a regular report/presentation schedule, and excellent computing/research facilities.

If you are thinking of doing an MPhil/PhD at Goldsmiths, the first step is to get in touch with any members of our staff whose research is in line with your interests.

Please see Research and Staff for information about research themes within the department, and Research Opportunities for examples of specific projects to which we are currently keen to attract postgraduate students.

Training and Support
All our MPhil/PhD students are assigned a specific research supervisor (or sometimes joint supervisors).

As well and receiving ongoing support and guidance from their allocated supervisor(s), our students undergo comprehensive training in psychological research methods (unless they already hold an MSc approved by the ESRC) in line with current ESRC training guidelines, which includes quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. This is mainly during the first year of registration (or first two years for part-time students. Our MPhil/PhD students also attend various short generic research skills and methods training (CRT) courses run by the College, also in their first year (or first two years if part-time).

Our students have full access to the Department's excellent facilities for lab and field research, and first-rate technical support is available from the Department's five-strong team of full-time technical staff.

Your progress
You initially register for an MPhil until you achieve satisfactory upgrading to PhD status. This is dependent upon satisfactory progress reports, an upgrading report and a viva. The upgrading report is usually completed after 12 months full-time, or 20 months part-time. The report will include a plan of the thesis, a timetable, and one draft thesis chapter or equivalent and will be discussed at a presentation to the Departmental Postgraduate Committee. This is regarded as part of the research programme itself, and should be a useful milestone on the way to successful completion. Submission of the thesis is the final stage of the work, when your completed thesis is presented for examination.

Most postgraduates take three years to complete a PhD full-time, and four to five years part-time. The maximum time period from registration to submission is four years of full-time study (five years part-time). Your progress on your thesis is regularly monitored by the Department's Postgraduate Programmes Committee. The Head of Department can recommend suspension from the programme at any stage if progress is not satisfactory.

To become a student of the University of London, you must enrol with the College at the beginning of each academic year of study or writing up.

Postgraduate Facilities
All full-time students have their own workplace and a networked computer with access to programmes for their research needs, plus email and Internet facilities. Part-time students also have access to a networked computer, generally shared between two or three students. In addition, we have a lab solely for the use of postgraduates, and a postgraduate computing room. We also run a psychological test library for staff and students.

A Graduate Centre and Research Office has recently been opened by the College, based in Hatcham House, 19 St James containing an open-access computer room, a student common room and seminar room for use by postgraduate research students. The Centre also hosts a number of research talks during the year, which are open to all postgraduates research students and staff in the College. Also based in Hatcham House is the College Research Office, whose staff oversee research students' progress and well-being and co-ordinate the Research Skills and Methods for postgraduate research students; College and Generic Training Course.

Seminars and Presentations
Our postgraduates have regular opportunities to meet up with other students and to make contact with staff.

The Department runs a number of active visiting lecturer seminar programmes and a weekly Postgraduate Seminar Series, at which students learn about the research of their colleagues, and receive guidance on topics such as giving presentations or writing up a thesis. There are also several specialised research groups (including affective neuroscience, consciousness studies, development and social processes, occupational psychology, visual cognition) open to staff, researchers and postgraduate students which hold regular discussion sessions and talks.

All postgraduates are invited to attend an annual Research Seminar Weekend in an informal setting at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, which is funded by the Department. Here, we have a programme of internal and external speakers.

In addition, our annual Postgraduate Poster Party gives students the opportunity to update the Department on their work.

Conferences
Besides the yearly presentation to the Department, our postgraduates are strongly encouraged to present their work, eg as a paper or poster, at external conferences and financial support is set aside for this. Some recent presentations by postgraduates include:

Priming for depth-rotated objects depends on attention. (Vision Sciences, Sarasota, 2002)

Imagining objects you have never seen: Imagery in individuals with profound visual impairment. (BPS Annual Conference, 2002)

Modelling dopaminergic effects on implicit and explicit learning tasks. Annual Summer Interdisciplinary Conference, 2002)

Individual differences in affective modulation of the startle reflex and emotional stroop task. (BPS Conference 2001)

Evolution and psi: Investigating the presentiment effect as an adapted behaviour. (Society for Psychical Research 25th International Conference, 2001)

Presence: Is your heart in it? (4th Annual International Workshop on Presence, 2001)

The effects of state anxiety on the suggestibility and accuracy of child eyewitnesses. (11th European Conference of Psychology and Law, 2001)

The psychosocial sequelae of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage. (6th Scientific Meeting of the Stroke Association, 2001)

The role of Electrophysiology in Human Computer Interaction. (HCI Conference 2001)

Categorical shape perception. Experimental Psychology Society and Belgian Psychological Society, 2002)

Schizotypy, eye movements, and the effects of neuroticism. (10th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual (ISSID), 2001)

Eye movements in siblings of schizophrenic patients. World Congress of Biological Psychiatry, Berlin, Germany(2001)

Sources of funding: Studentships, teaching bursaries, and scholarships

There are a number of sources of funding available on a competitive basis each year. See Research Opportunities for full details. Please note that the deadline for applications for these awards is usually in late February, and that the deadline for this year has now passed.

Further information
For further information about this programme, including fees and details of how to apply, please see the online prospectus entry for MPhil & PhD Psychology and MPhil/PhD Research Opportunities.