Psychology

MPhil or PhD

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Key facts

Start dates

January 2024 / September 2024

Application deadline

Please allow at least four months between submitting your application and your expected start date, especially if you are an international student arranging a visa.

Location

Headington

Course length

Full time: 2 - 3 years

Part time: 3 - 4 years

Overview

A research degree in the Centre for Psychological Research allows you to develop your skills and contribute to internationally recognised psychology related research supported by skilled staff and a vibrant, cross-discipline research student community.

Staff in the Centre work in a wide range of research areas allowing a huge range of potential study areas. Furthermore, the Centre offers high quality training and research facilities that can be accessed by both part-time and full-time students. 

All research students become part of the University's Graduate College, which runs a comprehensive programme of training sessions and workshops to give you the opportunity to acquire both research and transferable skills to advance your career. The department complements this with research methodology courses, seminars featuring eminent academics, and the opportunity to present work at the Annual Faculty Research Student Symposium.

Coordination task with pegs

Research expertise

The Centre is underpinned by groups researching a wide ranging number of research areas. These fit broadly into four research groups:

  • those interested in aspects of Developmental Psychology
  • those interested in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience (in typical and clinical populations)
  • those interested in aspects of applied social psychology
  • those interested in the prevention of certain behaviours.

Some members of staff work across these groups but their work can be found from the links below. These links also include details on our current research students.

Degree routes

All students enrol as probationer research students. During the first year you will formally register your research proposal for one of the below routes. 

Why Oxford Brookes University?

The multiple award-winning John Henry Brookes building opened in 2014, and provides a state of the art library and extensive study spaces. In addition, The Centre for Psychological Research is situated on the top floor of the Sinclair building which was re-furbished in 2019. This space provides research students with a research student office, to help foster community within this group, as well as a range of specialist research laboratories:

  • BabyLab (with observation room and eye-tracking equipment)
  • PAAC Lab (Perception, Attention and Affective Cognition)
  • PuMA Lab (Perception and Motion Analysis)
  • Writing Lab

We also conduct some of our research in local schools and hospitals, which gives access to student and patient groups and links with education and health professionals.

All research students become part of the University's Graduate College, which runs a comprehensive programme of training sessions and workshops to give you the opportunity to acquire both research and transferable skills to advance your career.

We complement this with research methodology courses, seminars featuring eminent academics, and the opportunity to present work at the Annual Faculty Research Student Symposium.

How to apply

Entry requirements

All students must be able to meet the University’s requirements for a research degree, which is to be able to devote a minimum of 35 hours per week (full-time) or 15 hours per week (part-time) to the programme of research.

The minimum entry requirement for the degree of MPhil, or MPhil with transfer to PhD, is a first-class or upper second-class UK honours degree or equivalent qualification.

The normal entry requirement for a PhD is a Masters degree, or exceptionally a good honours degree/equivalent.

English language requirements

Our requirement is IELTS: 6.5-7.0 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking), depending on the subject. Please note that an IELTS certificate must be current; they are only valid for 2 years from issue. For further information about the test visit the IELTS website. Please note that we are unable to accept TOEFL qualifications.

However, there may be some exceptions. See UK Government visa information for more detail on the information.

English requirements for visas

If you need a student visa to enter the UK you will need to meet the UK Visas and Immigration minimum language requirements as well as the University's requirements. Find out more about English language requirements.

Application process

  1. If you have a research proposal in mind, explore our research groups and supervisory staff webpages, to identify the relevant research group/s for your research.
  2. Check the fees information on the university website. Oxford Brookes Alumni may be entitled to a discount on course fees.
  3. Email your CV and an outline of your area of interest to hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk. Give a brief explanation of how your studies will be funded.
  4. Once we have the initial information we will liaise with you as necessary and pass the information to the relevant Postgraduate Tutor/s, who will advise whether an application can be progressed. If this is possible we will invite you to submit an application through the university system. 

Tuition fees

Home (UK) full time
£4,712

Home (UK) part time
£2,356

International full time
£17,500

International part time
£8,750

Home (UK) full time
£4,886

Home (UK) part time
£2,443

Tuition fees

2023 / 24
Home (UK) full time
£4,712

Home (UK) part time
£2,356

International full time
£17,500

International part time
£8,750

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£4,886

Home (UK) part time
£2,443

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

For International fees the following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support. 

Home fees are set by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and are released approximately five months before the start of each academic year.

If you have any questions about fees, get in touch with the Research Degrees Team at rdt-researchdegrees@brookes.ac.uk.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course