Postgraduate Taught Degrees

More details of courses available can be found in the subject tabs.

MPhil/PhD

The School of Arts offers postgraduate research in a diverse range of areas with specialists available to supervise study in the fields of Film and TV Studies, English and Contemporary Drama and Performance Studies. The School has distinctive expertise in offering practice based MPhil and PhD programmes tailored to your individual interests as well offering the more traditional degree based on the written thesis or a mixture of the two. There are opportunities for part-time teaching on the School's undergraduate programmes for postgraduates with appropriate skills. Research degree application forms can be found here. In your application for study you should:

• indicate your main area(s) of interest
• the methodological approaches you intend to take
• demonstrate some familiarity of the existing field
• explain why this research is important and useful

You are advised to contact a member of staff in each subject area who will help you with your proposal or put you in touch with another member of staff with appropriate research interests who can advise you. Awards are available from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, and other funding bodies. Some of these funding packages cover tuition fees (at UK/EU rates) and living expenses for the duration of study; others cover the fees, or contribute in other ways towards the cost of study. In addition a number of School of Arts fee waivers (awarded by competition) meet some of the costs of study.

Further information:
Sue Ramus
School of Arts
Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH
E-mail: sue.ramus@brunel.ac.uk Tel: 01895 274000 Fax: 01895 203105

For details of University Research Studentships click here.

MA Creative Writing: The Novel

We designed this MA quite simply to teach everything we think a new novelist ought to know. It combines a focus on the skills of writing full-length fiction with a clear-eyed exploration of the publishing process and related creative fields. This MA has attracted considerable interest among publishers and literary agents, many of whom participate actively in the programme.

Creative Writing: Research Degrees

The Creative Writing PhD offers a student the opportunity to complete a substantial work in an exciting research environment in London with the benefit of the experienced supervision of our tutors. It is an ideal progression from a Master's degree for a writer who intends to establish an academic career in this discipline.

MA in Contemporary Literature and Culture

This MA is the first in the country that is designed to allow advanced study of contemporary literatures in all their diversity, including popular genres, the 21st century novel, contemporary innovations, postcolonial literatures, postmodern poetics and more. Apart from the impressive variety of writing studied, the course is committed to a consideration of contemporary culture-from postmodernist self-referentiality to post 9/11 morality-as the context from which all such writing is produced. 

MA in English Literature

The MA in English Literature is an exciting development in English studies at Brunel, offering the opportunity to study a wide range of topics and periods, from the early Modern/Renaissance through to the modern and contemporary.

English MPhil/PhD

Brunel's research strengths continue to grow. All staff are research-active, and some of their research interests can be read here. Our active research culture is enhanced by the provision of taught postgraduate degrees, a series of lectures by contemporary writers, and research seminars given by some of the leading academics in their fields. These and other events are organised by Brunel's Centre for Contemporary Writing, a new research group with aspirations to become a centre of excellence in the study of contemporary and popular literature, fiction, poetry and culture. We now also offer PhDs in Creative Writing, supervised by Fay Weldon and Celia Brayfield.

We offer the following, cutting edge taught MA course:

MA in Documentary Practice

This popular MA provides you with the space to creatively, practically and critically engage with the documentary from a variety of traditions. The practical side of the course is taught by a range of working professional documentary filmmakers selected to give students a diverse experience of the many different approaches and possibilities across the genre. While the course is primarily oriented towards practice (approximately 75% practical, 25% theoretical) we believe that effective practice in whatever documentary traditions you choose to draw on and work with requires critical engagement, reflection and historical knowledge, if you are to fulfil your own potential as well that of the documentary genre.

Recent graduates have found employment as: a Documentary Producer - PureRisk Entertainment; Production Team - Pramface Mansion (broadcast BBC 2008); Development Dept ( Windfall Films); Location Assistant - production company in Athens; freelance cameraperson; freelance non-linear video editor; ZDF German TV - history and society documentary dept.

Postgraduate Research Degrees in Film and Television Studies 

Film and TV staff can supervise MPhil and PhD study, including practice-led research, in a wide range of areas, including:

• contemporary British, European, Hong Kong, Hollywood and American independent cinema
• science fiction, horror, comedy
• cult media, transgression
• documentary, animation, video practice
• Third Cinema
• gender, sexuality and the body in film
• videogames and other new media technologies
• marxist and psychoanalytic methodologies
• cinematic spectacle, narrative

"I believe this award to be the best of its kind in the country, and continue to be both impressed and envious of the quality of students it attracts." - Professor Richard Bartle, University of Essex

Masters level study of Games and Game Design is available on our successful MA, many graduates from which have gone to work in a range of roles within the games industry. At present around 60% of our graduates have gained graduate level or games industry jobs after studying the MA. 

We also have a thriving post-graduate research community focused on games from a range of disciplinary perspectives. We have a dedicated Games Lab which provides a great place to play games old and new, of all formats, and mix with staff and students investigating this exciting new academic topic.

MA Digital Games: Theory & Design

This exciting programme will enable you to engage in, and experiment with, practical game design. Together we will explore a range of theories and concepts with which to analyse the various values of games, play and pleasure, and go back to 'basics' by considering what it is that makes for 'good' game play. Different types of games are explored with the aim of developing designs that are both innovative and that might appeal beyond the current core markets for digital games.

PhD Programme

We have a thriving PhD programme devoted to the academic study of games from a range of perspectives. Few of the current PhD candidates have a academic degrees in games, but that is likely to changes as more scholars turn their attention to games. We welcome anyone looking to undertake a PhD either as a full-time or part-time student with a strong research proposal in games. We are also looking to grow our post-doc community and welcome applications for potential projects. We hold regular research meetings, many PhD students attend the MA classes and we encourage PhDs to participate in the teaching at BA and MA level. Our dedicated lab also gives students a base from which to work and this also supports a strong community culture.

Journalism MA (NCTJ Accredited)

Brunel's MA in Journalism is the third best-performing postgraduate newspaper journalism course in the UK, according to the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). In December 2010, the BA programme became one of only 18 NCTJ accredited first degrees, and the only accredited honours programme in Greater London.

The programme's strong employment record is justified by its graduates' success beyond Brunel. 2010 graduate Jamie Brooks has made an award-winning start to his career at the Chard and Ilminster News, winning the Leanne Gibbons Young Journalist of the Year Award at Newsquest Somerset in January.

Campaigning and Journalism MA

Brunel’s MA in Campaigning and Journalism offers a unique combination of cutting-edge skills including journalism, investigative techniques, campaigning, advocacy, appropriate elements of ethics and law and a comprehensive theoretical framework. The programme evolved out of Brunel University’s unique, successful and accredited journalism courses that emphasise employability and generate thinking journalists with high quality vocational skills.

International Journalism MA

MA International Journalism addresses the global shifts in the journalism industry by contextualising different forms of journalistic practice within a framework of technological, political and cultural change. It also sets out to equip students with sufficient generic skills to adapt to future journalism industry developments.

Contemporary Performance Making MA

This innovative MA, which draws upon both facilities and expertise at Brunel and the vast resources of London, will provide you with the space to nurture your creativity through the practical and critical exploration of contemporary performance including live art, digital art, writing and directing for performance. This course is approximately 70% practice and 30% theory, and an ideal programme for practising artists developing their own work. Graduating students have gone on to show their work nationally and internationally, work with key UK and international companies and secure funding and support for their work. Full-time students can take the course over one full year.

Fee waivers of up to £1500 are available for 2012/13.  Accepted students will be eligible to apply.  Please click here for more information.

Introducing MA Performance Making and the "Digital Lab"

Theatre Research Programmes

Theatre at Brunel welcomes proposals for MPhil and Phd research. For more information concerning the subjects research expertise please see our staff profile pages.