We only accept full-time PhD applications with a Michaelmas Term (October) start date. 

Part-time applicants can apply to start in any term. (Please note that part-time students have 'attendance' requirements to fulfil, details of which can be found on the 'Terms of Study' webpage.)

Applications for part-time study will be assessed as to whether:

• The proposed research is feasible for part-time studies.
• The applicant is able to sustain a part-time approach to study.
• The applicant is able to fund five years (up to seven years) of study.
• The applicant lives close enough to Cambridge to be able to fulfil attendance requirements.
• There is a member of staff willing to supervise the research and the applicant meets the academic requirements.

Statement of Interest

On the application form your statement of interest should:

• Capture more broadly why are you interested in Criminology as a subject. What are the criminological themes that attract you and why?
• Outline some of your reasons for studying Criminology. You should mention particular academic interests you may have in the field of criminology and how you see these fitting in with your medium- and long-term plans.
• Be no more than 1500 characters long (including spaces and punctuation between words).

Reasons for Applying

The Research Proposal

The research proposal should be no more than four pages (~2,000 words) in length (not including the bibliography). Further guidance on what to include in your research proposal is included below:

1. Suggested title of PhD project

2. A literature review that shows the respects in which your proposed work builds on and will augment, clarify, or qualify existing knowledge

3. A clear statement of research questions and hypotheses

4. Methodology - A feasible research design including a discussion of the methods you will employ (qualitative research; quantitative research; mixed-methods approach, etc) and why they are appropriate; study participants/data sources you plan to utilize, including how you expect to obtain access to them; further details about how the fieldwork will be conducted, etc.

5. Timeline of research; indicating a general timeline about when literature review will be completed, when it is hoped that fieldwork will commence and be completed, writing up stages, etc.

6. Implications for policy and practice arising from the suggested research

7. Suggested supervisor: applicants are strongly encouraged to look at the profile of our academic staff members and indicate their preference about potential supervisors (up to 3 suggested names). Applicants should keep in mind that beyond the quality of the PhD proposal, it is important that a supervisor is in place who is able to supervise the specific topic.

8. This must be uploaded as a Supporting Document.

NB: All proposals will be submitted to Turnitin, an online service that checks work submitted to it for matches with an online database, for possible plagiarism. 

Sample of Work

• You need to submit one sample of your academic writing.
• This should be between 1,500 – 5,000 words long.  
• Applicants tend to submit either an essay or piece of coursework from a previous degree or a chapter from a dissertation.  The sample of written work is more about showing your academic abilities and style of writing so it doesn't need to on a Criminological subject or directly related to Criminology.  Many applicants don't come from a criminological background and most tend to submit a piece of course work from their current or previous degree.
• This must be uploaded as a Supporting Document.

The PhD course code is: LWCR21