Programme Structure

General Structure

The academic year is structured around three terms as follows – first term (September to December), second term (January to April), and third term (May to August).

The Research Degree Programme commences in September each year and there are no variable start dates. In addition, the School of Business does not offer distance learning study options.

The Research Degree Programme facilitates the pursuit of an M.Litt., M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree on either a full-time or part-time basis. The related registration periods are as follows.

The First Year of Registration

During the first year of registration, all graduate research students are required to satisfactorily complete the following structured elements of the Research Degree Programme:

• Orientation Seminar – normally scheduled as an intensive one-week block at the beginning of the academic year (September).
• Philosophy of Science and Research Methodology – normally scheduled on Thursdays during first term (September to December).
• Foundation Research in Practice Seminar – normally scheduled on Thursdays during second term (January to April).

Individual graduate research students may be required to complete additional modules as set forth in Additional Programme Requirements below.

The Second Year of Registration

During the second year of registration, all graduate research students (except M.Litt. and M.Sc. students) are required to satisfactorily complete the following structured elements of the Research Degree Programme:

• Intermediate Research in Practice Seminar – normally scheduled during the first half of first term (September to October) to support students intending to proceed for confirmation on the PhD register.
• Submission of Confirmation Report and attendance at Confirmation Interview – normally scheduled during the second half of first term (November to December).

In the case of part-time graduate research students intending to proceed for confirmation on the PhD register, students may elect to prepare the Confirmation Report and attend the Confirmation Interview at the beginning of either the second or third year of registration.

All graduate research students (except M.Litt. and M.Sc. students) must satisfactorily complete the Confirmation Process in order to be confirmed on the PhD Register.

Subsequent Years of Registration

During subsequent years of registration, graduate research students are required to actively participate in the following structured elements of the Research Degree Programme:

• Advanced Research in Practice Seminar – normally scheduled on a regular basis throughout the academic year to support students at an advanced stage in their fieldwork and the production of a draft PhD thesis.

This series provides a strong collaborative learning environment in which advanced students present their work to an invited audience of faculty and peers from both within and outside the School of Business.

Additional Programme Requirements

The Academic Supervisor, in consultation with the Director of Doctoral Studies, may require a graduate research student to satisfactorily complete one or more additional modules in order to compensate for any apparent deficiencies in the student’s knowledge that may be essential to the proposed programme of research. Such modules may be drawn from the options outlined below.

• Modules offered as part of the suite of taught postgraduate programmes within the School of Business (http://www.tcd.ie/business/masters/); or
• Modules offered by partner institutions as part of the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance (http://www.drhea.ie/about_us.php); or
• Modules offered in the area of research philosophy and / or research methodology by other Schools within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (http://ahss.tcd.ie/); or
• Modules offered by the School of Computer Science and Statistics as part of the Postgraduate Diploma / Postgraduate Certificate in Statistics (https://www.scss.tcd.ie/postgraduate/dipstats/).

Any such requirements are in addition to the core programme requirements set forth earlier.