Postgraduate PhD
Philosophy
As the study of fundamental questions connected to reality, existence, the mind, language and thought, Philosophy at Kent is designed to develop your ideas, independent thought and problem-solving skills.
As the study of fundamental questions connected to reality, existence, the mind, language and thought, Philosophy at Kent is designed to develop your ideas, independent thought and problem-solving skills.
A PhD in Philosophy enables you to undertake a substantial piece of supervised research in the subject that makes an original contribution to knowledge and is worthy of publication.
A PhD, also known as a doctorate, is a requirement for a career as an academic or researcher. In addition, it has become a qualification valued by many employers who recognise the skills and commitment a PhD requires. Employers also recognise that a PhD indicates excellent research capabilities, discipline and communication skills.
Over the duration of the PhD, you produce an original piece of research of up to 100,000 words. Recent research theses have included ‘Evolutionary Ethics Without the Error: How Care Ethics Can Vindicate Moral Realism’, ‘Morality as Ideology: Marx, Materialism and Ideology-Critique’, ‘Causality in Complex Systems: An Inferentialist Proposal’, ‘Moral Epistemology, Particularism and Generalism’, ‘Intelligence, Relevance, Action and Perception’, ‘The Story of My Life: Virtue, Character and Narrative’, ‘Reasoning, Objectivity and Interdisciplinarity: Making the Links’, and ‘Vulnerability in Bioethics: Humans and Animals’.
The Department of Philosophy offers supervision from world-class academics with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, able to support and guide you through your research. Your progress is carefully monitored to ensure that you are on track to produce a thesis valued by the academic community. Throughout your programme, you are able to attend and contribute to research seminars, workshops, and research and transferable skills training courses.
You may be eligible for a fully-funded PhD scholarship to support your studies with us. The PhD in Philosophy at Kent can be funded through the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) collaborative doctoral partnerships. Please indicate in your application if you want to be considered, and explain your eligibility. For the full list of scholarships available within the School, please see our postgraduate funding page.
A first or upper-second class BA honours degree or equivalent in a relevant subject, and a distinction or merit in an MA programme or equivalent in a relevant subject.
International applicants for whom English is not their first language must have IELTS overall 7.0 with at least 6.5 for each component.
All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications.
Please see our International Student website for entry requirements by country and other relevant information. Due to visa restrictions, students who require a student visa to study cannot study part-time unless undertaking a distance or blended-learning programme with no on-campus provision.
This course requires a Good level of English language, equivalent to B2 on CEFR.
Details on how to meet this requirement can be found on our English Language requirements webpage.
Examples:
IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component
PTE Academic 63 with a minimum of 59 in each sub-test
A degree from a UK university
A degree from a Majority English Speaking Country
Please note that if you are required to meet an English language condition, we offer a number of pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes through Kent International Pathways.
Postgraduate research is a fantastic opportunity and significant investment in your future, enabling you to expand your knowledge, skills and career options – all while making a meaningful impact and contribution to an area you are passionate about.
At Kent, we also recognise the significant financial investment that comes with postgraduate study, and we offer a range of scholarships for our postgraduate researchers, to help keep your mind on your studies, and off your finances.
Scholarships can be broad, or specific to your situation, background or even country – so please do use our scholarships finder to discover the options available to you.
We also have research partnership funding with research councils and government schemes in specific areas of interest that can help you take your research to the next level with additional financial support.
Find out more on our fees and funding page and discover what option is right for you.
Philosophy at Kent prides itself on the flexibility of its programmes. Students are able to negotiate their own paths of study through a full range of mixed-level modules and specialist seminars that reflect the research interests of members of staff.
We offer a wide variety of topics and modules, in all areas of philosophy. Our department is a place of academic brilliance, friendly exchange, intellectual excitement and diversity. In our weekly departmental research seminar, colleagues and philosophers from other universities present their current work, and in our thriving student-run graduate seminar, students discuss their ideas with peers and members of staff. We host a Centre for Reasoning and are connected to the Aesthetics Research Centre, both offering their own weekly research seminars.
Philosophy is part of the Division of Arts and Humanities which embraces eight other disciplines including classical & archaeological studies; comparative literature; modern languages and linguistics; history; drama, film and media; art history; architecture and religious studies. This means that students enrolled on a postgraduate programme in Philosophy can draw on the excellent resources of a diverse team of teachers with expertise in many key areas.
The University has extensive facilities to support research, and the Templeman Library has excellent holdings in all of our areas of research interest. The University of Kent’s location is the best in Britain for students who need to visit not only the British Library in London, but also the major libraries and research centres on the continent. The Department also provides excellent IT facilities.
We hold a general postgraduate seminar in philosophy once a week in term-time. Active collaboration between departments within the School also ensures that we have a vigorous and lively research culture, with numerous research seminars and lectures, plus conferences organised around the research interests of our staff.
All postgraduate students receive support and guidance within their departments and from the Graduate and Researcher Development College. Within the Division, in addition to the research culture of your department, our research centres combine overlapping interests to foster interdisciplinary support and dialogue, while the Graduate and Researcher College provides a Researcher Development Programme to equip you with a full range of skills that will improve your effectiveness as a researcher. Research students gain further academic experience by giving research talks, and attending national and international conferences.
Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. Among others, they have recently contributed to: The Journal of Philosophy; Philosophical Studies; Philosophers’ Imprint; Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society; and Journal of Applied Philosophy.
The Department of Philosophy’s Centre for Reasoning publishes a monthly gazette, The Reasoner, which features exciting new research on reasoning, inference and method. This gazette, available at www.thereasoner.org, acts as a forum for the global community of researchers in this area. A typical issue will contain an interview with a leading figure in the field, several short peer-reviewed features, news items, monthly columns and announcements of conferences, jobs and studentships.
Kent's Graduate School co-ordinates the Researcher Development Programme for research students, which includes workshops focused on research, specialist and transferable skills. The programme is mapped to the national Researcher Development Framework and covers a diverse range of topics, including subject-specific research skills, research management, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and teamworking, and career management skills.
The Department is defined by two research clusters - Theoretical Reasoning and Practical Reasoning.
Within these clusters, staff research covers a broad range of areas including:
The Department co-founded the Southern Normativity Group and founded The Reasoner, a monthly bulletin on reasoning and method.
Kent’s world-class academics provide research students with excellent supervision. The academic staff in this school and their research interests are shown below. You are strongly encouraged to contact the school to discuss your proposed research and potential supervision prior to making an application. Please note, it is possible for students to be supervised by a member of academic staff from any of Kent’s schools, providing their expertise matches your research interests. Use our ‘find a supervisor’ search to search by staff member or keyword.
Full details of staff research interests can be found on the School's website.
A PhD in philosophy is a valuable and flexible qualification, which allows you to develop skills in logical thinking, critical evaluation, persuasion, writing and independent thought.
Graduates have gone on to positions in journalism, administration in the civil service, education, advertising and a range of managerial positions. Some go on to pursue research in the area, many continuing with PhDs at Kent or other higher education institutions.
The 2024/25 annual tuition fees for this course are:
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
For students continuing on this programme fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.* If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
For students continuing on this programme, fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.*
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
Find out more about general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.
Search our scholarships finder for possible funding opportunities. You may find it helpful to look at both:
We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.
Next steps
We are no longer accepting applications for this PhD for entry in 2024.
Supporting your success
Kent ranked top 50 in The Complete University Guide 2024.
Fees and funding
Kent has risen 11 places in THE’s REF 2021 ranking, confirming us as a leading research university.
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