Queen Mary, University of London

CCLS Research Degrees

The Queen Mary Law School has one of the richest and most extensive programmes for research in the country and offers an exciting diversity of choice. Supervision is available in virtually all fields of Commercial Law. Research students come under the auspices of one of the research units in CCLS.

You may study full or part-time and are initially registered for the MPhil (Master of Philosophy) degree, transferring to PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) status, subject to approval and current regulations, after 18 months of registration.

In the case of full-time students, registration for three years is required for a PhD degree, with a further year allowed to write up the thesis. The School's policy is to enable completion of a PhD thesis for full-time students by the end of the fourth year of registration, or for part-time students within five years. Some full-time students have completed in three years. The length of a PhD thesis is 100,000 words.

The MPhil registration period is two years for full-time students, with a further year for writing up. Part-time students are registered for four years. The length of a MPhil thesis is 50,000 words.

College guidelines require that each research student is allocated two supervisors where possible and you may expect to see your primary supervisor weekly during term-time in the initial stages of your research. All supervisors are qualified members of staff with major research projects and publications of their own.

Each research student is given a welcome pack upon registration. This includes the detailed regulations governing his or her particular degree and information about the facilities available in the College and School, together with guidelines that enable students to know what they can expect from the College, the School and their supervisors. We aim to provide a friendly and helpful atmosphere for students and members of the School.

Research training is offered through a formal training course run at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (for which the School pays). There is also a series of seminars at which all research students are required to present their work, usually in their second year. Attendance at both the training course and the seminars is a compulsory part of first-year research.

In most years the School is able to offer a limited number of scholarships to research students. In addition, there are often opportunities for research students to gain teaching experience.

The CCLS staff profiles are a useful guide to students seeking a supervisor.

In participating in the research degree programme at Queen Mary you will be in a cosmopolitan community. Students come to the School from all over the world. For example, we currently have research students from Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Maldives, Portugal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United States of America, Uruguay and, of course, the United Kingdom.


Library and Computing Resources

Researchers are supported in their studies with access to library and computing resources. The College Library, which houses some 500,000 volumes and a European Documentation Centre, is located at Mile End and is available to CCLS research students. It hosts the Centre's Commercial Law collection together with all the main English and international textbooks, law reports and periodicals. Electronic access to legal databases such as Westlaw and Lexis, ejournals, theses, CD-ROMs and newspapers is also available.

In addition to the College Library, CCLS research students can also access the excellent Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) Library, which is one of the three major law libraries in the United Kingdom, Senate House Library and the British Library. The Centre's specialist Herchel Smith Intellectual Property Collection at Charterhouse Square is also available to CCLS MPhil and PhD students in Intellectual Property Law.

CCLS students have access to the College's extensive computing facilities, including full Internet and Intranet access. These are available across the Queen Mary campus, at Charterhouse Square and at the Robin Brook Centre at Saint Bartholomew's


Entry requirements

The School of Law requires applicants for admission as research students to have a second degree comparable to the University of London LLM, with a grade equivalent to Merit, that is 60 per cent. Where a dissertation forms part of the Master's degree, a mark of 65 per cent is sought as evidence of ability to undertake written research. In exceptional cases, where the proposed supervisor makes out a case for admission, experience in the proposed area of research may compensate for lack of a Master's degree, or a grade below that specified above. For example, working as a magistrate, judge, lawyer or expert for a considerable period of time, such as five years, in the proposed area of research will be taken into account. In all cases an undergraduate degree is required.

Each applicant whose first language is not English must also show evidence of English language abilities to the satisfaction of the intended supervisor and Director of Graduate Studies.


Scholarships

Details of all scholarships are available on the Queen Mary, University of London website.


Further information

For general information on PhD and MPhil degrees and applications, please contact:

Jonathan Claydon
Research Degrees Administrator
Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 5629
Email: j.claydon@qmul.ac.uk

For detailed enquiries, please contact:

Takis Tridimas
Director of Graduate Studies
Tel: +44 20 7882 5792
Email: t.tridimas@qmul.ac.uk

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