phd english literature university of edinburgh

• Schools & departments

PhD programmes

Develop your original ideas in a supportive community of researchers.

Why take a PhD in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures?

Doctorate-level study is an opportunity to expand upon your interests and expertise in a community that really values research and seeks to make an original, positive contribution to learning in the arts and humanities.

As one of the largest and most diverse Schools in the University of Edinburgh, our research environment is the ideal place to challenge yourself and share your ideas with others.

You will be supervised by at least two members of academic staff, and there are many ways in which you can collaborate with the wider School community, from regular research and work-in-progress seminars to conferences, workshops and online journals and forums. We are also home to a number of established research centres and networks.

Between the School, the Careers Service and the Institute for Academic Development, you will find a range of programmes and resources to help you develop your doctorate-level skills. Our PhD student community is also highly active, running reading groups and other meet-ups to support each other through the opportunities and challenges of PhD life.

PhD study at a glance

• Over the course of your PhD, you will be expected to complete an original body of work - your thesis - culminating in a dissertation of around 80,000 words which you'll defend in an oral examination (viva voce).
• You will study for a minimum of 36 months (three years). If you’d like to study part-time, you may take up to 72 months (six years) to complete your PhD; eligiblity criteria apply.
• You will be supervised by at least two members of academic staff with expertise in your area of research. 
• You will typically be based at the heart of the University of Edinburgh, in the city’s historic centre, close to the Main University Library and the National Library of Scotland. Our in-house facilities include a dedicated Postgraduate Study Room, and our festival city, the first UNESCO World City of Literature, is a treasure trove of cinemas, theatres, music venues, museums, galleries and collections.

What can I study?

All links in our table take you to the University of Edinburgh's online Degree Finder, where you can find out more about what's involved in each PhD.

Be inspired!

If you'd like to see what our current PhD students are up to, including what their thesis title is and who is supervising them, check out our directory.

Browse our directory of current PhD research

How and when do I apply?

You apply for your programme through the University of Edinburgh’s online Degree Finder and its associated application service, EUCLID.

To increase your chances of being eligible for a range of scholarships and other awards, you are strongly encouraged to apply for your PhD as early as possible.

Applications to start a PhD programme in September 2025 will open in October 2024.

Take me to Degree Finder

Before applying, we suggest that you read the University’s general guide to applying for Postgraduate Study, which includes advice on:

• entrance requirements
• writing a personal statement
• choosing your referees
• writing a research proposal, and more

Take me to the guide to applying for Postgraduate Study on the University of Edinburgh website

We also suggest you read any guidance published by the subject area where your PhD will be based. We welcome interdisciplinary applications that cross subject areas – in this case, begin by choosing what you consider to be the most relevant area for your research project:

Asian Studies

PhD/MScR in Asian Studies

Enquiries: Professor Natascha Gentz

Celtic and Scottish Studies

PhD in Celtic and Scottish Studies

Enquiries: Dr Anja Gunderloch

English and Scottish Literature  

PhDs in English Literature 

Enquiries: Dr Andrew Taylor

PhDs in Creative Writing

Enquiries: Creative Writing

European Languages and Cultures

PhDs in French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American (Hispanic) Studies, Scandinavian Studies, Comparative Literature, Intermediality, and European Theatre.

Enquiries: Dr Ruairidh Tarvet

Film Studies

PhDs in Film Studies

Enquiries: Dr David Sorfa

Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Enquiries: Dr Ebtihal Mahadeen  

Translation Studies

PhD in Translation Studies

Enquiries: Translation Studies

Fees and funding

Fees are determined by your nationality and the country where you are ‘ordinarily resident’. When applying for a programme, you should take into account that fees increase each year.

Find out more about fees for PhD study on the University's Tuition Fees website

Postgraduate study can be expensive, and the funding available is highly competitive. Many scholarship schemes have early deadlines so, to increase your chances of being eligible for a range of scholarships and other awards, you are strongly encouraged to apply for your PhD as early as possible.

Find out more about funding for PhD study

Visit us... virtually

Thinking of joining us? Explore what it's like to live and study in Edinburgh.

• Join us for an online Open Day
• Take a virtual tour of the University of Edinburgh  
• Look inside 50 George Square

Get in touch

Many of us work on a hybrid basis - a mixture of on-campus and digitally.

Our working hours are  Monday   to Friday  between  9am  and  5pm (UK time).

Please email us in the first instance, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Email our Postgraduate Research Office

Research Excellence Framework

The University of Edinburgh is ranked Top 5 in the UK for research in Modern Languages and in English Literature.

As reported in Times Higher Education, the rankings are based on the quality and breadth of our research in Modern Languages and the overall quality of our research in English Literature.

They come from the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) – the UK’s system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

QS World Rankings by Subject 2024

The University of Edinburgh is ranked 3rd in the UK for Modern Languages and for English Language and Literature.

Globally, we’re in the World Top 10 for English Language and Literature (9) and Modern Languages (10).

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings are based on research citations and the results of major global surveys of employers and academics.

They are International Ranking Expert Group (IREG) approved.

Are you currently studying with us?

There’s lots more information on our LLC Student Information Hub. You will need your student log in to access the site.

Take me to the LLC Student Information Hub

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Information for current PhD students

Related links

Research centres and networks in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

The Institute of Academic Development resources for doctoral researchers

This article was published on 2024-08-13

• Schools & departments

Writing a research proposal for the PhD in English Literature

You apply for the PhD in English Literature through the University’s online Degree Finder. Here is our guidance on how to write an effective application.

The two elements of an application that are most useful to us when we consider a candidate for the PhD in English Literature are the sample of written work and the research proposal.

You will probably choose your sample of written work from an already-completed undergraduate or masters-level dissertation or term-paper.

Your research proposal will be something new. It will describe the project that you want to complete for your PhD.

Your research proposal

Take your time in composing your research proposal, carefully considering the requirements outlined below. Your proposal should not be more than 2,000 words .

PhD degrees are awarded on the basis of a thesis of up to 100,000 words. The ‘Summary of roles and responsibilities’ in the University’s Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students stipulates what a research thesis must do. 

Take me to the Code of Practice for Supervisors and Research Students (August 2020)

It is in the nature of research that, when you begin, you don’t know what you’ll find. This means that your project is bound to change over the time that you spend on it.

In submitting your research proposal, you are not committing yourself absolutely to completing exactly the project it describes in the event that you are accepted. Nevertheless, with the above points in mind, your research proposal should include the following elements, though not necessarily in this order:

1. An account of the body of primary texts that your thesis will examine. This may be work by one author, or several, or many, depending on the nature of the project. It is very unlikely to consist of a single text, however, unless that text is unusually compendious (The Canterbury Tales) or unusually demanding (Finnegans Wake). Unless your range of texts consists in the complete oeuvre of a single writer, you should explain why these texts are the ones that need to be examined in order to make your particular argument.

2. An identification of the existing field or fields of criticism and scholarship of which you will need to gain an ‘adequate knowledge’ in order to complete your thesis. This must include work in existing literary criticism, broadly understood. Usually this will consist of criticism or scholarship on the works or author(s) in question. In the case of very recent writing, or writing marginal to the established literary canon, on which there may be little or no existing critical work, it might include literary criticism written on other works or authors in the same period, or related work in the same mode or genre, or some other exercise of literary criticism that can serve as a reference point for your engagement with this new material.

The areas of scholarship on which you draw are also likely to include work in other disciplines, however. Most usually, these will be arguments in philosophy or critical theory that have informed, or could inform, the critical debate around your primary texts, or may have informed the texts themselves; and/or the historiography of the period in which your texts were written or received. But we are ready to consider the possible relevance of any other body of knowledge to literary criticism, as long as it is one with which you are sufficiently familiar, or could become sufficiently familiar within the period of your degree, for it to serve a meaningful role in your argument.

3. The questions or problems that the argument of your thesis will address; the methods you will adopt to answer those questions or explain those problems; and some explanation of why this particular methodology is the appropriate means of doing so. The problem could take many forms: a simple gap in the existing scholarship that you will fill; a misleading approach to the primary material that you will correct; or a difficulty in the relation of the existing scholarship to theoretical/philosophical, historiographical, or other disciplinary contexts, for example. But in any case, your thesis must engage critically with the scholarship of others by mounting an original argument in relation to the existing work in your field or fields. In this way your project must go beyond the summarising of already-existing knowledge.

4. Finally, your proposal should include a provisional timetable , describing the stages through which you hope your research will move over the course of your degree. It is crucial that, on the one hand, your chosen topic should be substantial enough to require around 80,000 words for its full exploration; and, on the other hand, that it has clear limits which would allow it to be completed in three years.

When drawing up this timetable, keep in mind that these word limits, and these time constraints, will require you to complete 25–30,000 words of your thesis in each of the years of your degree. If you intend to undertake your degree on a part-time basis, the amount of time available simply doubles.

In composing your research proposal you are already beginning the work that could lead, if you are accepted, to the award of a PhD degree. Regard it, then, as a chance to refine and focus your ideas, so that you can set immediately to work in an efficient manner on entry to university. But it bears repeating that that your project is bound to evolve beyond the project described in your proposal in ways that you cannot at this stage predict. No-one can know, when they begin any research work, where exactly it will take them. That provides much of the pleasure of research, for the most distinguished professor as much as for the first-year PhD student. If you are accepted as a candidate in this department, you will be joining a community of scholars still motivated by the thrill of finding and saying something new.

Ready to apply?

If you have read the guidance above and are ready to apply for your PhD in English Literature, you can do so online through the University of Edinburgh's Degree Finder.

Applications to start your PhD in September 2025 open in October 2024.

Take me to the Degree Finder entry for the PhD in English Literature

If you've got any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Aaron Kelly by email in the first instance.

Email Dr Aaron Kelly

Degree Programme Table: English Literature (PhD) (Full-time) (PRPHDENLIT1F)

Year 1 academic year: 2024/25, starting in: september.

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

• Schools & departments

English Literature MScR

Awards: MScR

Study modes: Full-time, Part-time

Funding opportunities

Programme website: English Literature

Postgraduate Discovery Day

Join our online sessions on 19 February to learn more about postgraduate study and student life at Edinburgh, including application, fees and funding guidance.

Register now

Research profile

A Masters by Research (MScR) programme is ideal if you would like to complete a short piece of independent research in English Literature. The programme is a good stepping stone to a PhD, but is of equal value as a stand-alone qualification.

As a Masters by Research student, you will be part of a wider masters community while specialising in what most interests you right from the beginning of the programme. This is how it is different to a taught Masters (MSc).

Our highly flexible programme enables you to complete an MScR degree through a combination of coursework and a final dissertation of 15,000 words.

Your coursework will take the form of two essays of 6,000 words on topics related to your research focus. You will also complete assignments in research skills and methods.

Research excellence

Based on our performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF), over 90 per cent of our research and impact is classed as world-leading and internationally excellent by Research Professional. 69 per cent is graded at the world-leading level – the highest of REF’s four categories.

In Times Higher Education's REF analysis, English at Edinburgh is ranked fifth in the UK (out of more than 90 institutions) for:

• the overall quality of our publications and other outputs
• the impact of our research on people’s lives
• our supportive research environment

Our interdisciplinary environment brings together specialists in all periods and genres of literature and literary analysis.

Given the breadth and depth of our expertise, we are able to support students wishing to develop research projects in any field of Anglophone literary studies. These include:

• American studies
• literary and critical theory
• the history of the book
• gender and sexuality studies
• global Anglophone literatures, where our specialisms include Pacific, African, South Asian, and African-American writing

We have particular strengths in each of the main periods of English and Scottish Literature:

• Renaissance/early modern
• Enlightenment
• 21st century
• Contemporary

Emergent research themes in the department include the digital humanities, the economic humanities, the environmental humanities and literature and medicine.

• Explore our range of research centres, networks and projects in English and Scottish Literature

Go beyond the books

Beyond the Books is a podcast from the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at research and the people who make it happen.

Listen to a mix of PhD, early career and established researchers talk about their journey to and through academia and about their current and recent research.

• Browse Beyond the Books episodes and hear our research community talk about their work

Programme structure

This programme is delivered and assessed through:

• two 20-credit courses on research skills, methods and problems, including one specifically for English Literature
• two 40-credit supervised research assignments, 6,000 words each
• one 60-credit supervised 15,000 word dissertation

Find out more about compulsory and optional courses

We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

Training and support

Between the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC), the Careers Service, and the Institute for Academic Development (IAD), you’ll find a range of programmes and resources to help you develop your postgraduate skills.

You will also have access to the University’s fantastic libraries, collections and worldwide strategic partnerships.

Part of a community

As part of our research community, you will be immersed in a world of knowledge exchange, with lots of opportunities to share ideas, learning and creative work.

Activities range from talks by visiting speakers and work-in-progress seminars, to reading groups, conferences, workshops, performances, online journals and forums, many of which are student led.

Our graduates tell us that they value LLC’s friendliness, the connections they make here and the in-depth guidance they receive from our staff, who are published experts in their field.

A UNESCO World City of Literature, Edinburgh is a remarkable place to study, write, publish, discuss and perform prose, poetry and drama.

Take a Masters by Research with us and you will be based in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) in the historic centre of this world-leading festival city.

You will have access to the University’s many literary treasures. These include the libraries of:

• William Drummond
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon
• Hugh MacDiarmid
• Norman MacCaig

The Centre for Research Collections holds the W.H. Auden collection, the Corson Collection of works by and about Sir Walter Scott, and the Ramage collection of poetry pamphlets.

It also holds a truly exceptional collection of early Shakespeare quartos and other early modern printed plays put together by the 19th century Shakespearean scholar James Halliwell-Phillipps, the correspondence of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle (the focus of one of the major editorial projects in Victorian studies of the last half-century), and the extensive Laing collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts, as well as letters and papers by, and relating to, authors including:

• Christopher Isherwood
• Rudyard Kipling
• John Middleton Murry
• Walter de la Mare
• George Mackay Brown
• Compton Mackenzie

In the city

Our buildings are close to the National Library of Scotland (where collections include the Bute Collection of early modern English drama and the John Murray Archive), Edinburgh Central Library, Scottish Poetry Library, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Writers’ Museum and a fantastic range of publishing houses, bookshops, and theatres.

We have strong links with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which annually welcomes around 1,000 authors to our literary city.

Entry requirements

These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

MScR: A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a relevant subject, normally English literature.

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country
• English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced ( CAE ) / C2 Proficiency ( CPE ): total 185 with at least 176 in each component.
• Trinity ISE : ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 73 with at least 65 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT : 8 overall with at least 7 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS , TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE , in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

Fees and costs

Scholarships and funding.

Funding for postgraduate study is different to undergraduate study, and many students need to combine funding sources to pay for their studies.

Most students use a combination of the following funding to pay their tuition fees and living costs:

borrowing money

taking out a loan

family support

personal savings

income from work

employer sponsorship

• scholarships

Explore sources of funding for postgraduate study

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding

Further information

• Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
• Contact: [email protected]
• School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures
• 50 George Square
• Central Campus
• Programme: English Literature
• School: Literatures, Languages & Cultures
• College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Select your programme and preferred start date to begin your application.

MSc by Research English Literature I - 1 Year (Full-time)

Msc by research english literature i - 2 years (part-time), application deadlines.

Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines. We will make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis, but hold the majority of applications until the next published selection deadline when we will offer a proportion of the places available to applicants selected through a competitive process. There are two windows (Application Rounds) for applying to English Literature; we will let you know the outcome of your application at the end of the Round you apply in.

• How to apply

You must submit two references with your application.

The online application process involves the completion of a web form and the submission of supporting documents.

For a Masters by Research programme, you should include:

• a sample of written work of about 3,000 words (this can be a previous piece of work from an undergraduate degree)
• a research proposal - an outline of your proposed area of study, helping us gain a clearer picture of what you hope to achieve

See our guidance:

• Guidance on the application process and supporting documents

Before you apply, you should look at the interests and expertise of our research community on the programme website. This will help you decide if this programme is right for you and your supervision needs.

Programme website - research centres, networks and projects in English and Scottish Literature

Programme website - our postgraduate environment in English and Scottish Literature

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

• Schools & departments

Depending on the field of study you are interested in, you may be able to apply for a pre-defined PhD project, or you may need to develop your own research idea.

Research in the fields of medicine, science and engineering tend to require you to:

• apply for a project that already has specific, pre-defined aims
• compete for a place on a partially or fully funded programme (often with competitive application processes).

Research in the fields of arts, humanities and social sciences tend to require you to:

• develop your own research idea (be prepared to adapt your original idea)
• source your own funding, although some funded projects may be available.

PhD research projects

PhD projects and studentships are defined pieces of research that an organisation wishes to explore. A research council may have provided funding for the project to ensure its successful outcome, although not all defined PhD projects have funding associated with them.

Doctoral training centres and partnerships

Doctoral training centres and partnerships are four-year programmes that are sponsored by one of the UK’s research councils. They focus on your development into an independent researcher, under the guidance of an expert supervision team.

Developing your own research idea

How do you know if your own research idea is suitable for doctoral study? There are many factors you should consider, including time, topic, size and supervisor availability.

Professional doctorates

Professional doctorates are aimed at working professionals who have advanced research interests, and would like to use applied research to solve problems in their field.

This article was published on 2024-11-12