Economics PhD/MRes
Programme structure
The PhD programme is a 4-year full-time programme. The letter you received from the University offering you a place on the PhD programme specifies your registration period and the deadline for submission of your thesis.
Progression
For full details of the progression procedure, please see your Economics Handbook.
Year 4 and submission pending
You should aim to have your PhD thesis ready for submission by the end of Year 4. The expectation is that your thesis will consist of at least three substantive chapters of research each corresponding to a publishable research paper in your area of study. Each research paper should have the potential to become an article in an international peer reviewed economics journal, or similar, as is the standard in your research area.
If deemed necessary by your Supervisory Team and conditional on approval being obtained from the Economics PGR Director and SoSS, you will be allowed to enter a Submission Pending Period. The maximum length of the Submission Pending Period is 12 months and it depends on your circumstances and the progress made during Years 3 and 4. In Submission Pending Period, you will not be allowed to carry out further research during the writing-up period.
A submitted PhD thesis is defended in an oral examination involving at least (and most often) two examiners. One examiner will be internal to the University, and is usually a member of staff in the Economics DA; and one examiner will be external to the University. Your lead supervisor is responsible for selecting the appropriate examiners. Possible outcomes of the oral examination 17 include: a pass, a pass subject to (minor) changes, resubmission following substantial changes, or fail. Once a thesis has obtained an unconditional pass, the degree of PhD and MRes will be awarded. The MRes award reflects the substantive research training obtained during Years 1&2 of the Economics PhD/MRes programme. See also Regulations and Ordinances:
Monitoring research progress
eProg is a University-wide system for postgraduate researchers to record and monitor progression throughout their programme and manage skills training activities. We use this system to monitor your progress. There are several elements of eProg that need to be completed each year by you and several elements that your Supervisory Team need to complete. The University Policy on Progress and Review of Postgraduate Research Students is set out at:
More information about eProg is available on eProg page below.
Research proposal
At the end of Year 2 of the Economics PhD/MRes programme, students need to submit a written research proposal to the Supervisory Team for evaluation by the external examiner.
Proposal structure
A written document constitutes a research proposal if it fulfils a minimum set of criteria:
- It articulates the basic research questions to be addressed and explains how these questions relate to the existing literature in this area;
- It explains the methods used to answer the research questions;
- It describes any software required for the analysis;
- It demonstrates the availability of any data needed for the empirical analysis.
The Research Proposal would ideally run to 15-20 pages, and it should not exceed 30 pages.
Timeline
As the research proposal forms a significant component of your Year 2 training, you should be meeting frequently with your Supervisory Team to discuss your research ideas. Such meetings should start immediately after the registration week into Year 2.
In Year 2, you will also have the opportunity to discuss your research proposal in the course unit ECON80060, Research Skills for Economists. This is a year-long core unit consisting of practical exercises, presentations, and an essay. The essay and presentations relate to your intended research. Thus, they lead naturally into the research proposal. This means that during semester 2 of Year 2, you will start working on the content of your proposal as part of the coursework of ECON80060.
Your aim should be to have a first version of your research proposal ready by the beginning of May. This version shall be circulated to your Supervisory Team for feedback. Following the discussion and feedback from your supervisors, you should continue working on the proposal and a final version should be provided to your supervisors by the beginning of June.
Once your supervisors approve the research proposal it will be submitted to an external evaluator, chosen by your Supervisory Team. Afterward, you will present your research proposal to the external evaluator and your supervisors. The external evaluator will assess the quality and feasibility of your research plan, and whether is suitable for being the basis of your PhD dissertation.
Evaluation procedure
The following process is used to evaluate your research proposal:
- During Semester 1 of Year 2, the student will meet regularly with the supervisors to discuss research questions and open problems and modelling strategies to solve them;
- During Semester 2 of Year 2, the student will write up the research proposal and submit it for feedback to the supervisors. The deadline for this should be the beginning of May;
- Following feedback and revision of the research proposal, the supervisors will be asked to approve the proposal. The supervisors, who are responsible for making arrangements for an external evaluator, will inform the PhD student about these arrangements, and the research proposal will be submitted to the external evaluator no later than mid-June;
- Typically, one week after the submission of the research proposal, the PhD student will present the proposal to the external evaluator and the Supervisory Team;
- By the end of June, the external evaluator will submit a report that assesses the feasibility of the research plan and whether, if completed, can form the basis for a PhD in Economics;
- At the beginning of July, the Research Degree Review Panel will meet to decide on progression of all PhD students, who will then be informed about their progression status;
- If the research proposal is not deemed to be acceptable in June/July, the PhD student may be granted, in exceptional cases and at the discretion of the PhD Director, a further period to revise the research proposal, with resubmission deadline by the end of August. The PhD Director will seek the opinion and the academic judgement of the external evaluator to assess whether the resubmission constitutes a satisfactory research plan for the PhD. A final decision regarding the student’s progression to Y3 will be taken at the beginning of September.
More information
See also: Progress and review
Your research community
About the Discipline Area (DA)
- 55 permanent members of academic staff, including
- 13 professors on full-time appointments, together with
- 4 professors on part-time bases and some on honorary appointments.
Economics also hosts many externally funded research projects, and the DA is the editorial home of the general economics journal The Manchester School.
Research area groups
Research is organised principally into seven broad areas.
Research skills training
All PhD candidates in the Economics PhD/MRes programme have to take the Research skills for Economists course unit (ECON80060) during Year 2 of the programme. The lecturer of this course unit is:
James Banks
Room 3.020 in ALB
Email: james.banks@manchester.ac.uk
Teaching assistance
PhD students in Economics have the opportunity to gain first hand experience with teaching students from year two of the programme onwards.
We recommend that you get involved in some TA-activities as early as possible as the benefits for you include improved presentation skills, exposure to critical audiences and opportunities to enrich your knowledge in topics other than your PhD-research area. There is also a monetary reward for TA activities. If interested, please contact the TA-coordinator in Economics:
Mario Pezzino
Room 2.013 in ALB
Email: mario.pezzino@manchester.ac.uk
Please see Teaching Assistant Hub for more information.
PGR representatives
For each year of study, one PGR will be chosen to represent that group at various levels within the University.
- Several meetings will be held between the PGR representatives and the Economics PGR team
- Representation of PGRs on the School of Social Sciences PGR committee is also required
For Year 1 students there is one PGR serving on the latter committee, while for Year 2 students there are two PGRs represented on that committee.
Benefits of being a PGR representative include:
- an opportunity to develop leadership skills;
- an improved CV;
- the chance to gain insights into the work and organisation of PGR activities of the Economics DA and the School of Social Sciences.
Seminar series
Economics at Manchester runs two tiers of seminars. The Research Area Group series seminars run on weekly during term time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the DA-wide seminar series is held Wednesdays, normally four times per academic year. Visit our seminar series pages.
Economics PGR conference
Every year, the Economics PGRs organise their own conference. Attendance at these conferences is compulsory for Years 2-4 PGRs, but we hope that also year 1 PGRs will attend.
Year 3 PGRs are responsible for the organisation of this conference. All PGRs in Years 3 and 4 will present their research at the annual PhD student conference. Visit the PhD student conference pages.
Discussion papers
Depending on your research progress, during Year 3 or 4 you may wish to publish some of your research findings in order to disseminate your work widely. The Economics DA can facilitate this process as it has its own Discussion Paper Series. Publication of your work in the Economics Discussion Paper (EDP) series can only be made through your PhD supervisors.