Accounting and Financial Management PhD Opportunities

This postgraduate research programme offers PhD or MPhil supervision in the area of accounting.

About the Programme

Join high calibre doctoral students from all around the world and study at a triple-accredited global business school. Henley Business School is ideally located, set on the beautiful Reading University campus, just 25 minutes by train from London. During your studies you will benefit from dedicated supervision, impressive facilities and high-quality support.

We offer PhD opportunities in a range of themes surrounding the subject of accounting. This includes theoretical and applied research in domains such as financial decision making; international regulation & policy analysis; accounting for sustainability; accounting education; governance & accountability.

The programme emphasises:

• Formal research training (PhD/Masters level courses in year 1)
• Flexibility to meet individual needs
• Student-staff interaction
• Timely completion of the degree

As part of your personal development, you will be encouraged to engage in teaching (formal training provided), research activities, conferences and events around the world.

PhD FUNDING

These scholarships will be awarded based on academic merit and cover tuition fees and provide a three-year stipend (subject to performance) aligned with the UKRI. For reference, the annual UKRI stipend rate in 2024/25 is £19,237.

Please find the deadline for scholarship applications via our PhD Scholarships and funding page.

Teaching assistantship opportunities will be available for selected students.

More funding opportunities are available from the University of Reading. For more information please visit the Doctoral and Researcher College website.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

You should normally have obtained a Masters degree at distinction level in a relevant area from an internationally recognised university. Relevant research and/or industry experience may also be considered. In exceptional cases, applicants without a Masters degree can be considered.

As part of the application process you will also be asked to submit a research proposal. Prior to your submission, you may wish to discuss your proposal with an individual faculty member working in the area, though please avoid contacting multiple faculty members.

HOW TO APPLY FOR A PhD

The application process normally consists of three main steps:

• Formal application (incl. research proposal, CV, transcripts and reference letters)
• Shortlisting based on the submitted documents
• Formal interview

For fees (covered if fully funded), please visit the Doctoral and Researcher College website.

RESEARCH AREAS

Within accounting, we work in several research areas that you can access through our webpage. We offer expertise from many subject fields and conducts interdisciplinary research in theoretical and application domains. We maintain a close-knit community of researchers working together as a team to carry out research in one or more of the research themes.

At the Henley Centre for Accounting and Research (HARP), these are just some of the research themes we have been involved in:

• Sustainability Accounting and Reporting
• Auditing and Accountability       
• International financial reporting, social and institutional context of accounting regulation, rhetorical and argumentative functions of financial disclosure.

The list is not exhaustive, so we suggest that you also access individual academic profiles to align your interest with the departmental research agenda.

CONTACT US

Please visit our website for full details. If you have any further questions, please contact bisa-pgr@henley.ac.uk.