Change lives and shape futures with a PhD in Sociology.
Join a vibrant postgraduate research community that includes students from all over the world.
Sociology at Manchester offers a vibrant and exciting environment within which to undertake postgraduate research study.
Our consistently high research ranking and wide range of specialisms means you can be sure of a varied and valuable experience.
As a doctoral candidate, you'll benefit from a friendly environment, opportunities to interact with other students and staff, and the encouragement to make a real impact with your research.
We invest in the best ideas and brightest minds you'll receive a comprehensive portfolio of support and training to help you reach your aspirations and develop as an intellectual leader.
Our research areas
Our research activity in sociology is organised into the following clusters:
- Social Divisions and Inequalities
- Social Ties, Networks and Social Movements
- Personal Life and Everyday Lives
- Cultural Practices, Consumption and Sustainability
- Census and Survey Research
- Innovations in Qualitative and Mixed Methodologies
Explore our research clusters
You can also find out more our Sociology PhD programmes on our course profiles:
Funding your research
We offer a number of funding opportunities for talented individuals to undertake doctoral training with us, including School studentships and the President's Doctoral Scholar Award. All successful applicants who apply for their programme before 2 December 2019 are automatically considered for this funding.
In some circumstances departments may consider applications received after the December deadline but providing a complete application is received by Friday 31 January at the very latest.
If you're from the UK or EU you can also apply for funding with the ESRC or EPSRC, but these are also subject to deadlines. Please check the studentship page for details on associated deadlines and links to the application form.
Explore current funding opportunities
Developing intellectual leaders
We're not here simply to ‘supervise' – we seek to discover and co-produce new knowledge with students as our partners.
To enable you to integrate and thrive with us, you'll be supported by a dedicated Researcher Development Team throughout your PhD and beyond.
You'll benefit from world-class professional training opportunities:
- Developing Intellectual Leaders Programme – for all the skills you need to succeed
- ProGRess@humanities – our training hub that offers specialist courses
- methods@manchester – an initiative giving you the chance to learn from the very best via talks, workshops and other events.
We provide support for several activities related to your PhD, including:
- Presenting at international conferences
- Attending workshops that provide relevant professional opportunities
- Conducting fieldwork in the UK and overseas
- Exchanges and placements with partnering institutions
You'll also be encouraged to publish in high quality outlets and we have strategies to help you achieve this goal.
Find out more about training and development
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