Program Overview

PhD Intellectual History

Course Overview

The PhD in Intellectual History is an advanced research degree, awarded on the basis of a thesis and an oral viva voce examination. The primary purpose of the PhD is the preparation and presentation of a substantial piece of independent and original academic research, completed in three years if studying full-time and usually six years if studying part-time.

Study Period

• The usual period of doctoral research is three years for those who engage in full-time study, though the University’s Regulations also permit candidates who make particularly rapid progress to apply to the University Research Committee for permission to submit at the end of their second year of study.
• Part-time study is also available, with students completing the dissertation in five or six years.

Supervision

• Every PhD student in the School of Humanities is supported by two supervisors.
• Supervisors are experts in their field of study and support students throughout the PhD.
• Students will also benefit from the advice and support of other academic members of the Faculty who will be involved in progression through the various stages of the PhD, including Annual Review meetings with a senior professor.

Research Areas

• Members of the academic staff who are available to undertake supervision in the field of Intellectual History include:
  • Dr Alicja Gescinska – Dr Gescinska is a philosopher, novelist, and poet. Her academic interests pertain to political theory and continental philosophy, and she has published several acclaimed works on human agency and on the philosophical and political meanings of human freedom.
  • Dr Paul Graham – Dr Graham is a political theorist who has published on the work on theorists like John Rawls and Karl Heinz Boher. His current main interests include Darwinian political theory and the relationship between technology and politics.
  • Professor Jeremy Jennings – Professor Jennings is a historian of French political thought. His many publications include analyses of the development of French intellectual life in the century after the French Revolution, the development of French liberalism, and analyses of prominent thinkers like Jean-Jacques, Rousseau, Benjamin Constant, and Alexis de Tocqueville.
  • Dr Thomas C. Jones – Dr Jones is a historian of modern European political thought, with particular interests in transnational intellectual exchange and the development and transformation of political ideologies over time. He has published on nineteenth-century republicanism, socialism, and anarchism and his current work engages with themes of exile, diaspora, and national and international identity.
  • Mikolaj Slawkowski-Rode – Dr Slawkowski-Rode is a philosopher and intellectual historian. He is happy to supervise on subjects including ancient presocratic philosophy, early modern European philosophers from Descartes to Kant, and modern intellectual movements such as existentialism and phenomenology.

Entry Requirements

• Applicants are normally expected to have a first or upper second-class degree or significant relevant experience.
• Age is usually an irrelevancy and the University of Buckingham’s current doctoral students range in age from those in their twenties to those in their seventies.
• Academic ability is the only criterion regarded as relevant.

Teaching and Assessment

• PhD students undertake supervised but independent research, at the end of which they submit a thesis embodying the results of that research.
• The length of the dissertation should not be fewer than 70,000 words and no longer than 80,000 words of text (excluding the thesis-abstract, appendices, footnotes, tables, and bibliography).
• This thesis must demonstrate familiarity with, and an understanding of the subject, its principal sources and authorities. It should display critical discrimination and a sense of proportion in evaluating evidence and the judgements of others. A PhD thesis must embody an original contribution to the knowledge of the discipline either by the discovery of new knowledge or by the exercise of a new and independent critical approach.

After Your Course

• The University’s Course Directors, students’ supervisors, and the Research Officer and Tutor for Graduate Students are available to discuss students’ post-graduation plans and how they may utilise most effectively the skills acquired during their studies.

Course Fees

• The fees for this course are:
  • Sep 2025 Full-time (3 Years)
    • UK: £8,267
    • INT: £14,500
  • Sep 2025 Part-time (6 Years)
    • UK: £4,133
    • INT: £7,250

Scholarships and Bursaries

• We have bursaries and scholarships available for both home and international students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and these are awarded based on location, merit or financial need.
• Funded scholarships and bursaries may be awarded across all schools of study, and represent a partial remission from tuition fees. Bursaries are means-tested and are intended for those who need a contribution towards their fees in order to study at Buckingham.
• Students applying for this course may be eligible for the following:
  • Postgraduate First-Class Scholarship: The scholarship will reduce tuition fees by 33% for new UK and international postgraduate students.
  • Royal Charter 40th Anniversary Scholarship: Research scholarship that offers outstanding applicants some or all the fees paid for by the University.