Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business postgraduate research degrees – ResM, PhD, EdD and DBA

Become part of our scholarly community that proudly includes a wide range of research approaches and disciplines
Zoe Latham PhD Architecture.

Zoe Latham PhD Architecture.

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business is home to more than 450 postgraduate research (PGR) students working across a variety of disciplines within world-leading research environments that are critical, collaborative and inter/trans-disciplinary in their approach.
Our postgraduate research is aligned with research excellence across the creative and performing arts, design and architecture, built environment, humanities, law and social sciences, business, and education, connecting directly to real world challenges through sustainable, resilient and socially engaging methods of practice.
We train students to become research leaders and practitioners of the future with state-of-the-art facilities such as the Digital Fabrication Laboratory and the Immersive Vision Theatre among others, and studios for practice led/based research.
We work closely with the University’s Doctoral College on all regulatory matters and with other faculties across the University for collaborative supervision and research projects.
We partner externally with the wider city and globally across Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and non-HEIs, industry organisations, public institutions and charities.
The University of Plymouth’s Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business regularly administers competitive studentships, for example, via the AHRC 3D3 Centre for Doctoral Training and the Doctoral Teaching Assistantship scheme. We welcome interest and applications from across the world, locally and regionally on a full time, part time, remote (online), and integrated basis. A new ‘Low-Residency’ research degree option will soon be offered via various creative arts disciplines.
Professor Shaofeng Liu
Deputy Director for the Doctoral College for the Arts, Humanities and Business
Shaofeng Liu

Postgraduate research programmes

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business offers a range of programmes across ResM, PhD and Professional Doctorate routes in the following:

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Plymouth Business School

School of Society and Culture

Postgraduate Research Coordinators across the faculty

  • Associate Professor (Reader) in Art and Moving Image
    Postgraduate Research Coordinator – School of Art, Design and Architecture
  • Associate Professor in Early Childhood Studies
    Programme Director – EdD programme
  • Philip Nicholas Lecturer in Maritime History
    Postgraduate Research Coordinator – School of Society and Culture
  • Associate Head of School - International
    Programme Director – DBA
  • Lecturer in International Shipping and Port Management
    Postgraduate Research Coordinator – Plymouth Business School

Faculty training and research

All research degree students will be formally registered within one of our four schools.
Your ‘home’ school is usually based on the location of your Director of Studies.
Each school has a designated academic staff member who leads the school’s postgraduate research matters.
Research students are embedded in the intellectual life of the university through several tiers of research training, including the following:
  • Local disciplines’ integration of students into research units (delivering subject-specific training).
  • A faculty-wide training programme on research skills and methodologies (this is delivered through blended learning).
  • School-level funding schemes for research trips, conference attendance, and mentorships.
  • Annual Faculty Doctoral Conference.
  • Monthly Faculty Postgraduate Research Café.
  • Engagement with The Bridge and creative industries (this is for PGR students who are interested in knowledge exchange projects, whereby their research can inform non-academic beneficiaries).
  • The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business both offers a research platform and enables students to prepare their research for external dissemination.
  • The University’s Doctoral College supports and provides research training for all postgraduate researchers and supervisors at the University of Plymouth through its Researcher development programme .
  • Doctoral training programme for SHAPE disciplines 2023-24

Research with the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business

The faculty has substantial research excellence and international reputation across the disciplines of English, creative writing, history, education, contemporary arts practice, art theory and history, theatre, dance, performing arts and music, science and technology, digital arts, photography, art and technology, curatorial practice, architecture and environmental building.
With over 450 postgraduate and research students in our international partnership, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business offers far ranging interdisciplinary research expertise, and includes The Bridge .
Shutterstock: arts research image. Splashes of bright colours.

Key partnerships

We have a strong tradition of fostering partnerships, both nationally and internationally, in support of postgraduate research.
Plymouth’s partnerships with other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and non-HEI organisations exist at local, regional, national, and international levels. Those select partnerships listed below are of special interest for the postgraduate research training they enable, both on the Plymouth campus and elsewhere, where our students take up placements, residencies and exchanges:
  • IBM Smarter Planet
  • Fulldome UK
  • Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
  • Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (London)
  • Plymouth Theatre Royal/TR2
  • North Devon Biosphere
  • Society for Arts and Technology (Montreal)T
  • Trans-Media Akademie (Dresden)
  • Plymouth City Council
  • The Box, Plymouth
  • Plymouth Art Centre
  • Plymouth Culture Board (CDA: the Cottonian Collection; Mayflower 400)
  • Devon Heritage Centre
  • Theatre Royal, Plymouth
  • Superfast Cornwall
  • Tate Collective London
  • The V&A
  • British Library
  • The National Archives
  • Britannia Naval College
  • Powderham Castle
  • Antony House
  • The National Maritime Museum
  • Skarhults Castle
  • World Heritage Cornish Mining Site
  • The Historic Preservation Program at Penn Design (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Sadler’s Wells
  • International Research Forum on Guided Tours, (Universities of Hulmstead and Gothenberg)
  • Ars Electronica.
  • British Red Cross
  • Global Alliance for Urban Crises

Research that impacts lives, businesses and societies

Annual Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business virtual doctoral conference exclusively for PhD students
An excellent opportunity to gain confidence in presenting at a conference while still in a familiar space
Research that impacts lives, businesses and societies postgraduate conference image.
South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP)

Funding opportunity – The South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP)

The South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) is accredited by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to provide postgraduate research training in the social sciences. he SWDTP is one of the UK’s largest centres of postgraduate research training for social scientists and comprises of staff and students from the Universities of Plymouth, Bath, Bristol, Exeter and the University of the West of England.

For further general information on research degrees within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business contact artsresearch@plymouth.ac.uk.