PhD students

We welcome inquiries from New Zealand and international students who wish to undertake doctoral research in English, Drama or creative practice. Our staff are particularly interested in supervising research projects in the areas of settlement studies, social justice and public affect, as well as many other areas where traditional literary studies intersect with social theory and creative practice.

If you join us, you will be supervised by actively engaged researchers and have access to a range of resources to assist you in your academic and professional development. These include graduate teaching assistantships, scholarships and writing stipends, funds to cover direct research costs, and access to state-of-the-art library and computing facilities.

Many of our PhD students are employed as Graduate Teaching Assistants and research assistants while they undertake their doctoral degrees.

We look forward to your contribution to the intellectual life and research profile of the department.

Please note: If your primary interest is in teaching English as a Second Language, or in Linguistics, please contact the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics.

The Department of English offers various sources of support for PhD study.

• The Department will normally fund conference expenses for PhD students once or twice during their candidature, generally if they are out of their provisional year, with preference given to conferences closely related to thesis topics. Travel for archival research can also be funded. Students are expected to draw on their University PReSS accounts in the first instance.
• The Department’s Research Committee awards an annual Writing Bursary  to assist completion of PhDs. This is awarded to a student or students who can expect to complete within the year, and expedites thesis completion by reducing the students’ need for paid employment.
• There is also an annual Best Chapter prize for the best thesis chapter written in the preceding year: all PhD students are encouraged to compete.
• There is a modest Publication Incentive award for any PhD student who achieves a refereed publication.
• The Department also gives a modest amount towards the cost of printing and binding doctoral theses for final submission.
• In 2009, in response to an initiative by PhD students, the Department’s Research Committee funded the first English Department PhD Writing Retreat. This residential retreat ran over two-and-a-half days, facilitated by staff from the Department and from the University’s Centre for Academic Development.

To apply to the PhD programme in the English Department you must submit an expression of interest to study a PhD at The University of Auckland.

Submit your Expression of Interest (EOI)

In this online process you will be asked to supply various information and attach documents in electronic format, such as:

• transcripts of your tertiary qualifications
• a brief statement of Research Intent (approximately 500 words)
• an academic resume detailing your prior courses of study
• if English is not your first language you will be asked to suppy current IELTS, TOEFL and TWE test scores, although you can provide these at a later date.

If you have any problems submitting your expression of interest, please contact eoihelp@auckland.ac.nz.

What will happen to your Expression of Interest?
The Department’s PhD Adviser will review all expressions of interest and refer them to the Graduate Studies Committee. The PhD Adviser may contact you to ask for further materials, such as referee reports or sample writing. They may also provide feedback on your statement of research intent and ask you to revise and re-submit it.

Criteria for assessing expressions of interest
Expressions of interest are assessed in relation to a number of criteria. These include the academic merit of the applicant, the strength and coherence of the research inquiry outlined, the viability of the research project within the specified timeframe of the PhD (3 to 4 years full-time study), and whether the department is able to adequately support the project in terms of supervision and other resources.

When will I be contacted?
Applicants will be contacted by the PhD Adviser once the GSC has considered the expression of interest. The GSC meets at least eight times a year but frequently considers PhD expressions of interest via email between scheduled meetings.

If your expression is approved by the GSC, you will be contacted by the PhD Adviser and simultaneously receive a formal offer by email from the University’s Graduate Centre advising you how to complete your enrolment.

If you have any questions about the process please contact the PhD Adviser.

For more information about other support and resources, including scholarships, bursaries and writing stipends, please refer to the Faculty of Arts PhD pages.

Read more about PhD students in English on the individual PhD student homepages.

Read more about our PhD students’ thesis topics on the Recent thesis topics page.