Our Doctoral School hosts an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) through which the ESRC delivers support for postgraduate training. The Centre receives around £3.5 million in funding from the ESRC. With matched funding from the University, this provides up to 110 doctoral studentships over five years from October 2011.
- Doctoral training pathways
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Doctoral training at Sussex is organised into six interdisciplinary pathways, each of which corresponds to one of our schools of studies:
- Citizenship, Justice and Security (School of Law, Politics and Sociology)
- Global Economic Performance (School of Business, Management and Economics)
- Global Social Transformations (School of Global Studies)
- Innovation and Sustainability: Management and Policy (School of Business, Management and Economics)
- Knowledge and Society: Well-Being, Health and Communities (School of Education and Social Work)
- Understanding Behaviour (School of Psychology).
The pathways are designed to dovetail both with the University’s research themes (visit Research) and the ESRC’s strategic challenges, in ways that maximise the expertise of Sussex researchers and supervisors to enable doctoral researchers in the DTC to find answers to the world’s problems.
- Doctoral training: 1+3 model
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Research training within the DTC is based on the 1+3 model, in which doctoral researchers begin with a one-year Masters-level research training degree before moving on to a three-year PhD degree. Doctoral researchers who already have Masters-level research training qualifications or equivalent can join the Partnership for a +3 stand-alone PhD degree.
Each pathway has one or a number of Masters degrees providing the 1 of the 1+3. These Masters degrees are run by the relevant schools of studies, except for the MSc in Social Research Methods, which is run by the DTC:
- MRes in Psychological Methods
- MSc in Applied Social Psychology
- MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience
- MSc in Development Economics
- MSc in Economics
- MSc in Foundations of Clinical Psychology and Mental Health
- MSc in International Economics
- MSc in Science and Technology Policy
- MSc in Social Research Methods
- MSc in Technology and Innovation Management.
Although particularly intensive during the MSc, research training is expected to continue into the PhD. The DTC offers a suite of advanced training courses, but is also part of the ESRC’s national Advanced Training Network, which allows doctoral researchers to attend specialist training sessions in other Doctoral Training Centres.
In addition to research training, doctoral researchers in our DTC have access to a wide range of personal and career skills training, provided by the Doctoral School. In each year of your PhD, and with the guidance of your supervisors, you undergo a thorough trainingneeds analysis to identify further training that will assist you in your development as a researcher. The framework for the training-needs analysis, and the skills provision at Sussex, is the Researcher Development Framework (RDF), and we are committed to providing opportunities for researchers at all levels to develop their careers in line with the RDF.
- Collaborative research studentships
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As a DTC, we are particularly interested in developing doctoral research in collaboration with institutions outside the University sector – in private-sector companies, public-sector bodies, or voluntary organisations.
If you have links with, or are located within, such an institution and would like to develop a collaborative studentship, either for yourself or to recruit a doctoral researcher, contact us:
T +44 (0)1273 877376
E esrcdtc@sussex.ac.uk - Advanced research training
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The Sussex Doctoral Training Centre is part of the ESRC’s national Advanced Training Network. We offer Advanced Research Training through the following short courses, most of which are offered as single-day or two half-day workshops held on the Sussex campus:
- Experiment Generators: Use of E-prime
- Meta-analysis
- Voice Analysis and Re-synthesis
- Eye Tracking • Longitudinal Analysis
- Evaluation of Policy and Professional Practice
- Systematic Review
- Multisited and Mobile Ethnography
- Researching Hidden and Hard-to-Reach Populations
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis
- Social Research in Conflict-Affected Zones
- Using Mass Observation
- Social Research in Court Settings
Advanced Research Training at Sussex is open to all doctoral, postdoctoral and practitioner researchers.
For more information, refer to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Centre (DTC).
Michael's staff perspective
‘The ESRC Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Sussex brings together doctoral and doctoral trajectory researchers from across the social sciences.
‘Through six innovative and interdisciplinary research training pathways, the Centre is committed to providing the best possible grounding and ongoing support for doctoral researchers at Sussex.
‘As a DTC, we are part of the ESRC's national framework which provides numerous opportunities for students. These are exciting times for the social sciences in the UK and at Sussex.’
Professor Michael Davies
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research),
University of Sussex