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Research Degrees in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

  • 1. Admission as a Probationer Research Student

    Candidates must apply for admission as Probationer Research Student on a full-time basis.

    2. Transfer to M.Litt. and D.Phil. status

    All students will normally be expected to submit:

    • (a) a piece of formal written work related to the field of their proposed thesis of between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length;

      (b) a satisfactory outline (of not more than 1000 words) of the proposed subject of the thesis.

  • 3. Confirmation of D.Phil. status

    Candidates must submit the documents detailed in the Divisional regulations, above. The piece of written work is expected to be a draft chapter or two chapters of the candidate’s thesis, approximately 10,000-15,000 words in total.

    4. Theses

    Theses submitted for the Degree of M.Litt. should not exceed 50,000 words and those for the Degree of D.Phil. should not exceed 100,000, exclusive of any text that is being edited, and of bibliography, but including notes, glossary, appendices, etc. Leave to exceed this limit will be given only in exceptional cases.

  • Examination by integrated thesis

  • An integrated thesis may constitute an acceptable thesis for students registered on a research degree in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. 

  • An integrated thesis may either be a hybrid of conventional chapters and high-quality papers, or be fully paper-based. Regardless of the format, the content of the thesis should reflect the amount, originality and level of work expected for a conventional thesis. Students should note that an integrated thesis is not an easier option than a conventional thesis. It should not be assumed that the act of publication (in whatever form) means the work is of suitable academic quality and content for inclusion in a thesis, and students should discuss all papers in detail with their supervisor before inclusion. It would be anticipated that the candidate would be a lead contributor, rather than a minor author, on at least some of the papers in order to consider this format. There is no minimum, or maximum, number of papers a candidate is expected/allowed to include as part of such a thesis but the thesis must address an overarching research question, represent a coherent and focused body of research, and be of the appropriate standard and scope to pass a doctoral examination. It will remain a matter for the examiners to conclude whether the contributions are equivalent to that which would be expected of a standard DPhil.
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    Any papers utilised must concern a common subject, constitute a continuous theme and conform to the following guidelines: 

  • a) If a candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy wishes to be examined through an integrated thesis, they should apply for permission to be examined in this way when they apply for Confirmation of Status, as detailed in the Faculty handbook.    A candidate for the Degree of Master of Letters should normally apply for permission to be examined in this way six months before submitting their papers for examination. To revert to being examined by a conventional thesis rather than an integrated thesis, the candidate must inform the faculty of the change as detailed in the faculty graduate handbook.    

  • b) Work can be included regardless of its acceptance status for publication but candidates may be questioned on the publication status of their work by the examiners. 

  • c) Any submitted/published papers should relate directly to the candidate’s approved field of study, and should have been written whilst holding the status of PRS or a student for the DPhil or MLitt. it is not permitted for articles published prior to the start of the DPhil to be used as part of an integrated thesis. 

  • d) The collection of papers must include a separate introduction, a full literature review, discussion and a conclusion   , so that the integrated thesis can be read as a single, coherent document. Students are expected to clarify in the introduction and/or conclusion how the chapters are integrated as a complete text or how the papers relate to one another.   In some cases, students may wish to rewrite portions of the published material to make it fit the structure of their thesis. If they have done so, this should be clearly indicated, normally with a footnote or endnote. The original sources of published papers should always be clearly cited. 

  • e) The candidate must ensure all matters of copyright are addressed before a paper’s inclusion. A pre-print version of any published papers may be included, as an appendix, as detailed in the Faculty handbook. 

  • f) Joint/multi-authored papers are acceptable if the candidate can both defend the paper in full and provide a written statement of authorship, agreed by all authors, that certifies the extent of the candidate’s own contribution. If the Faculty Graduate Studies Committee is not satisfied that the greater part of the work included in the thesis is the student’s own, the committee will not proceed to appoint examiners.