Overview

The research interests of this Global Ethics from University of Birmingham cover a wide variety of topics; including ethics and global public health; ethics, war and terror; poverty and financial exclusion; and the ethics of borders and immigration.

The PhD is the most advanced research degree. It requires you to undertake independent research (under the expert supervision of an academic member of staff) that leads to a thesis of up to 80,000 words on a subject of your choice.

As an alternative to the standard thesis, we now also offer you the choice of writing a thesis which consists of three or four self-standing academic articles on different aspects of a single topic. Birmingham is one of the first philosophy departments in the UK to offer you this option of a “PhD by Papers”. 

Rather than writing a single book-like thesis examining a single topic, you may instead write a thesis comprising three or four separate (though thematically unified) papers, in the style of philosophy journal articles. Although this style of PhD thesis is very popular at top US departments, and offers many advantages for students, it is rare in the UK. The advantages of this option include:

• Ideas don’t always come in book-shaped packages. The PhD by Papers format recognises that, allowing you greater scope to follow your interests.

• If you would like to become an academic philosopher, you will need to publish in philosophical journals, preferably before finishing your PhD. The PhD by Papers means your work towards publishable papers is always work towards the PhD thesis, improving your academic job prospects along the way.

Career

Birmingham's Philosophy postgraduates develop a range of skills that are highly desirable in the job market, including: articulacy; precise analytical thought; clarity; rigour in formulating complex problems; and the ability to analyse and construct sound arguments.