Applicants do not necessarily need to be high academic flyers but should have a sound academic record. Applicants may apply directly for admittance into the PhD programme. Students who do apply to proceed directly to a PhD programme after completing their undergraduate degree are admitted to one year of probationary candidature but they must have at least third class honours in their final year. At the conclusion of this probationary period they can then be admitted to full PhD candidature, or if their work is judged not to be of sufficient standard they can submit for a Masters degree. 1.Candidates undertake research under the supervision of an academic staff member, producing a thesis of approx.
Candidates spend approx.
They are required to make a public presentation of their research findings in the year prior to submitting their thesis for examination. In addition to carrying out their research, all graduate students of the Department attend and participate in the weekly graduate seminar programme throughout their studies. Graduate students are expected to complete a short course on statistics for research workers and are encouraged to attend some of the short courses offered by the School of Graduate Studies on the skills of being a successful researcher and academic. Graduate students are encouraged to develop their ability to present their research work and ideas both in writing and verbally. They are given assistance with writing up their work for publication in a scientific or professional journal and they make a short formal presentation of their work to the Department once a year.