UK/EU

You should have a second-class honours degree or equivalent, or an equivalent professional qualification. Other qualifications accompanied by substantial experience in an appropriate field may also be considered. Non-standard applications will be considered on a case by case basis.

International

Please view the country specific pages for further information regarding the equivalency of your degree. International applicants will be required to provide evidence of their English language ability, for example by achieving an IELTS score of 6.5 overall (with a minimum of 5.5 in each element) or equivalent. English language requirements. Pre-sessional English language courses are available if you do not meet these requirements.

We welcome applicants with international qualifications. To view other accepted qualifications please refer to our tariff glossary.

Personal statement

Applicants are required to submit a personal statement within the application form that addresses the following questions: Why are you suitable to study at this level? Why do you want to study criminology at Plymouth? What is your specific area of interest? What do you hope to achieve?

Scholarships

Scholarships are available for postgraduate taught programmes.

Applicants are expected to have completed a masters level qualification to a high standard (e.g. at 'merit' or 'distinction' level) as well as either a good 2:1 or first class honours undergraduate degree in an area of study appropriate to your project proposal. We are happy to consider equivalent qualifications (for instance, you may have studied different subjects at undergraduate and masters level but have worked in and/or developed an interest in your sector since then). We also accept exceptional undergraduate students (1st class) from a cognate discipline straight in to PhD where there is an associated excellent research proposal.

If you do not already have a masters degree, you may be interested in one of our masters level research degrees – for instance, our ResM in Criminology (which enables a transfer directly into the PhD programme if you are making excellent progress), an MPhil degree, or MSc Criminology. Further details about the University’s research degree awards.

You will also need to provide evidence that you are ready to pursue the project you propose in your application. This will take the form of a research proposal.

If English is not your first language, you must have proficiency in written and spoken English (normally a minimum test score of 6.5 for IELTS, or equivalent). Given the nature of the programme, you’ll be expected to read and engage with complex theoretical texts and debates for which fluency in English is essential.

For more general guidelines and application requirements, please visit the research degrees applicants page.