In addition to our highly successful undergraduate level courses, the Geography Department has a strong postgraduate programme. We supervise Masters in Research in Human Geography (MRes), MPhil and PhD students in the same way as at other universities - on a face to face basis. We strongly encourage full-time registration for these degrees, although part-time registration is also available under certain circumstances.

Our research environment for postgraduate students

We have a lively postgraduate student community that forms an important part of our research culture. Students are regarded as valued members of the department, able to interact with research-active academic staff and post-doctoral fellows based on campus in Milton Keynes, as well as with other staff and students in the Social Science Faculty and its associated research centres. Students are expected to participate in the full range of on-campus research events ranging from relaxed forums where academics and students can discuss topics such as the practicalities of fieldwork and thesis writing, to more formal seminars given by invited external academics. Students are members of the Department's leading 'collaboratories' which generate cutting-edge debates in the following broad areas:

Society, space and power
The politics of culture and space
Materiality and non-human geographies
Environment, politics and justice

Besides conference attendance, the Department encourages postgraduates to organise events to build networks with students and academics from other departments and universities. For example, Praxis is an informal student-run conference that takes place once a year for students working in the Social Sciences, and is a space where theory meets practice, where students catch up, present and discuss research issues and share experiences. A one day postgraduate symposium is planned for 2008 with the aim of exploring research process and practice in a complex world. Over 20 PhD students from around the UK and senior Geography researchers from the Open University will take part. Read more about a recent postgraduate field trip (Word document).

Supervision

All postgruduate students are provided with two supervisors for the duration of their studies. Supervisors meet regularly with students, acting as academic advisors, providing guidance on research topics, on the skills needed to successfully complete a Masters or PhD, on planning research and on writing a thesis. They read and discuss students work, helping to develop ideas and to encourage critical and independent thinking.

Staff represent a wide range of research interests and will consider supervising topics in many different areas. Ffor example, current post-gradate research includes:

• Public Space and Popular Discourse in Colonial Delhi 1857-1911
• Variability in the Growth Machine: The Political Economy of Urban Growth in the Spanish Context
• Rethinking the Experiences of gentrification in a European Context
• Indigenisation of Clubbing
• European Environmental Governance: Partnerships for participation in the Changing Relationship with the European Union
• Making Public Space: Community Groups and Local Participation in Stoke-on-Trent
• Analysis of Equity and Resource Sustainability Issues in Community Forestry Policy in the Terai of Nepal
• Geographies of Geborgenheit in a Context of Violence: Queer Struggles for Safety in Rio de Janeiro

Many students who have completed Masters or PhDs in the Department have gone on to further post-doctoral research or to permanent academic posts. See our Recently Completed PhDs page.