Programme description

Our PhD Music (Musicology) programme will enable you to develop historical and/or analytical skills at an advanced level, with independence and originality of thought combined with technical skill.

Your supervised research will normally be related in some way to the research interests of a member of staff.

Career opportunities

PhD study in Music (Musicology, Composition and Electroacoustic Composition) provides graduates with in-depth research experience and training, and wider practical and transferable skills. Our graduates have gone on to academic appointments in leading universities in the UK and abroad, as well as diverse professional careers.

Recent music PhD graduates have been appointed to lecturing, teaching and researcher positions including ENES Morelia, National Autonomous University of Mexico; Royal High Conservatory of Music in Madrid; High Conservatory of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain); dBsMusic (Germany); Tamagawa University (Japan); Kunitachi College of Music (Japan); RNCM; Futureworks; Liverpool Hope University; University of Liverpool; Keele University; Royal Holloway University of London; Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Birmingham Conservatoire; San Jose State University (USA); Kingston University London; City University London; Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; Royal College of Music; Canterbury Christchurch; Simon Fraser University (Canada) and Southampton University.

Recent alumni have also established careers in television music composition (Danny Saul) or formed their own music and sound business enterprises (for example, Ignacio Pecino's Recursive Arts and Josh Kopecek's Echoes).