Criteria for the award of the degrees of PhD and MPhil

Criteria for the award of PhD 

In order for a student to be awarded a PhD or other doctoral award, they must satisfy the examiners that their thesis:

• Is original work that forms an addition to knowledge.
• Shows evidence of systematic study and of the ability to relate the results of such study to the general body of knowledge in the subject.
• Is worthy of publication either in full or in an abridged form.

Students should be able to demonstrate, via the thesis and oral examination, that they can:

• Critically appraise what is and what is not known in their subject area.
• Formulate appropriate questions to probe what is not known.
• Choose and, as necessary, devise appropriate techniques to address such questions.
• Explain to others why these questions are worth asking and why these techniques are the right ones to use to answer them in a realistic and timely manner.
• Employ such techniques rigorously and viably, to produce robust and reliable answers to the questions posed, while remaining open-minded to unexpected or unintended outcomes.
• Accept critical analysis of their work, defending it with rigour but adjusting its interpretation or analysis where required.
• Communicate their findings to the wider research community in a timely, transparent and accessible manner, acknowledging the contribution of others as appropriate.

Criteria for the award of MPhil

A thesis for the award of an MPhil degree shall be examined in accordance with the criteria prescribed by the University of Sheffield:

• Is genuinely the work of the candidate
• Consists of the candidate’s own account of their investigations and indicates in what respects they appear to them to advance the study of the subject
• Represents a contribution to the subject, either through a record of the candidate’s original work or a critical and ordered exposition of existing knowledge
• Takes due account of previously published work on the subject
• Makes clear the sources from which information has been derived, the extent to which the work of others has been used, and the areas which are claimed as original
• Is an integrated whole and presents a coherent argument
• Is satisfactory as regards literary presentation
• Has a full bibliography and reference
• Represents what might reasonably be expected after two years or at most three years of study, or the part-time equivalent
• shall not exceed 60,000* words (inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of appendices and bibliography, the word limit not applying to editions of a text or texts), unless the thesis has previously been submitted and examined for a PhD and judged to be MPhil standard.

*Faculty guidance on word limits for the degree of MPhil is 40,000 words.