History

MPhil/PhD

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Year of entry: 2026-27
Year of entry: 2027-28

Start date:

October 2026 | January 2027 | April 2027

Study route:

Seven years part-time, online
Seven years part-time, on campus
Four years full-time, on campus

Status:

Fully approved

Location:

Birkbeck Campus, Central London

Awarding body:

University of London

Study options:

Full-time | Part-time | On campus | Online

Start date:

October 2027 | January 2028 | April 2028

Study route:

Seven years part-time, online
Four years full-time, on campus
Seven years part-time, on campus

Status:

Fully approved

Location:

Birkbeck Campus, Central London

Awarding body:

University of London

Study options:

Full-time | Part-time | On campus | Online

Course Overview

A research degree offers you the opportunity to acquire a highly advanced set of conceptual skills developed in the pursuit of new knowledge, which can be applied within or beyond an academic or scholarly context. Research training in any academic discipline helps to channel creativity into critical innovatory reasoning. The legitimate authority of original, independent research depends upon persuasive analytical arguments supported by critically evaluated evidence.

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck.

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, we were ranked in the top eight universities in the UK for our History research. We provide a supportive context for research in the following areas: ancient Greece and Roman social and cultural history; late antiquity; history of medieval societies and cultures; British social, cultural and political history since 1400; French history since 1400; Italian history since 1500; the cultural history of early modern cities, especially London and Venice; the history of ideas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; Russian history since 1800; nineteenth- and twentieth-century American social and cultural history; Balkan history and the history of the Ottoman Empire and its successor states; West and Southern Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the history of Japan and East Asia; the history of modern Germany, France and Italy; the history of science, medicine and psychoanalysis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the cultural history of death, warfare, race, gender and sexuality.

If you require a Student visa to study in the UK, you will only be able to apply for the on-campus study option for this course. The online option will not be available to you because it may affect the conditions of your visa.

Attendance

Regular meetings with your supervisor(s).

More Highlights

We are an international centre of excellence. Since 2001 we have consistently been in the top ten departments evaluated by the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
Birkbeck’s research excellence overall was confirmed in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework with 83% of our research rated world-leading or internationally excellent overall.
Our research is unique in its range across geographical and chronological boundaries. We are the only university in London to include historians, classicists and archaeologists in the same team of academics investigating every period from prehistory to the early twenty-first century. We see the study of the past as crucial for our understanding of present-day society, culture and politics.
You will gain from working with internationally renowned specialist supervisors in your chosen field of research. You will broaden your range of academic and intellectual contacts and significantly widen your general experience of academic life and institutions.
There are funding opportunities available for MPhil/PhD students. In recent years, a number of students have successfully applied for funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council ESRC), Wellcome Trust and other sources.
We are at the heart of academic London with access to unparalleled research resources. Situated very close by are: the Institute of Classical Studies, with its library, training facilities and seminars; the British Museum, with its extensive collection of classical antiquities; and the British Library, the largest national library in the world.
We are home to a number of affiliated research centres that actively run seminars, conferences and other events where some of the world's best scholars present their latest research.

Entry Requirements

The entry requirement for this MPhil/PhD History is a confirmed (or predicted) Merit or above at MA level, with a distinction in the dissertation.

What are the English language requirements?

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 7.0, with not less than 6.5 in each of the sub-tests and at least 7.0 in writing.

If you don't meet the minimum English language requirements, please contact us or see our international study skills page for more details about how we can help.
Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country.
What are the visa and funding requirements?
If you are not from the UK and you do not already have residency here, you may need to apply for a visa.
The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:
- Courses of more than six months' duration: Student visa
- Courses of less than six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa
International students who require a Student visa should apply to study on our courses full-time as these qualify for Student visa sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to enrol to study part-time courses at Birkbeck (with the exception of some modules).
As a Student visa student, you should also apply to study on campus only, as online and flexible options of study  (if they are available for your course) may affect the conditions of your visa.
For full information, read our visa information for international students page.
Please also visit the international section of our website to find out more about relevant visa and funding requirements by country.
Please note students receiving US Federal Aid are only able to apply for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

School of Historical Studies

The school is intensively interdisciplinary and its research and teaching covers every period from prehistory to the early twenty-first century.

Visit the school

Fees

Students are charged a tuition fee in each year of their course. Tuition fees for students continuing on their course in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases. For more information, please see the College Fees Policy.

Lifelong Learning Guarantee

If you’ve studied at Birkbeck before and successfully completed an award with us, take advantage of our Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain a discount on the tuition fee of this course.

Fees and finance

PhD students resident in England can apply for government loans of over £30,000 to cover the cost of tuition fees, maintenance and other study-related costs.

Flexible finance: pay your fees in monthly instalments at no extra cost. Enrol early to spread your costs and reduce your monthly payments.

We offer a range of studentships and funding options to support your research.

Discover the financial support available to you to help with your studies at Birkbeck.

Do you offer international scholarships?

We provide a range of scholarships for eligible international students, including our Global Future Scholarship. Discover if you are eligible for a scholarship.

Birkbeck's campus is located in the historic and vibrant Bloomsbury area of central London - named one of the best places to live in London 2025 by The Times.

Our Research Culture

You will find the British Museum and the British Library just a few minutes' walk away from Birkbeck. Other nearby specialist centres of research include the University of London Institute of Historical Research, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, the German Historical Institute, the Warburg Institute, the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, the City of London Record Offices, the India Office Library and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. The Public Record Office, the British Newspaper Library, the Imperial War Museum and other archives are within easy reach by public transport.

Study resources also include a regular work-in-progress seminar for research students and staff, and various courses on ancillary skills, including how to read medieval and early modern documents, how to locate sources in various fields, languages and computing. We also offer PhD thesis-writing workshops and methodological masterclasses, in which historians discuss how they produce their work and overcome particular challenges. Increasingly Birkbeck is funding student-organised conferences and sponsoring special courses that teach non-English languages for reading and research. Research students also have access to events offered by the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network, which includes UCL, King’s College London, LSE and SOAS, among others.

Besides over 30 regular research seminars at the Institute of Historical Research, there are also numerous specialist lectures and talks at neighbouring institutions during term-time.

Through our international links, it is now possible for Birkbeck PhD History students to visit the following partner institutions: Columbia University, USA; Queen's University, Canada; Università di Pisa, University of Verona and European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy (one-term exchange). Research students from these institutions may also spend six months studying at Birkbeck.

Recent research topics include:

Socialist utopias
Chinese railroad labourers in the mid- to late nineteenth century
The cultural history of music in the French Revolution
Technologies of social knowledge: scientific methodologies of conceptualising poverty in Britain, late nineteenth to early twentieth century
The development of botany in sixteenth-century Italy and its influence on the theory and practice of therapy
Demonic possession in Early Modern England
The healing of scrofula - or the King's Evil - by the royal touch during the early modern period
The history of the Civil Rights League of South Africa (1948-1994)
The Burgundian nobility in the eighteenth century
The development of the ceramic industry and exchange networks in the province of Dacia by establishing a Roman Fabrics Reference collection
War neurosis in the civilian population in Second World War Britain
Terrorists and counter-terrorists in Hollywood film and television of the last two decades
The SS personnel of the Dachau concentration camp 1933-1939
Belsen medical students
The political and cultural career of Philip Sydney, Lord Viscount Lisle, Third Earl of Leicester, 1619-1698
Medical books and the distribution of medical knowledge in the early modern period

Read more about our vibrant research culture.

Finding a Supervisor

A critical factor when applying for postgraduate study in history is the correlation between the applicant’s intellectual and research interests and those of one or more potential supervisors.

Find out more about the research interests of our academic staff:

Fred Anscombe, BA, PhD: the Ottoman Empire; the Balkans and the Middle East in Ottoman and post-Ottoman times.
Professor Joanna Bourke, BA, MA, PhD, FRHistS: modern British and Irish history; gender and masculinity; military history; the history of the emotions; sexual violence.
Professor David Feldman, MA, PhD, FRHistS: modern British history; history of social policy; immigration and ethnicity; Jewish history.
Professor Orlando Figes, BA, PhD: modern Russian history; history of peasantry; Russian cultural history.
Professor Vanessa A. Harding, MA, PhD, FRHistS: history of London; English social and economic history 1300-1700; history of death and the family 1300-1700.
Professor John Henderson, BA, PhD: social history of late medieval and early modern Italy, particularly Florence; history of plague; late medieval and early modern hospitals and medical practice.
Kat Hill, MA, MSt, DPhil: movement, migration and the sense of confessional belonging in non-conformist religious communities in the early modern world.
Professor Julia Laite, BA, PhD: modern British History.
Professor Julia Lovell, PhD: modern Asian History.
Professor Daniel Pick, MA, PhD: modern European and British history; psychoanalysis and history.
Professor Jessica Reinisch, PhD: modern European and German history.
Professor Jan Rueger, BA, PhD: comparative history of modern Europe, particularly Britain and Germany; national identity and political culture; political and cultural role of the navy.
Hilary Sapire, BA, PhD: history of urbanisation; history of disease and colonial medicine; history of Africa (particularly South Africa).
Professor Chandak Sengoopta, MD, MA, PhD: intellectual and cultural history of science and medicine, particularly in Britain, central Europe and colonial settings; history of the body and gender.
Professor Julian Swann, BA, PhD: early modern French history; history of the French parlements and estates; early modern nobilities.
Professor Frank Trentmann, BA, MA, PhD: modern Britain and Europe; political culture; civil society; consumption; transnationalism.
Joseph John Viscomi, MA, PhD: migration and displacement; geopolitics; decolonisation; historical consciousness in the modern Mediterranean.
Professor Nik Wachsmann, BSc(Econ), MPhil, PhD, FRHistS: modern German history; Weimar and Nazi Germany; the history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; criminology, policing, deviance, punishment and imprisonment.
Professor Jerry White, Emeritus: history of modern London.

How to Apply

Follow these steps to apply to an MPhil/PhD research degree at Birkbeck:

Check that you meet the entry requirements, including English language requirements, as described on this page.
Find a potential supervisor for your MPhil/PhD research. Check the ‘Find a Supervisor’ area on this page or search our staff directory.
Contact the academic member of staff - or the school they teach in - for an informal discussion about your research interests and to establish  if they are willing and able to supervise your research. (Please note: finding a potential supervisor does not guarantee admission to the research degree, as this decision is made using your whole application.) Find out more about the supervisory relationship and how your supervisor will support your research.
Draft a research proposal. This needs to demonstrate your knowledge of the field, the specific research questions you wish to pursue, and how your ideas will lead to the creation of new knowledge and understanding.
Apply directly to Birkbeck, using the 'Apply Now' link on this page. All research students are initially registered on an MPhil and then upgrade to a PhD after making sufficient progress.

Find out more about the application process, writing a research proposal and the timeframe.

What are the application deadlines?

You can apply at any time during the year. Entry months for the programme are October, January and April of each year.

If you wish to apply for funding, you will need to apply by certain deadlines. Consult the websites of relevant bodies for details.

History

Key information

Key information for 2026-27

Key information for 2027-28

Course Overview

Attendance

More Highlights

Entry Requirements

What are the English language requirements?

What are the visa and funding requirements?

School of Historical Studies

Fees

MPhil/PhD: Seven years part-time, online, starting in October 2026

Academic year 2026-27

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in October 2026

Academic year 2026-27

MPhil/PhD: Seven years part-time, online, starting in January 2027

Academic year 2026-27

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in January 2027

Academic year 2026-27

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in April 2027

Academic year 2026-27

MPhil/PhD: Seven years part-time, online, starting in April 2027

Academic year 2026-27

MPhil/PhD: Seven years part-time, online, starting in October 2027

Academic year 2027-28

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in October 2027

Academic year 2027-28

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in January 2028

Academic year 2027-28

MPhil/PhD: Seven years part-time, online, starting in January 2028

Academic year 2027-28

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in April 2028

Academic year 2027-28

MPhil/PhD: Seven years part-time, online, starting in April 2028

Academic year 2027-28

Lifelong Learning Guarantee

Fees and finance

Do you offer international scholarships?

Our Research Culture

Finding a Supervisor

How to Apply

What are the application deadlines?

Related courses

Study routes for History (MPhil/PhD)

Starting in October 2026

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in January 2027

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in April 2027

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in October 2027

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in January 2028

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in April 2028

Full-time

Part-time