Philosophy

An appropriate Master's-level qualification.

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, our usual requirement is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement, we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.

Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country.

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 for our full-time courses 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 as a student on Birkbeck's part-time courses (with the exception of some modules).

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.

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.

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.

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

PhD students resident in England can apply for government loans of over £26,000 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.

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

Birkbeck is internationally renowned for its research excellence in philosophy, encompassing a range of areas within the discipline, namely contemporary analytic philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, ethics, aesthetics and political philosophy); the history of philosophical questions in many of these areas (we have specialists in ancient philosophy, and seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophy, including Nietzsche); and feminist philosophy.

Library resources include the Birkbeck Library, the University of London Library, the British Library, and our own small philosophy library, the Ruby Meager Library.

Each year, we provide a number of teaching opportunities for research students. We strongly encourage students who are considering a career in philosophy, and who are sufficiently well prepared, to take advantage of the opportunity to teach undergraduates.

We provide a series of training sessions tailored to the needs of research students in philosophy, which are usually held once a term during Reading Week. We also regularly host a series of talks called ‘Approaches to Philosophy’, where philosophers from different universities present their way of approaching the subject.

Research students are also encouraged to attend the generic training courses organised by the Birkbeck Graduate Research School.

Read more about our vibrant research culture.

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

1. Check that you meet the entry requirements, including English language requirements, as described on this page.

2. Find a potential supervisor for your MPhil/PhD research. You can look at the Find a Supervisor area on this page for an overview, or search our Experts’ Database or browse our staff pages for more in-depth information.

3. Contact the academic member of staff - or the department 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.

4. Draft a research proposal of up to 1000 words. 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. Find out more about writing a research proposal. 

5. Apply directly to Birkbeck, using the online application link on this page. You will also need to submit a writing sample of up to 5000 words and two references (these do not need to be from a philosophy academic - they can be from somebody who knows you and knows your work). 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. 

Application deadlines and interviews

You can apply throughout the year for commencement in October or the following January. However, we would advise that applications are submitted by 1 June as it can be harder to arrange interviews during the long summer vacation for those received later.

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

Apply for your course using the apply now button in the key information section.

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

To find out more about the research interests of our academic staff, please see our staff pages.