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The London Consortium » How to Apply - Overview

Masters & Doctoral Programme 
 in Humanities and Cultural Studies 

How to Apply - Overview 

For financial information see Information for Students - Financial Information

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Prospective students are requested to complete a london consortium application form (downloadable on the right and also enclosed with our prospectus) and return it in the first instance to:

The Registry
Birkbeck College
University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

along with supplementary material requested below:

Guidelines for writing a PhD proposal

A PhD thesis must form a distinct contribution to knowledge on the subject. It must afford evidence of originality, shown either by the discovery of new facts or by the exercise of independent critical power. The completed work must be of a publishable standard.
When drafting a PhD proposal, students should address the following points:
(1) What do you propose to write about?
(2) How will you carry out your project?
(3) Why is this research important and in what way will it be an original contribution to knowledge in your subject area?

Application Deadline

We officially accept applications from January, although if decisions need to be known earlier, such as for funding applications, we can consider applications prior to January. We accept applications on a rolling basis until the course is full. The best advice is to apply as soon as possible.

Minimum entry requirements

The minimum entry requirement for both MRes and PhD applications is normally a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours Degree or equivalent. Professional or work experience in a field relevant to graduate study in the humanities may also be taken into account.

Language requirements

All courses are taught in English, and all coursework and dissertations must be written and submitted in English. Students who do not have English as a first language may find the following advice helpful as a guide to the level of language competence that is expected:

a minimum of 6.5 in the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), with a minimum of 6 in the subtests; or a minimum of 237 in the computer-based TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test, with a score of 5 in the essay rating.

We may require applicants to supply certification of language competence.

Interviews

Applicants who satisfy the Consortium’s entry criteria will be invited to attend an interview with the Academic Director and one other member of faculty. At the interview they will expected to expand on points made in their application, and discuss their research proposals. International applicants can be interviewed by telephone if they are unable to travel to London. Applicants will be notified shortly after interview whether they are being offered a place on the programme.

The interview forms an important part of the entrance process for the MRes. MRes applicants will normally be interviewed by two members of Consortium faculty. They will be seeking to establish the following, among other things: the clarity of the applicant’s objectives in undertaking the course; their interest in and aptitude for interdisciplinary studies, their critical, analytic and evaluative powers; their language skills, powers of argument and ability to participate in and contribute to seminar discussion. We will also be hoping to see in applicants the intellectual flexibility required to cope with the demands of interdisciplinary study. Applicants will be given the opportunity to ask questions about any aspect of the London Consortium.

Applicants for the PhD will be interviewed by two members of Consortium faculty, of whom one will normally be a potential supervisor, with expertise in the area of the research proposal. In addition to assessing the quality of the applicant, and their capacity to complete the proposed research, the interview will also seek to establish that the proposed research is both valuable - in that it will make an original contribution to one or more fields of study in the humanities - and viable - in that it is capable of being successfully completed within four years, and with the resources available to a student of the London Consortium. Suggestions may well be made at the interview as to ways in which the scope or nature of the proposed research could usefully be modified.

Visiting us

Our campus is virtually central London itself — the space that stretches between Tate Modern at Bankside, Tate Britain at Millbank, the ICA on the Mall, and the Architectural Association and Birkbeck College in Bloomsbury. Consortium students must be prepared to travel! Teaching of the core courses and our various events can take place in different locations within the partner institutions, whilst the regular research seminars are held at Birkbeck College. During term time it may be possible to arrange for you to meet up at one of the institutions with our Academic Director, or with current Consortium students. If you’d like to visit our administrative offices, we’re located on the third floor of the ICA building.

Fees

Tuition fees for the 2007/08 academic year are £3,240 for UK/EU students and £11,250 for overseas students. Fees are liable to increase for the 2008/09 academic year.

If you are unsure whether you would be liable for home or overseas fees, a guide is available here. Please note, however, that the final judgement regarding fee liability will be made by Birkbeck College in accordance with government guidelines.

Please see financial information for information on seeking funding for postgraduate study in the UK.
Note: Neither the Master of Research course nor the Doctoral Programme is available part-time.

Term dates

The College’s term dates for the 2007/08 academic year are:
Autumn term: 1 October 2007 to 14 December 2007
Spring term: 7 January 2008 to Tuesday 18 March 2008
Summer term: Wednesday 16 April 2008 to 4 July 2008

The College’s term dates for the 2008/09 academic year will be:
Autumn term: 29 September 2008 to 12 December 2008
Spring term: 5 January 2009 to 20 March 2009
Summer term: 20 April 2009 to 3 July 2009

Registration

All London Consortium students are required to have registered with Birkbeck College before attending classes. Birkbeck’s Registry will be your point of contact for all matters relating to tuition fees and enrolment.

Enrolment papers and fees notices are sent out over a period of weeks from the end of August to the beginning of September. Overseas students are expected to collect their forms from the Registry in person, unless you specifically request they be posted to you.

The Registry can also issue letters embossed with the college stamp that confirm your enrolment with Birkbeck if this is required for visa or other official purposes; you need to give them at least two days notice for this service.

If you wish to visit them in person, the Registry is open from 12.30 till 6.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, during term time, and from 12.30 to 5pm at all other times. It is on the ground floor of the main Birkbeck Building on Malet Street.

FAQ

Q: Where is the London Consortium physically located?

A: Being a collaboration between several institutions, the Consortium differs fundamentally from a conventional academic department with its corridors, offices for faculty members, and student common room. The faculty is drawn from the participating institutions and beyond. Teaching is done in all of the participating institutions, while the central administrative office is in the ICA, the registry is at Birkbeck, and degrees are awarded by the University of London.

Q: How is the faculty constituted?

A: The staff of the London Consortium are largely drawn from other institutions. We have a core staff of a Programme Manager, Academic Director, Associate Director and Admissions Tutor, who deal with the day to day running of the Consortium. The Steering Committee is comprised of a larger group of academics and professionals, many of whom are drawn from the participating institutions, and their task is to oversee student progress and determine the more general direction of the Consortium. Most of the Steering Committee are actively involved in teaching courses and supervising students’ research. On top of this, the Consortium’s unique constitution allows it to call upon a wide variety of others to supervise PhDs and MRes dissertations. These may be academics from other universities, or other suitable writers or arts professionals. Finally, there is the visiting faculty, who are not actively involved in the daily activities of the London Consortium, but may, for example, give occasional lectures or seminars, or make themselves available should a student wish to consult them.

Q: How does PhD supervision work in the London Consortium?

A: The Consortium believes that PhD students – particularly those engaged in the kind of multi-disciplinary projects that it encourages – are best served by having two supervisors. The primary supervisor is most directly concerned with the project as a whole, and meets the student regularly to discuss written work, the structure of the thesis, and bibliography. The secondary supervisor may have less hands-on involvement, but nevertheless has an important role that will to some extent depend on the nature of the project. It is usually an advantage for the primary supervisor to be located close enough to London for regular meetings to be possible. A second supervisor can be, and has been located anywhere in the world. Often the second supervisor is there simply to provide an alternative perspective on the research, to highlight possible avenues for exploration or warn of potential pitfalls. If the thesis is one that spans two disciplines, it is usually preferable to have one supervisor from each discipline. In this case, the role of the secondary supervisor is usually to provide the knowledge and experience that is specific to his or her discipline.

Q: What is the relationship between the participating institutions, and where do the students fit in?

A: Apart from drawing faculty members from all of the participating institutions and holding seminars and lectures there, the London Consortium aims to encourage students to become involved in the other activities of these institutions. Student initiative is vitally important here, and has proved to be hugely successful in the past. A regular Events and Development meeting is held where students are invited to submit proposals for discussion among other students and faculty members. Previous students have been involved in the conception and organisation of major multimedia art events at Tate, talks and discussions at the ICA, and large-scale conferences at Birkbeck, Tate and the ICA, to give but a few examples. The relationships between the constituent bodies of the London Consortium are fluid and always evolving, and students are invited to be creative about potential collaborations between the institutions.

Q: How do I get a reference for my application?

A: If you have been out of higher education for a long time or for any other reason find it difficult to find someone to write an academic reference for you, it need not jeopardise your application. Usually a reference from an employer or other responsible person should be acceptable. If in doubt, contact the Admissions Tutor who can offer further advice.

Q: What kind of sample work is expected with the application?

A: The Consortium understands that applicants may have been out of higher education for some years, and may therefore not have any recent examples of academic work. If this is the case, we are happy to accept either some old examples of academic work, or more recent samples of non-academic writing.

Q: How are the courses taught and assessed?

A: The core courses in the first year are taught by seminars led by two or sometimes three members of the faculty. Generally, though not always, the first part of the seminar will comprise a lecture by one of the course leaders, which is then followed by a discussion. Some courses may require students to attend screenings before the seminar, and trips – for example to the Tate archive or the Tate store – often form an element of the teaching.

Q: How does the London Consortium differ from a conventional university?

A: The London Consortium differs from a conventional university both in its constitution and in its educational approach. The fact that it is partly composed of non-academic cultural institutions is of fundamental importance. With this comes an outward-looking approach to academic work, an awareness of the need to engage with other worlds and publics outside the academy. This is partly achieved through the involvement of students and faculty with cultural institutions, which allow them to address a wider non-academic audience. This also inflects the particular approach to teaching and research that the London Consortium aims to foster. Although multidisciplinary is a buzzword often heard in the corridors of more traditional departments, the Consortium believes that its unique approach offers students a genuinely multidisciplinary environment. The faculty – because it is drawn from a wide variety of disciplinary contexts – boast a range of disciplinary specialisms that is unrivalled in any conventional department. Creating a dialogue between disciplines, and not simply abolishing them, is key.

Q: What is the typical London Consortium student?

A: One of the refreshing things about postgraduate study at the London Consortium is the diversity of the student body. Students have often worked in a wide variety of different professional contexts, often all over the world, a fact which adds enormously to the experience of studying here. Many have engaged in cultural production as artists, photographers, architects and so on. Those with more conventional academic backgrounds have often supplemented their academic work with forays into the cultural sector. Above all, the typical London Consortium student is intellectually curious and seeks outlets for that curiosity that are not exclusively academic.

Q: What is ‘Humanities and Cultural Studies?’

A: Broadly, the Consortium is concerned with the study of cultural forms and processes. However, the specific history of Cultural Studies in Britain and the US gives it a signification which differs from the approach of the Consortium in some respects. The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham – which was where the subject established itself in Britain – saw Cultural Studies as exclusively the study of contemporary culture, as the centre’s name suggested. As the Consortium’s core courses show, a different attitude is taken here, and – while many students do work on contemporary culture – the study of other historical periods is actively encouraged. As always, care is taken that students working on older historical periods have a supervisory team with the appropriate disciplinary expertise. The recent addition of the Science Museum – with its emphasis on the historical study of science – to our list of participating institutions is perhaps indicative of the kind of cultural studies that is practiced here. The Consortium’s conception of multidisciplinary Cultural Studies and Humanities is intended not to ignore the disciplines, but to engage fully with them.

Q: Are there opportunities to gain teaching experience while studying towards a London Consortium PhD?

A: Unlike a conventional academic department, the London Consortium has no undergraduate body, and there is therefore no direct opportunity for PhD students to teach here. Most students who wish to, however, have gained at least some experience of teaching by the time they submit their theses. It is often possible to do some undergraduate teaching at Birkbeck College in a variety of different departmental settings. There is no shortage of opportunities for teaching in London, and we are often able to recommend students as teachers at the many universities and colleges in London. Many students have found teaching work in American Universities’ London-based study abroad centres, which often allow their teachers a level of independence and flexibility which is not normally accorded to a sessional lecturer in the British system. Others have taught courses for Birkbeck’s Faculty of Lifelong Learning, which runs courses throughout London. Students have also devised and run courses for Tate.

Q: What kinds of careers do graduates of the London Consortium tend to pursue after leaving?

A: While many of our graduates have gone on to have very successful academic careers, it is also true that a graduate degree at the London Consortium opens a number of doors that a conventional academic qualification does not. Perhaps because of the unique quality of the taught courses, which frequently engage with the activities of cultural institutions, MRes students often go on to work in the cultural sector in a wide variety of capacities – as curators, administrators, consultants and in galleries and other institutions. Some have worked in government agencies such as the Arts Council or the British Council, others in institutions such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. PhD graduates are increasingly in demand in the arts, and the outward-looking approach to academic research advocated by the London Consortium is attractive to employers in this sector. Inside academia, Consortium graduates have excelled and are to be found working in some of the very best universities worldwide.

Q: What kinds of academic job can I expect to get with a multidisciplinary PhD?

A: The vast majority of the university system, both in Britain and abroad, is organised into departments along disciplinary lines, and research and teaching is conducted accordingly. Although the Consortium exists to foster and support multidisciplinary research, our principle of respect for the distinctive strengths of different disciplines and our system of supervision are intended to ensure that students’ research trajectories do not preclude them from teaching in a more traditional disciplinary context. When considering an academic career, students are advised to think carefully about what kind of department might best accommodate their research interests. The aim is that a multidisciplinary doctorate should improve prospects for employment, and not diminish them.