Postgraduate research degrees
As a University of Reading student you will be studying at one of the UK’s top research intensive universities. We are highly regarded, nationally and internationally, for the quality of our research, and we are committed to ensuring that our postgraduate research students benefit from our outstanding research environment. We are also committed to ensuring that our students have good supervision and support, and this is reflected in our very high submission rates and subsequent post-graduate employment rates.
Our research excellence extends across a broad range of disciplines in the life sciences, environmental & physical sciences, economics, business & social sciences, and arts & humanities. To strengthen our research further, we have identified a number of areas of interdisciplinary research where we have particular strength and can make a significant contribution towards understanding and alleviating some of society’s major challenges. Examples of these are shown under our Research Priorities. Many of these areas have exciting PhD opportunities.
Because of our long-standing and deeply-rooted involvement with the research and training aspirations of numerous other countries, the University of Reading attracts many International students from across the world and has many alumni who retain their links with the University and help to maintain an international focus to our research.
We enjoy great success in bidding for research funding, with our winning over £35million of new research grants and contracts in the past financial year. This funding complements our strong QR income from HEFCE that reflects our excellent performance in past Research Assessment Exercises (RAE). The RAE 2008 results confirm the standing of the University of Reading as a research-intensive university.
Published in December 2008, the outcomes recognise over 87% of the university's research to be of international standing. The work of over 600 University of Reading research active staff was submitted to the Higher Education Funding Council for England for the RAE (88% of our eligible staff), demonstrating the breadth and quality of research across the university. Government, industry and commerce, the EU, UK charities and research councils are among those that benefit from our expertise.
Find out more about postgraduate research in different subject areas: