Integrated PhD in Hospitality and Tourism

The Integrated PhD is completed in two sequential stages.

Stage one: Core research training, comprises approximately nine months of full-time study including eight taught compulsory modules covering research methods, researcher skills and subject-specific knowledge and understanding:

• Foundations of Management Research
• Fundamentals of Management Research Methods
• Field Methods
• Principles of Survey Design
• Documentary Analysis and Online Research
• Quantitative Research Methods
• Developing the Professional Researcher
• New Directions in Management Research

This stage culminates in the development and submission of a detailed research proposal for your PhD.

On satisfactory completion (normally at least at merit level) you will progress to doctoral research (Stage two).

Stage two: Doctoral research comprises approximately three years of full time study during which you will undertake a structured, supervised programme of scholarly research into one of our areas of research strength.

Your research will make an original contribution to knowledge and be of a standard appropriate for publication in high-quality refereed journals.

During this time you will also undertake additional advanced specialist training which will be determined with your supervisor and dependent upon your research development needs.  

We are part of the prestigious ESRC-funded South East Doctoral Training Centre and, alongside this and the training provided by the University, we provide specific advanced training for our PhD students researchers in our own Schools.  These include a range of modules focused on developing the practical skills required for subsequent careers.

Our PhD researchers also organise and run their own annual research conference and attend research group seminars.

At the end of your time as a PhD researcher at Surrey you will be expected to submit an extended thesis for examination. This thesis will demonstrate your ability to make an original contribution to knowledge.  

You will also be expected to answer questions on your thesis and your research in a viva voce examination.

For an Integrated PhD, our expectation is that you will hold a Masters degree at a minimum of merit level in business or management or a relevant discipline, which includes a substantive dissertation element and is from an approved university. If you do not hold such a degree, you may be admitted, providing you hold an upper second (2.1) Bachelors degree from an approved university or a professional or other qualification deemed by the University to be appropriate, where it includes a substantive dissertation element. 

English language requirements

IELTS minimum overall: 7.0

Fees

Funding

Students may be considered for a postgraduate research studentship to cover Home (UK) and European Union fees and an annual stipend. Funding is available through the prestigious ESRC-funded South East DTC, which currently supports two students within the Faculty. 

Surrey’s well-established postgraduate conference culture has brought with it a number of awards and prizes. The annual Faculty Postgraduate Research Conference awards a prize for Best Paper and, in similar fashion, the University’s Postgraduate Research Conference recognises Best Oral Presentation and Best Poster Presentation. In addition, the University makes an award of Postgraduate Research Student of the Year in each faculty.