Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management - PhD

Teaching

Teaching and assessment

You are required to write a thesis of the following lengths:

• 80,000 to 100,000 words for PhD
• 40 to 60,000 words for Master's

The Faculty Associate Dean (with responsibility for research programmes of study) can approve exceptions from these word lengths after taking the advice from subject experts on different conventions within a subject area.

• Regular review meetings with supervisor.
• Structured annual review, including presentation of findings to date, an informal but structured discussion with supervisor and advisor, submission of University of Kent progress report form.
• Submission of MA thesis (after 1 year), MPhil thesis (after 2 years) and/or PhD thesis (after 3 years) to at least one internal and an external examiner.
• Viva voce examination (optional for MPhil).

Careers

The KBS PhD programme is designed to provide thorough training for research careers in academia or industry. Our students generally take up academic appointments in UK or international higher education institutions or work in policy and industry settings.

Study support

Each research student is supported by a supervisory team (usually two members of academic staff) who give guidance about the nature of the research, the standard of work required, and about the relevant literature and sources that should be consulted.

Students meet with supervisors each month in-person to discuss the PhD project, talk about any aspect of the research, and agree upon a schedule of work. The co-supervisor provides additional input and ensures continuity.

Formal progression reviews are held at key points in your programme and each student participates in a mandatory research training programme.

All Kent Business School PhD students receive: 

• A laptop and access to the dedicated shared office spaces at both Canterbury and Medway campuses
• Funds for conference attendance and research expenses
• Research methods training
• Access to the library and more specialised resources include the School's Bloomberg Suites, the University High Performance Computing (HPC) services and databases available via the library
• Full access to the facilities of the Graduate and Researcher College

All first-year PhD students participate in a mandatory research training programme, including:

• Relevant research methods
• Theory of management and in specialist management topics related to your research
• Skills-based courses in areas such as statistics, computing, electronic literature searching and languages

In addition, students participate in School research seminars and postgraduate training events organised in the School and through the Graduate and Researcher College. PhD programmes are aligned to the School’s Research Groups and students will become members of these Groups, participating in Group activities.

PhD students with scholarships or part-time teaching within Kent Business School also take modules from the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education and receive a teaching qualification.

KBS students benefit from training and development opportunities made available through our membership of NATCOR, the ESRC’s South East Doctoral Training Centre, and the European Doctoral Programmes Association (EDAMBA).

Researcher Development Programme

Kent's Graduate School co-ordinates the Researcher Development Programme for research students, which includes workshops focused on research, specialist and transferable skills. The programme is mapped to the national Researcher Development Framework and covers a diverse range of topics, including subject-specific research skills, research management, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and teamworking, and career management skills.