The PhD course is intended for students who already have full training at undergraduate and/or Master's level in the methods and perspectives of Social/Cultural Anthropology. It includes intensive fieldwork training in the first year, a research period of 12 to 18 months, and a further year for writing the thesis (a maximum of four years is allowed in total). Students work with the main Supervisor and a Faculty Advisor, who acts as a source of supplementary advice.

The PhD course begins with nine months of training in research issues and methods, culminating in the writing and submission of a fieldwork proposal. PhD students doing the pre-fieldwork course can expect to leave for field research at the end of their third term (June–July), subject to passing the fieldwork clearance interview.

Assessment

Thesis

A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words and is expected to be near that length. The word limit includes all footnotes, text, figures, tables and photographs, but excludes the bibliography, cited references and appendices. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits.