Research

London School of Theology and Middlesex University jointly offer research supervision for the MPhil degree.

For an MPhil you need to offer a careful and critical investigation and evaluation of an approved topic, and demonstrate an understanding of the research methods appropriate to your chosen field.

Your thesis does not necessarily need to be ‘original’; however, it must offer a distinctive independent contribution to knowledge, including the ability to critique new ideas and a sense of proportion in evaluating evidence and scholarly interpretations which is ultimately worthy of publication.

While you would normally be expected to read the language of your primary sources for an MPhil, you would not be expected to engage with untranslated secondary literature.

London School of Theology has a large number of research supervisors covering a wide variety of research subjects.

From London School of Theology’s own Faculty, the research supervisors include:

William Atkinson, Jeremy Perigo, Conrad Gempf, Tony Lane, Graham McFarlane, Marvin Oxenham, Julie Robb, Graham Twelftree, Ekaterina Kozlova, John Dennis, Chloe Lynch.

This programme is available both full-time and part-time. Usually, full-time study will take 2 years and part-time study will take 3 years. It is expected that full-time students commit around 40 hours per week to study whilst part-time students will be expected to commit around 20 hours per week to study.

Students undertaking research from a distance are expected to fulfil a 2 weeks’ residency per annum if full time and one week per annum if part-time. New research students are also expected to attend a 3-day research induction which usually takes place at the start of October.

In normal circumstances students will be required to have at least a UK Masters level (or equivalent) theological degree.

For a North American Master’s degree, you should have a GPA of at least 3.8 for the MPhil.

Candidates registered for the MPhil only, and whose work proves to be of the appropriate standard, are entitled to transfer their registration to PhD (with the agreement of their supervisor(s), the Director of Research, and Middlesex University).

Applicants for whom English is not their first language must take the Secure English Language Test (SELT).

This programme is a collaborative research initiative between London School of Theology and Middlesex University.