The study of people and societies at one of the United Kingdom's leading centres for the study of sociology. The Department is one of the leading centres for the study of sociology in the United Kingdom, providing nationally and internationally recognised training in social research and equipping postgraduate students with broad range of transferable skills. Students entering the PhD should have prior methods training at the postgraduate level. For students lacking this background, the Department offers a postgraduate MRes in Social Science, which may be taken over one year full-time or two years part-time. The MRes and PhD together constitute our ESRC-recognised 13 postgraduate research programme. The MRes can also be taken as a standalone degree. All full-time doctoral students are provided with fully networked personal computers and shared office space within the Department. Additionally, all postgraduate students have access to excellent central computing services and the full use of the University library, which is well stocked for sociology and related social sciences. Doctoral studies in The School of Social Science can be undertaken on a full or part time basis and we would be happy to discuss the feasibility of distance study which will depend on the nature of the research project.