Expand+Entry Requirements

A research degree offers you the opportunity to develop your research skills and prove yourself as a researcher. Queen's is committed to the enhancement of research training and teaching and offers postgraduate research opportun...

Hide-Entry Requirements

A research degree offers you the opportunity to develop your research skills and prove yourself as a researcher. Queen's is committed to the enhancement of research training and teaching and offers postgraduate research opportunities across all fields of study. The following postgraduate research study routes for this subject area are:

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD)

Entrance Requirements

The minimum academic requirement for admission to a research degree programme is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK or ROI HE provider, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University. Further information can be obtained by contacting the School.

International Qualifications

For information on international qualification equivalents please select Your Country from the list on our International Students website.

English Language Requirements

International students wishing to apply to Queen's University Belfast (and for whom English is not their first language), must be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their programme of study or research. Non-EEA nationals must also satisfy UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) immigration requirements for English language for visa purposes. Evidence of an IELTS* score of 6.5, with not less than 5.5 in any component is required (*taken within the last 2 years).

For more information on English Language requirements for EEA and non-EEA nationals see: go.qub.ac.uk/EnglishLanguageReqs

If you need to improve your English language skills before you enter this programme, our partnerINTO Queen's University Belfast offers a range of English language courses. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability to entry to this programme.

English for University Study - an intensive English language and study skills course for successful university study at degree level

Pre-sessional English - a short intensive academic English course for students starting a degree programme at Queen's University Belfast and who need to improve their English

Expand+Special Features

•History at Queen's works closely with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, one of the leading archival depositories in Ireland and Britain.

•The University's Special Collections also hold important archival and printe...

Hide-Special Features

•History at Queen's works closely with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, one of the leading archival depositories in Ireland and Britain.

•The University's Special Collections also hold important archival and printed primary materials, especially for the history of Ireland, Great Britain and the British Empire, and China.

•Significant deposits of modern American, Soviet and British military archival materials have recently been acquired.

•History has a number of collaborative research initiatives with the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's and with other universities in Ireland, the UK and abroad, including Boston Collegeand Vanderbilt.

•We also host annual events including the Wiles Lectures on the history of civilisation and regular conferences on a range of historical themes. A weekly postgraduate seminar is run and organised by research students.

•The research profile produced by the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) graded 84 per cent of our research activity as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent', confirming the School's reputation as an internationally-leading research centre and one of the top 20 UK history departments.

Expand+Research Strengths

•Queen's is one of the premier research centres globally for Irish History from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. Within this field we have notable strengths in the history of religion, gender, Irish-British relations, eco...

Hide-Research Strengths

•Queen's is one of the premier research centres globally for Irish History from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. Within this field we have notable strengths in the history of religion, gender, Irish-British relations, economic development and thought, political ideologies, and in the history of modern Ulster.

•Our other particular areas of historical expertise are in the United States (especially the Southern states since c1800), early-modern British intellectual and religious history, British espionage, the British Empire since c1800, British-Chinese relations and twentieth-century Britain and Europe.