PhD Economics at Aberystwyth University

At Aberystwyth School of Management and Business, we attract professionals from around the world who aspire to the challenges of the global business community. Our dynamic learning environment is structured to support your professional development. Our curriculum draws on the expertise of professionals throughout business and industry.

The School of Management and Business has a growing and thriving body of research students. We’re always pleased to welcome new applications for research study.

The School of Management and Business (SMB) is research-led, reflecting the values of Aberystwyth University. At SMB we're committed to developing research that is unique, relevant and applicable to a management, business or finance environment.

We're also committed to ensuring that our research activities and publications are of international importance, offering business, management and finance solutions that can be applied across sectors, cultures and discipline areas.

We have an excellent team of academics offering a broad, collective expertise, gained from both professional experience and academic research. Our academics have supervised a wide range of post-doctoral research papers and have used their research knowledge to develop exclusive and distinctive business, management and finance programmes to the benefit of all our undergraduate and postgraduate students. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (2014) assessment the university was placed in the top 50 institutions for research power and intensity. It submitted 77% of eligible staff and 95% of the university's research was of an internationally recognised standard.

Our Staff
Students at the Aberystwyth University School of Management and Business are taught by lecturers and other teaching staff who are active researchers and expert practitioners in their chosen subject area.

Over 75% of full time members of teaching staff are qualified to PhD level. Most are currently research active, meaning that students benefit from being taught ‘new’ knowledge in their chosen field of study as well as recognized literature. The School also employs part-time and full time staff devoted purely to teaching. Many part-time staff combine teaching duties with consultancy and business activities, ensuring that students have access not only to up to date research but the latest applied knowledge.

The research expertise represented at our school has enabled us to develop excellent partnerships with companies in business, industry and commerce and a global network of academic contacts and partnerships with other academic institutions.

In addition to the broad range of research interests represented by our academic faculty, we have attracted recognition for specific areas of research expertise, represented by our research centres:

Centre for Local and Regional Enterprise
Leadership & Management Wales
Centre for International Business and Public Policy (CIBaPP)
Research Students
Supervision

As a research student at Aberystwyth you’ll be allocated to a supervision team of two academic members of staff at Aberystwyth. The main supervisor is usually a senior academic with considerable research experience in your proposed field of study. The appropriateness of the match between student and supervisor is an important element in the success of any PhD programme.

Facilities and Resources

The School of Management and Business provides all research students with a shared office and access to networked IT facilities. SMB maintains a subscription to Data Stream and supports major statistical and econometric software packages. We warmly encourage all our research students to attend our weekly research seminar and the occasional research away-days. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in the Aberystwyth University subject colloquia which meets each year in early spring.

Research Techniques

Unless you’ve already completed a Masters course with a recognised research training element, you’ll be required to complete the Social Science Research Training Programme at SMB. This will enable you to develop excellence in research techniques in order to successfully complete your PhD.