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Design PhD

UK

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What will I learn?

Your Design PhD at Lancaster can focus on one of a wide range of topics within Design or on a research topic that crosses different disciplines. As a PhD student you will normally be supervised by a team of two supervisors who will ensure that you receive focused critical feedback and encouragement throughout the programme. In some cases the second supervisor will be based in a different discipline within the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), or a different department within the university in order to ensure that you have the most appropriate supervisory team for your chosen project.

Previously, we have supervised PhD projects on an wide variety of topics in areas such as design management, policy and leadership; urban design and future cities; speculative design, design fiction and design as rhetoric; user-centred and user-led design; design for health; design for ageing; design education; design theory; design for sustainability; design and traditional knowledge and practices; and human-computer interaction and digital fabrication. In the past, many of our Design PhD students have conducted field research in other parts of the UK and abroad, including the US, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand and China. We encourage our Design PhD students to develop their work into papers for presentation at international design conferences and for publication in academic journals.

You can take your Design PhD at Lancaster either in the standard format of a written thesis, or as a project that combines a written thesis with creative practical work. Many of our academic staff are engaged with practice-based research in the fields of design, art, theatre, and film and we have a dedicated team of technicians to support you as well as workshops, editing suites and technical resources for our students.

As a PhD student based in the LICA and part of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), you will be part of a multidisciplinary community of research students, able to participate in seminars, reading groups, conferences, and research training courses. We also offer opportunities to study for a certificate in higher education teaching.

Which department am I in?

Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts (LICA)

Study options

Full Time (3 years)

Tuition fees
£21,920.00 (23,88,320) per year
This is a fixed fee

*Price shown is for indicative purposes, please

Start date

October 2025

Venue

Lancaster University

Bailrigg,

Lancaster,

Lancashire,

LA1 4YW, NORTHERN ENGLAND, England

Entry requirements

For international students

Master’s Degree: Master’s degree or equivalent in an appropriate discipline. Undergraduate Degree: 2:1 (Hons) degree (UK or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline; We may also consider non-standard applicants. IELTS Academic test (UKVI approved or other centres) or IELTS Online with an overall score of at least 6.5, with a minimum of 6.0 in each element; or Pearson PTE Academic with a score of at least 58 and a minimum of 50 in each component of the test; or ToEFL IBT or ToEFL IBT Home Edition with an overall score of at least 87, with a minimum of 19 in reading, listening and speaking and 22 in writing.

*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.

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About Lancaster University

Lancaster University is highly ranked in both UK and international league tables and is home to students from over 120 countries.

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