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Why choose this programme

At the Surrey Institute of Education, our aim is to produce the next generation of researchers, ready to address the complex challenges in higher education, and help shape higher education policy and practice at local, national and international levels.

The Institute is one of the largest institutions in the UK dedicated to multidisciplinary research solely within higher education.

We’ve secured research grants from a variety of funders, including the British Academy, the Australia Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Office for Students (OfS), the Leverhulme Trust, the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) and the Wellcome Trust.

You’ll benefit from our vibrant research culture and you’ll work alongside leading academics who are at the forefront of their respective fields, giving you access to expertise in a range of areas of higher education.

What you will study

Our PhD is research-based, so you’ll spend most of your time developing a research question, conducting original research, analysing your results and writing up your findings, all under the guidance of your project supervisors. We’ll also give you tailored research methods training through online and face-to-face tutorials.

Current students are researching topics including:

Internationalisation of higher education: Chinese language learning in Pakistan.
Promoting English foreign language students’ willingness to communicate through teacher classroom behaviour and strategies in the Saudi context.
Challenges to teaching values: Exploring the effect of changing national context on the professional identity of international academics teaching in UK universities.
Students’ experiences: Neoliberal expectations and students’ mental health in British higher education.
Enhancing EFL students’ feedback literacy in China’s application-oriented universities.