History at Birkbeck was ranked sixth in the UK for the percentage of our research deemed world-leading or internationally excellent in the most recent Research Excellence Framework. 94% of our eligible staff submitted research and we achieved 100% for a research environment supporting world-leading and internationally excellent research. Our research areas include: Early and Later Prehistory, Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Roman Republican archaeology; Roman provincial archaeology; and late antique and early medieval archaeology, with a focus on the eastern Mediterranean and western Indian Ocean. Key specialisms include: archaeology of human evolution, archaeology of prehistoric architecture, archaeology of urban settlement, archaeology of cult and ritual, death and burial, port archaeology, social archaeology, archaeology and photography, attitudes to the past, post-colonialism and archaeology, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies in history and archaeology.

A research degree offers you the opportunity to acquire a highly advanced set of conceptual skills developed in the pursuit of new knowledge, which can be applied within or beyond an academic or scholarly context. Research training in any academic discipline helps to channel creativity into critical innovatory reasoning. The legitimate authority of original, independent research depends upon persuasive analytical arguments supported by critically evaluated evidence.

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck.

This programme is also available via distance learning, which makes it ideal if your work, family or personal commitments make coming into Birkbeck difficult, if you are living in another country, or if you live near an archive, museum or site that is central to your research. You can conduct all of your supervisions via other virtual meeting software. You will have to visit the main Birkbeck campus in Bloomsbury, central London at the end of your first year (full-time students) or your second year (part-time students), during MPhil/PhD Induction Week. You will also need to visit London for your upgrade from MPhil and to present a paper (these may be scheduled to coincide), and you will also usually need to be present in London for your PhD viva, at the end of your programme.

• Birkbeck’s research excellence was confirmed in the most recent Research Excellence Framework, which placed Birkbeck 30th in the UK for research, with 73% of our research rated world-leading or internationally excellent.
• The Department of History, Classics and Archaeology works closely with staff at the British Museum and the British School at Rome, as well as with archaeological superintendents in Italy, and can give advice about summer schools in both Athens and Rome.
• This programme is also available via distance learning, allowing you to study outside London.