PhD Music (Composition) / Overview

Year of entry: 2025

Degree awarded
Doctor of Philosophy
Duration
3 years [full-time], 6 years [part-time]
Entry requirements
  • Bachelor's (Honours) degree at 2:1 or above (or overseas equivalent); and
  • Master's degree in a relevant subject – with an overall average of 65% or above, a minimum mark of 65% in your dissertation and no mark below 55% (or overseas equivalent) 

Full entry requirements

How to apply

Apply online

Please ensure you include all required supporting documents at the time of submission, as incomplete applications may not be considered.

Application Deadlines

For consideration in internal funding competitions, you must submit your completed application by  13 January 2025.

If you are applying for or have secured external funding (for example, from an employer or government) or are self–funding, you must submit your application before the below deadlines to be considered. You will not be able to apply after these dates have passed.

  • For September 2025 entry:  30 June 2025
  • For January 2026 entry:  30 September 2025

Programme options

Full-time Part-time Full-time distance learning Part-time distance learning
PhD Y Y N N

Attend an open day

Programme overview

  • The UK's Number 1 Department for Music (Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024).
  • Showcase your work through concert performances, collaborations, and workshops with visiting artists.
  • Become part of Manchester's lively and diverse creative community with access to our state-of-the-art facilities.

Open days

Our virtual week took place October 2024 – to find out about future sessions to explore postgraduate research opportunities across the university, please visit our study fairs and events page.

To stay up-to-date with future events and recorded sessions in the Faculty of Humanities, please join our postgraduate research .

Fees

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2025, the tuition fees are as follows:

  • PhD (full-time)
    UK students (per annum): TBC
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £22,000
  • PhD (part-time)
    UK students (per annum): TBC
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £11,000

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

Please note for the majority of projects where experimentation requires further resource: higher fee bands (where quoted) will be charged rather than the base rate for supervision, administration and computational costs. The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive and, therefore, you will not be required to pay any additional bench fees or administration costs.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of the course for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for International students, for the course duration at the year of entry). For general fees information please visit: . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your project.

Scholarships/sponsorships

There are a range of scholarships, studentships and awards to support both UK and overseas postgraduate researchers, details of which can be found via the links below.

To apply for University of Manchester funding, you must indicate in your application the competitions for which you wish to be considered. The deadline for most internal competitions, including AHRC NWCDTP and School of Arts, Languages and Cultures studentships is 13 January 2025 .

All external funding competitions have a specified deadline for submitting the funding application form and a separate (earlier) deadline for submitting the online programme application form, both of which will be stated in the funding competition details below.

You will need to be nominated by your proposed supervisor for a number of our scholarships. Therefore, we highly recommend you discuss these funding opportunities with your supervisor first, so they can advise on your suitability and ensure you meet nomination deadlines.

For more funding information, visit our  or use our   to search for scholarships, studentships and awards you may be eligible for.

Contact details

School/Faculty
Contact name
Humanities Doctoral Academy Admissions
Email
Website
School/Faculty

See:

Programmes in related subject areas

Use the links below to view lists of programmes in related subject areas.

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