Study Music PhD at University of Southampton in the UK, Music

What will I learn?

For over 60 years, the University of Southampton Department of Music has been a home for disciplinary innovation in composition, performance and all areas of music studies.You will be supported by a research community of around 30 postgraduate research students. Your research will be guided by primary supervisor and a team of co-supervisors, possibly drawn from across the University. You will be inspired and challenged in regular residencies, workshops and seminars by distinguished music scholars, performers and composers throughout the year. You will have ample opportunity to gain real-world experience, for example by participating the activities of the Centre for Music Education and Social Justice and the AHRC Hub for Public Engagement with Music Research .You will benefit from our network of international partners, from across Europe and around the world.Our performers and composers supervise practice-led research around a diverse range of musical genres from historically informed performance (taking advantage, for example, of our nationally important collection of historical keyboard instruments) to cutting-edge musical experiments on the frontiers of human creative interaction with machines.Graduates of our PhD programme go on to careers at universities in the UK and abroad. In the UK and Ireland they teach at Bristol, Durham, Southampton and Glasgow Universities, the National University of Ireland (Maynooth) and the Royal Northern College of Music, to name just a few. Others teach students of all ages and perform around the world. Some take up leading roles outside of academia. Whatever they do, they make use of the world-leading research training they received at Southampton.Main areas of researchWe welcome PhD proposals that intersect with our current research strengths, which include:community musiccompositioncreative music production/technology and sound artcultural economicsethnomusicology/social anthropology of musicgender/queer musicology and theoryGLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums)imperial and global music historymusic, AI and sustainabilitymusic education and social justicemusic theory and analysisopera studiesperformance (including early music/historical performance)

Which department am I in?

Music

Study options

Full Time (2 Years)

Tuition fees
£20,500.00 (US$ 26,474) per year
This is a fixed fee

*Price shown is for indicative purposes, please check with institution

Application deadline

01/07/2027

Start date

September 2027

Venue

Highfield Campus

University Road,

Southampton,

Hampshire,

SO17 1BJ, Southern England, United Kingdom

Entry requirements

For international students

You'll need to have both:

2:1 undergraduate honours degree in a related subject

master of art with merit in a related subject

You can still apply if you have an equivalent music qualification approved by us.

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

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About University of Southampton

Ranked in the global top 100 and UK top 15, the University of Southampton is a leading institution with an excellent reputation.

  • Global Top 100 university
  • Over 10,000 students from over 130 countries
  • Multiple award-winning careers service
  • Global No.1 business incubator (UBI Global)

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