Marjon expands its PhD programme to include Business and Social Science research

Released: 28.04.21

Plymouth Marjon University, already an established research centre in education, health and sport, has expanded its Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) offering to include business and social sciences.

The new PhD opportunities now available include sustainability, business, entrepreneurship, sociology, criminology, psychology, international relations, community studies and social policy.

Postgraduate research coordinator for Business and Social Science, Dr Gregory Borne, commented: “Marjon has a wealth of expertise and experienced research supervisors across the business and social science subjects. It’s fabulous that we’re now able to expand our offering.

"We’ll be offering training and opportunities for students to showcase their research via our local, national and international connections.

"In addition, PhD students can join our new Sustainability, Creativity and Innovation (SCION) research group. The group brings together theories of communication and behaviour change to tackle the big sustainability issues. It links expert researchers with community and business partners to share knowledge and solve problems related to sustainability. It’s a fascinating time to be a researcher here.”

In the recent Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES, 2020) 100% of postgraduate research students agreed ‘other than my supervisor(s), I know who to approach if I am concerned about any aspect of my degree programme’, compared to a 79% sector average. Likewise 100% agreed ‘there is adequate provision of computing resources and facilities’ compared to a 79% sector average. These results are driven by the first-rate supervision and wider support network at Marjon.

In addition, Marjon is now an established university for research, having recently made its first submissions to both the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and the Research Excellence Framework (REF). This demonstrates a strong research culture that feeds into national research frameworks.

PhD candidate and SCION member Katie Major said: “Marjon has been incredibly supportive of my PhD project, providing a friendly research environment and offering a range of training opportunities. I’m enjoying the opportunity to pursue my research interests in consumer behaviour change and sustainable food consumption, which are critical to global sustainable development”.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michelle Jones, who is responsible for the University’s research strategy added: “Marjon has made great strides forward developing our inclusive and vibrant research culture, we now have a growing PhD community, four interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange groups and a vibrant programme of researcher events and training opportunities.

"We take great pride in working as a community and it’s really exciting to be able to expand our PhD provision into the business and social science arena.”

To find out more about research in business and social science please email Dr Gregory Borne at gborne@marjon.ac.uk.