Guidelines for application

Before completing the application form, please study these guidelines.

Preparing a doctoral proposal is a lengthy and time-consuming process. As well as the considerable amount of time you will have already spent thinking about your proposed topic, you will need to have begun to locate and study the most important source materials concerning your topic.

Because this is a practice-as-research doctorate, you must first and foremost demonstrate that you are a highly accomplished practitioner in some aspect of the arts and/or design. In this initial application, the portfolio that you supply and the details of practical activity provided in your curriculum vitae will provide the evidence for this. If your application is approved to go forward to the entrance examination committee, you will also be expected to give a presentation of your creative work in your atelier/design studio or in an exhibition.

Section 2 of the application form is where you need to set out the ideas behind your research proposal as clearly as possible. In assessing your response to section 2, the advisory group will be looking for evidence that your ideas are already quite well-formed and that you have begun to place your own contribution within the context of existing research or innovative practice. You will need to demonstrate a strong sense of intellectual curiosity and be able to justify why you think there is a need for your study.

As well as the points above, the advisory group will also consider whether your proposal is one that teaching staff within the PhDArts team would be well-placed to supervise and whether the supervisor and tutors (artists, designers, academic tutors) whom you suggest in section 4 of your application are appropriate and likely to be available to work with you.

The PhDArts programme aims to encourage research that is rooted in practice – commonly referred to as practice-as-research. You should be aware that there is no single, universally accepted definition of practice-as-research, whether in arts or in other creative disciplines. As a doctoral student engaging in practice-as-research, you will be adding to the body of work that helps to define what practice-as-research is. However, the PhDArts team has adopted a working definition of practice-as-research which you should consider carefully when writing section 2 of your application (you will find that the guidance on structuring your description mirrors this definition quite closely).

Here is the definition:

‘Practice-as-research, as applied to arts, is research in-and-through artistic practice and design (for example: fine arts, audiovisual art, design, interior architecture, hybrid forms and interdisciplinary work) where the researcher’s own practice and critical engagement are integral to the research subject, processes and outcomes. In a doctorate embodying practice-as-research, the researcher must therefore demonstrate a high level of artistic creativity, imagination and skill in order for the doctorate to make a substantial and original contribution to knowledge, understanding and art practice.’

Your application must be written in English.

Do not exceed the maximum number of words where these are stated.

Use a clear font size that is compact but easy to read.

Please submit three printed and one electronic version of your application form, plus the supporting material requested, to one of the participating institutions (for addresses, see below). Copies will then be distributed to the participating institutions of PhDArts for consideration.

An Advisory Group, with representatives from the Royal Academy of Art The Hague and Leiden University (Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) will make an initial evaluation of your application. If the Advisory Group feels that your application may go forward directly to the entrance examination committee, you may be given the opportunity to make some minor revisions to it. These must be completed and the application resubmitted by the deadlines indicated in the section on the admission procedure.

Even if the advisory group does not feel that your application is ready to go forward immediately, it may still believe that you have the potential to be a successful doctoral student, given some further development. If this is the case, the feedback you receive may include recommendations as to further study that you should consider undertaking prior to re-applying. If you choose to follow this advice, it should improve your chances of success but you should not assume that following the recommendations will automatically mean that you are accepted at your next attempt.

As part of the information required in the pages that follow, we ask for details of your gender, date of birth, etc. This information is of value to us statistically but will not in any way be used to influence whether or not your application is accepted. The PhDArts programme operates within a non-discriminatory, equal-opportunities ethos. Whatever the outcome of your application, you should feel confident that it has been assessed purely on its merits and without reference to any extraneous factors.

In a similar way, the PhDArts programme respects issues of data protection and freedom of information. Personal information held about you will be treated confidentially and you will have all statutory rights of access, on request, to all such information.

As a guide to you, the original shared ‘Dublin’ Descriptors of the 3rd cycle are set out here.

Original Shared ‘Dublin’ Descriptors

Qualifications that signify completion of the 3rd cycle are awarded to students who:

1. Have demonstrated a systematic understanding of a field of study and mastery of the skills and methods of research associated with that field.
2. Have demonstrated the ability to conceive, design, implement and adapt a substantial process of research with scholarly integrity.
3. Have made a contribution through original research that extends the frontier of knowledge by developing a substantial body of work, some of which merits national or international refereed publication.
4. Are capable of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
5. Can communicate with their peers, the larger scholarly community and with society in general about their areas of expertise.
6. Can be expected to be able to promote, within academic and professional contexts, technological, social or cultural advancement in a knowledge based society.

Glossary (from the Original Shared ‘Dublin’ Descriptors)

1. The word professional is used in the descriptors in its broadest sense, relating to those attributes relevant to undertaking work or a vocation and that involves the application of some aspects of advanced learning. It is not used with regard to those specific requirements relating to regulated professions. The latter may be identified with the profile/specification.
2. The word competence is used in the descriptors in its broadest sense, allowing for gradation of abilities or skills. It is not used in the narrower sense identified solely on the basis of a yes/no assessment.
3. The word research is used to cover a wide variety of activities, with the context often related to a field of study; the term is used here to represent a careful study or investigation based on a systematic understanding and critical awareness of knowledge. The word is used in an inclusive way to accommodate the range of activities that support original and innovative work in the whole range of academic, professional and technological fields, including the humanities, and traditional, performing, and other creative arts. It is not used in any limited or restricted sense, or relating solely to a traditional ‘scientific method’.

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