Liverpool,
United Kingdom
Type
Public
Degrees offered
Bachelor's Degree
PhD/MPhil Music in Liverpool United Kingdom | University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
|
Liverpool United Kingdom
Visit institution website
for more information
Qualification
Doctor of Philosophy
Languages
English
Delivery Mode
On-Campus
Tuition (2025)
GBP
21,850
(c. USD29,695.46)
Attendance
Full-time
Full-time Duration
36 months
The Department leads in contemporary research and advanced teaching, covering diverse musical genres and analytical viewpoints. Our faculty and students engage in pioneering, globally acclaimed studies spanning 19th-century classical compositions to video game soundtracks. We host the Institute of Popular Music (IPM), the world's first dedicated academic hub for popular music studies, along with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Composition and Technology (ICCaT), which investigates the convergence of musical creation, technology, performance, and auditory perception. Located in a UNESCO-designated Music City brimming with cultural institutions and events, our doctoral candidates can both research and actively engage with the local creative sector.
In this dynamic department within a world-famous musical hub, our faculty and graduate students explore an extensive range of subjects through multiple scholarly lenses. Our internationally recognized expertise spans critical musicology, popular music research, composition, music cognition, and cultural music studies. We especially encourage research proposals aligned with our specialists' focus areas, such as:
Music business ecosystems
Analytical approaches (particularly examining aesthetics, psychoanalytic theory, emotional responses, and popular music)
Soundtracks for visual media (film, television, gaming, and music videos)
Critical frameworks (including gender, racial, ethnic, and diaspora studies)
Cultural preservation and historical contexts
Global music traditions
Creative composition (especially technology-integrated works)
Digital innovations in music
Cultural anthropology and music ethnography
Jazz scholarship
Cognitive and behavioral music studies
Destination of Study
Subjects of Study
Language Requirements
English
IELTS 7.0
Qualification Requirements
Research degrees (MPhil, PhD) may be taken either full-time (one year for MPhil, three years for PhD) or part-time (two and six years, respectively). The normal entrance requirement is an undergraduate degree of at least 2:1 (upper second) standard. We would normally consider a taught Masters level qualification to be an important precursor to research. All applicants for a research degree should send an outline of their proposed topic and a sample of their written academic work with their application. In general, we would expect applications for September entry to be received by 15 May, and wherever possible, we encourage students to begin studies in September.
Applicants with an undergraduate degree in Music or other relevant subjects (including joint-honours degrees with another subject) are encouraged to apply. The normal expectation is at least a 2:1. All applicants will normally be interviewed and we shall look at candidates not simply in the light of conventional profiles, but with regard to individual qualities. Hence, students with first degrees obtained from music conservatories (both from EU and Overseas institutions) and mature students with non-traditional backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
IELTS Academic requirement - SELT and non-SELT Overall 7.0 no band below 6.5
TOEFL iBT requirement Minimum 100 overall with L 21 R 21 W 21 and S 23
C1 Advanced CAE requirement Overall 185 with no less than 176 in any paper
Applicants with an undergraduate degree in Music or other relevant subjects (including joint-honours degrees with another subject) are encouraged to apply. The normal expectation is at least a 2:1. All applicants will normally be interviewed and we shall look at candidates not simply in the light of conventional profiles, but with regard to individual qualities. Hence, students with first degrees obtained from music conservatories (both from EU and Overseas institutions) and mature students with non-traditional backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
IELTS Academic requirement - SELT and non-SELT Overall 7.0 no band below 6.5
TOEFL iBT requirement Minimum 100 overall with L 21 R 21 W 21 and S 23
C1 Advanced CAE requirement Overall 185 with no less than 176 in any paper
Tuition
GBP
21,850