Supervision

    The PhD Coordinator, Dr Mosca, will initially match successful PhD applicants with a primary supervisor. During the first year, the remaining two members of the supervisory team will be established as your research interests become clearer. The additional members of the supervisory team can be members of the department with similar or complementary research interests, or they can come from outside the department – either from another of Maynooth University’s departments or from another university.

    In general, an Economics PhD thesis comprises three papers of publishable quality. These papers can be linked by a common theme or be quite separate. The appointment of three-member supervisory teams supports this thesis structure, as members’ input can vary according to the paper being undertaken.
     
    PhD Programme Structure

    The first year of the PhD programme is typically dominated by taught coursework; taught coursework will continue into second year, and sometimes beyond, depending on the evolution of your research.

    By the end of the first year, you will be expected to have developed a thesis proposal and to have made some progress on a first thesis paper. In subsequent years, you refine this paper and begin work on the remaining two thesis papers.
     
    Taught Coursework

    All MU PhD students must take at least 30 credits of taught coursework during their PhD, of which at least 15 credits must be subject-specific and at least 15 credits must be in transferrable skills (such as research funding applications, grant management, employability and research ethics).

    For the PhD Economics, students are required to take our MSc Economics programme in the first year. As long as you achieve at least a 2.1 grade on average, including 2.1 grades in the core modules (Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Econometrics), you will be allowed to progress to the research component of your degree.* If you do not attain this high standard, you will instead complete either the MSc thesis and leave with an MSc Economics; or you may complete a more substantial research thesis and leave with an MLitt Economics.

    In addition to our MSc Economics modules, students may also be required to undertake additional relevant taught modules offered by our DRHEA partners in UCD and/or TCD or our Arqus partners abroad.
     
    Progression

    Beyond first year, progression from year to year will depend on having satisfied the department that sufficient progress has been made on the thesis. This decision will be made based on an annual (at least) seminar presentation to all members of department, in conjunction with the supervisory team.

    * If you already have a master’s in Economics and have performed at a sufficiently high level, the requirement to take some MSc modules may be waived.