Research Degree
The Department admits postgraduate students with research interests in fields relevant to faculty areas of expertise. Our PhD programme draws on a wide range of theories and perspectives from domains in linguistics and literature. Particular areas of research strength include: professional communication; healthcare communication; educational linguistics; multimodality and digital technologies; urban narratives; world literature; Inter-Asia cultural studies.
Entrance Requirements
For the University’s entrance requirements, see the Research Degree Programmes Admissions Handbook from the Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies: https://www.cityu.edu.hk/sgs/files/prospective/rpg/handbook.pdf.
In addition to the University’s minimum entrance requirements, the Department of English requires
- A TOEFL score of at least 109 (Internet); or
- An IELTS score of at least 7.5, with no module under 7.0.
If you have received a degree from an English-medium university, that might be taken as evidence that you satisfy this requirement. Exemption from the department’s English requirements will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Application Procedures
Submit your application online at https://www.cityu.edu.hk/pg/research-degree-programmes/steps-and-procedures .
In preparing your application you should consult English faculty staff list to see the research interests of staff and determine who your project would be a good fit for. Please include the name of a potential supervisor in your application.
Research Proposal
The proposal is an important part of the application. You should identify research questions worthy of careful, rigorous discovery-driven research. That is, you must be able to state a proposition (or a series of related propositions) worthy of detailed research and analysis.
The proposal should be written in English and include:
- a clear statement of the aims of the research and why it is a worthy and/or interesting topic;
- an outline of the research background of the topic, giving an overview of some current findings in the area. From this background material it should be clear to a reader what the research problem is, and what issues you wish to investigate;
- the methods you intend to apply to the research questions. For example, how you will collect your data, who might be the appropriate respondents, whether you will use an established database, or case studies, or experimental methods, or questionnaires, etc. It should be clear to a reader what methodology will be used, its source, and its appropriateness for the purpose of the investigation;
- a brief summary;
- a list of references cited in your proposal.
The proposal should be approximately ten single-spaced pages including references.
Programme Structure
The PhD degree in English consists of both coursework and independent research studies culminating in the submission of a thesis.
Coursework requirements
PhD students are required to fulfil a number of coursework requirements within their study period, amounting to 15 credit units, as well as a compulsory course on teaching and learning (1 credit unit). For more information, see
https://www.cityu.edu.hk/sgs/student/rpg/courses/courselist/en.
Thesis
PhD candidates are expected to submit an effectively organized and well-documented thesis on their research topic at the end of their study period for evaluation by a panel of expert internal and external examiners. A PhD thesis should identify issues that are important to the understanding of the chosen area of study, review the relevant theories and previous research, and complete a rigorously-designed study that makes an original contribution to knowledge in the chosen field of research.
For further details about fees and funding of our programme, please refer to the Research Degree Programmes Admissions Handbook from the Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies at https://www.cityu.edu.hk/sgs/files/prospective/rpg/handbook.pdf. For further details of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme and CityU PhD Studentship Scheme see https://cerg1.ugc.edu.hk/hkpfs/index.html).