New research opportunities in the Arts and Humanities

RESEARCH students enrolling on Arts and Humanities subjects at Manchester Metropolitan are to get more opportunities for research council funding.

MMU is a member of the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership which has been awarded £14 million by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for around 200 PhD studentships.

Alongside MMU in the Partnership are the Universities of Manchester (lead partner), Keele, Lancaster, Liverpool, Salford and the Royal Northern College of Music.

The partnership will offer postgraduate studentships and training across the full range of the AHRC’s disciplines - Art, Design and Architecture; Cultural Studies; English and Creative writing, and for the first time in History; Philosophy; Media and Communication; Theatre, Dance and Performance; Archaeology, Arts Management, Library and Museum Studies.

Cross-university support

The scheme also encourages the joint supervision of students, and the sharing sharing of expertise and resources from the seven institutions, and will provide support for student events, conferences and the fostering of peer support networks.

As part of the scheme, the partnership will also fund placement opportunities and additional skills training, working alongside museums, galleries, cultural organisations and businesses. Partners include:

• The BBC
• Tate Liverpool
• Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT)
• FutureEverything
• Home
• Museum of Science and Industry
• Opera North
• Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archives & Heritage Service.

The NWC is one of eleven new Doctoral Training Partnerships and seven Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) to deliver postgraduate supervision, training and skills development from 2014, announced by the AHRC today (Tuesday 15 October).

Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive of the AHRC, said: “This is an important step forward in delivering the best possible training and support for postgraduate students in the arts and humanities, and in developing a collaborative approach which pools expertise and expands horizons for postgraduate researchers.

World class

Professor Berthold Schoene, Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Science Research, said: “In 2009, when the first round of AHRC Block Grant Partnerships for postgraduate funding was announced, MMU was one of only four post-1992 institutions (out of a total of 48 universities) to be awarded such funding.

“To be invited four years later to join the North West Consortium, and to win, is strongest confirmation yet of the excellence of our research capacity and supervisory expertise. The award testifies to the outstanding quality of the postgraduate student experience delivered by the Arts and Humanities at MMU. It signals that what we have to offer is truly world-class.”