Management Studies

Entry requirements

We will consider all applicants with 2:2 or above, or equivalent international qualifications. For some courses, there may be additional requirements which can be found on our website.

Months of entry

January, April, October

Course content

PhD Management Studies (at our Southend Campus) gives you the opportunity to interrogate issues surrounding the contemporary workplace and how these relate to wider society on a local and global level. This programme attracts students from a variety of backgrounds and nationalities, with wide ranging social science research interests. You can tailor your studies to a profession or sector of your choice and may choose to explore issues such as:

• marketing and brand management
• strategic management, including mergers and acquisitions
• the role of networks in the modern economy
• organisational power relations and leadership
• logistics and supply chains

You study at Essex Business School, the largest department at the University of Essex, at our Southend Campus. We are a business school with an international outlook. Our doctoral students join us from all over the world and we are committed to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). With us, you join the next generation of social scientists influencing business theory, policy and practice. You become part of a lively, international research community, challenging conventional wisdom to make organisations better places to do business.

You benefit from academic expertise across a range of business disciplines, from sustainability and leadership to identity and brand management. We offer a highly individualised PhD experience, where your supervisors will develop your professional skills and research expertise in your chosen area.

Our Strategy, Operations and Entrepreneurship Group, based at our Southend Campus, are a group of international researchers with an entrepreneurial focus. The group organises regular research seminars and events, giving you the chance to hear cutting-edge research and industry expertise, as well as the opportunity to network with scholars from the School and the wider academic community.

The Group’s research is multi-disciplinary and falls within two broad and interrelated streams – management science and entrepreneurship and SME management. Current research projects include exploring “Autism and the world of work” – looking at the challenges faced by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the workplace and how they can be offered better support and understanding; and “Accelerating women’s enterprise” – research in partnership with the Accelerating Women's Enterprise (AWE) project exploring the challenges and barriers faced by disadvantaged women entrepreneurs.

You can choose to study on a full-time or part-time basis, and we also offer an integrated (or 1+3) PhD Management Studies (at our Southend Campus) programme that provides a route to doctoral study in this area if you do not have a Masters degree, or only have limited research training. You may be eligible for a scholarship.