The principal educational aim of the three-year PhD programme is to assist each student to acquire the research techniques, skills and knowledge that will enable them to make an original and significant contribution to scholarship, research or artistic practice in the discipline that is the focus of each individual's dissertation. Given the focus of the programme on individual research excellence, it is necessarily tailored to the research interests of the student and the expertise of their supervisor. By the end of the programme students should have acquired: knowledge of and expertise in the techniques and methods appropriate to their chosen subject of study; the ability to engage with both teaching and research at the highest level in the contemporary academic environment; a clear understanding of the scope and applicability of their research in broader contexts. PhD theses should not exceed 80,000 words excluding notes, appendices, and bibliographies, musical transcriptions and examples. Candidates whose work is practice-based may include as part of a doctoral submission either a portfolio of substantial musical compositions, or one or more recordings of their own musical performance(s).