The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the VCA is a program of independent creative arts research, for which both traditional and practice-led PhD research modes are offered. The PhD involves a substantial piece of original and independent research, pursued under the guidance of Supervisors with expertise in your area of research interest. The normal length of a doctoral thesis is 80,000 - 100,000 words. In this degree, a PhD thesis may take the form of performance and/or corpus of creative work, plus a dissertation of 40,000 - 50,000 words which aims to address, elucidate and contextualise the work. The creative work may be in the form of, performance exhibition writing (poetry, fiction, script or other literary forms), film, video, multimedia, CD Rom or other new media technologies and modes of presentation. Entry into this degree requires an honours or masters degree with demonstrated evidence of a research component or equivalent. Entry to the PhD is determined by the merit of a research proposal and support material to the field of research (publications, performances, films, exhibitions, recitals etc). PhD graduate researchers become part of an active Faculty research culture which includes school based seminars, faculty research symposia and opportunities for funding to attend national and international conferences, symposia, performances, exhibitions, and other events at which they present research or creative work. Doctoral attributes Doctoral graduates will acquire the following qualities and skills: A demonstrated capacity to design, conduct and report sustained and original research The capacity to contextualise research within an international corpus of specialist knowledge Highly developed problem-solving abilities and flexibility of approach The ability to analyse critically within and across a changing disciplinary environment The capacity to disseminate the results of research and scholarship by oral and written communication to a variety of audiences An understanding of the relevance and value of their research to national and international communities of scholars and collaborators The PhD provides you with the opportunity to further develop your artistic practice, at the highest level. It can also be a pathway to a career as an academic, or professional researcher.