The University has a healthy, friendly and thriving postgraduate environment.

A rough indication of the number of staff and postgraduate students registered in each department is given with the course details for each department. This should give you an idea of the size of the postgraduate student community in your own department.

Postgraduate work enables you to develop your skills and interests in a highly specialised area. The range of opportunity is vast: from taught courses with a group of other students who share your interests, to three or more years' independent study for a doctorate that will mark your own distinct contribution to knowledge.

Postgraduate work develops your skills of analysis and independent thought, and gives you access to the most up-to-date information in your chosen subject. It also enhances your prospects, whatever your intended career.

The support you get from your fellow students is extremely important. But that does not necessarily mean that this support is less apparent in smaller departments; for in such cases postgraduate students may find they have considerable informal contact with the academic staff.

But there are other ways in which you will get to know fellow postgraduate students. There is a University-wide induction programme, available to new research students on two occasions each year. And research students will become members of the University-wide Graduate School, which organises a cross-departmental doctoral training programme for all new students, and a regular programme of interdisciplinary research seminars.