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  • Our postgraduate research disciplines
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  • Nursing PhD | Midwifery PhD

Nursing PhD | Midwifery PhD

The University of Brighton offers interdisciplinary study across a range of allied health and healthcare practice areas.

Programmes are focused on practical wisdom with research students playing an important role in exploring, developing and improving clinical practice. There are opportunities to engage with a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives.

We offer PhD study in both full and part-time modes and welcome students with significant professional experience, who are able to use and share the career skills they have developed, as well as those who have recently completed first degrees and wish to take advantage of their academic momentum.

Nursing PhD

Our postgraduate students in nursing work across diverse practice settings and engage new theoretical perspectives with a view to enhancing practice in a number of areas - including community-based, mental health, paediatric and social care-related -  in statutory, NHS and/or third sector services.

Our research embraces a diverse range of qualitative, quantitative and participatory methods and includes use of the arts, participatory and new methodologies with projects often drawing on personal professional or experiential perspectives. You will be contributing throughout your studies to a research portfolio that has major impact on understanding the experiences of health, illness, the meaning of care and people’s involvement in this and the provision and the systems that support it.

Midwifery PhD

Midwifery and maternity care are open to a wide variety of research questions and designs.

Staff and PhD students offer a community of learning which allows pertinent issues in maternity and midwifery to be explored. As such the area fosters research into specific clinical practice and effects of patterns of care, the midwife/family relationship, midwifery practice, and historical perspectives. Research may be qualitative or quantitative approaches, or explore mixed methods.

Graduates with a PhD in nursing or in midwifery from the University of Brighton proceed to employment in various organisations including NIHR, NHS, university lecturer posts and consultancy, as well as further research.

Apply to 'Health SCIENCES' in the applicant portal

Key information

As a Nursing PhD or Midwifery PhD student at the University of Brighton, you will benefit from:

  • a supervisory team comprising 2-3 members of academic staff. Depending on your research specialism you may also have an additional supervisor from another school, another research institution, or an external partner from government or industry
  • opportunities to present and discuss your own work with other researchers in seminars organised by research centres, groups and the university schools.
  • desk space and access to a desktop PC
  • access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as to the physical book and journal collections housed within the Aldrich Library and other campus libraries. 

Academic environment

PhD students in Nursing and in Midwifery take an active role in a range of intellectual and social activities within the university. All postgraduate students are integrated into Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs) or Research and Enterprise Groups (REGs). These provide you with a community of like-minded scholars and practitioners and give opportunities to present ‘work in progress’ and network with other researchers.

We provide PhD students with opportunities to work across and gain context from the spectrum of Health Sciences. We believe that this interdisciplinary focus provides our students with an appreciation of real-world problems, and ensures that they are highly employable.

PhD students are provided with a forum for discussion of research activities, for sharing expertise in methods and research approaches and to offer support to all those undertaking or wishing to undertake research in the broad areas of nursing and midwifery. We support all members associated with the area in their research activities, help colleagues with conference presentation preparation, with research planning and publication activities as well as grant applications.

We have links with clinicians and other academics at the University of Brighton and also invite doctoral students to attend the discussion areas. The profile of the area includes midwives, nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, occupational therapists and sports scientists.

We also collaborate with staff from other parts of the university, for example, Brighton and Sussex Medical School and with departments in other universities together with clinicians and managers locally.

The Brighton Doctoral College offer a training programme for postgraduate researchers, covering research methods and transferable (including employability) skills. Attendance at appropriate modules within this programme is encouraged, as is contribution to the Schools’ various seminar series. Academic and technical staff also provide more subject-specific training.

Expert supervision for a Nursing PhD is offered, for example, in the nature and meaning of care across a number of contexts spanning acute, primary and community as well as secondary care and across a diverse range of health and long term or illness conditions. This includes contributions to new interventions, digital and technological applications, lifeworld-led care perspectives and new understandings of peoples’ experiences.

We have particular strengths in phenomenology and lifeworld research, action research, ethnography and grounded theory and application of new theory relevant to care and well-being. Our research spans the range of age groups; we are undertaking distinctive research in children, critical care, e-technologies and health, inequalities, as well as growing older and living well in older age, gender and old age, and exploring well-being potential within a wide range of illness and long-term conditions. We are also interested in learning in practice, practice development and caring workforce issues.

Our expert supervision for a Midwifery PhD will allow projects to develop on any aspects of midwifery and maternity care, including: public health in maternity, women’s experiences of care, exercise in pregnancy, the midwifery workforce and historical approaches to a range of questions in midwifery.

Meet our supervisors

Profile photo for Dr Kay Aranda

Dr Kay Aranda

I am interested in supervising students in the areas of health and social inequalities, gender, sexuality and age, and/or using feminist and material feminist theories or  socio-materialist and practice related theories for revitalising approaches to health inequalities and social justice.

I have supervised in the areas of community nurses and weight, midwives roles, domestic violence, women's experiences of birth, living with back pain and supporting children with disabilities, as well as coproducing participatory research in mental health and mental health, identiy and gender.

I am currently supervising postgraduate researchers in the areas of feminist phenomenology, embodiment and sea swimming;  involvement and engagement in GP Commissioning using social material approaches; in occupational therapy and exploring narratives and the socio-material practices of embroidery; exploring coproduction of care for frail older people with district nurses; and revising supervision in a community trust using communities of practice and social learning theories

Profile photo for Dr Chris Cocking

Dr Chris Cocking

I am interested in supervising people with an interest in social psychology, crowd behaviour, or collective action. I am currently interested in public intervention in emergencies/mass casualty incidents (a concept known as 'zero-responders') and public behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its implications for emergency planning and response. Therefore, I would be especially interested in supervising emergency responders and other public health professionals who wish to do PG research. 

I am also interested in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the broader area of collective resilience in response to general adversity. I would be keen to work with health professionals interested in postgraduate research in any of these areas.  

Profile photo for Dr Theo Fotis

Dr Theo Fotis

I supervise students doing research in Digital Health, Coproduction of science and technology in the community, Privacy and Cybersecurity in Healthcare, Technology Assessment, consumer health technologies (IoT, wearables, Sensors, apps), user-technology relations, User-led Innovation.

I'm happy to work with prospective PhD students to develop research proposals.

Profile photo for Dr Heather Baid

Dr Heather Baid

Heather is interested in supervising PhD, MSc and MRes students researching topics related to critical care clinical practice, the sustainability of healthcare and the use of simulation within healthcare education.

She has experience planning and conducting her own research, as well as supervising research students, in a variety of different qualitative and quantitative methods such as constructivist grounded theory, cross-sectional survey, qualitative descriptive analysis, case study, evaluation and mixed methods approaches within the research design.

Profile photo for Dr Tania Staras

Dr Tania Staras

I am very interested in supervising PhD studies exploring any aspect of histories of healthcare.  My specific expertise is in midwifery and nursing histories, but I am happy to support projects exploring any healthcare profession.  I have expertise in using both written sources and oral histories.  I would also be interested in supporting any histories of women’s reproductive health, particularly exploring aspects of twentieth century care, policy and the media.  More broadly I would be pleased to support studies using qualitative approaches to explore contemporary aspects of maternity/ midwifery/ women’s health.

Profile photo for Dr Laetitia Zeeman

Dr Laetitia Zeeman

Supervision support can be provided to PhD students who are interested in queer theory, poststructuralism, the application of critical social theory, new materialism, intersectionality and feminist theory in health-related research. Focus areas include LGBTQ+ health and healthcare, resilience, trans health and mental health promotion. PhD students she has supervised to completion have worked on studies employing critical social theories and qualitative creative methods. She has examined PhD/Professional Doctorate studies in the UK and further afield.  

Current PhD students 

  • H Howitt, Mike Phillips, Esther Omotola Ayoola, Amy Middleton, Aile Trumm 

Former PhD students

  • Kim Brown, Tracey Harding, Adam Kincel, Jens Schneider

For further supervisory staff including cross-disciplinary options, please visit research staff on our research website.


Making an  application

You will apply to the University of Brighton through our online application portal. When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of Brighton staff. We recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Sign in to our online application portal to begin.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistance during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2022–23

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
 Full-timePart-time

UK

£4,596 

£2,298

International (including EU)

£15,282 

£7,641

International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law

£13,464 

£6,732


PhD by Publication
Full-time Part-time
 N/A  £2,298 (UK)

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of Brighton we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.

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