PhD opportunities

Pursuing a PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies at the Open University offers the chance to develop new independent research on the most pressing social, environmental and political issues shaping the world today. You will join our OpenSpace Research Centre – where we are driven by a longstanding commitment to rethinking the difference geography makes for interpreting and intervening within emerging issues, debates, and concerns: from environmental crisis, urban politics and migration, to astrobiology, sonic cultures, and more.

As a postgraduate student – whether part-time or full-time – you will engage in virtual and in-person seminars, workshops and reading groups and gain training in a wide range of skills, for research, broadcast, career development and more, to amplify your research among academic, policy and public audiences across Britain and beyond

Our lively postgraduate student community forms an important part of our research culture. Postgraduate students are regarded as valued members of the department, able to interact with research-active academic staff and post-doctoral fellows based on campus in Milton Keynes, as well as with other staff and students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Science and its associated research centres. We supervise MPhil and PhD students in the same way as at other universities - on a face-to-face basis. We strongly encourage full-time registration for these degrees, although part-time registration is also available under certain circumstances.