Management and Business

This Management and Business PhD at Surrey has a dual-focus on subject-specific knowledge and methods training, which will give you the intellectual foundation to ask cutting-edge questions and then conduct high-quality research to address those questions under close expert supervision.

Here at Surrey, you’ll join a cosmopolitan, multicultural and diverse community of students and scholars. We consider doctoral students to be junior academics or researchers, and an integral part of the School. 

Career opportunities

Surrey’s PhD in Management and Business Management and Business will train you in critical and analytical skills, research methods, and in discipline-specific knowledge that will give you the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for a career in academia, or as a researcher in a wide variety of settings. Surrey will offer a three-year, full-time (and, in exceptional cases, part-time) programme. You’ll receive an induction by the University of Surrey University of Surrey ’s Doctoral College, as well as a bespoke induction programme from the Business School. This induction will introduce you to the School as well as the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in which the School is based. The induction will outline the relationship between you and your supervisor. In your first year, you will receive instruction in subject-specific knowledge and instruction and training in research philosophy and methods. Once you’ve got the foundation for your doctoral research and passed your confirmation exam, your second year will be spent conducting doctoral research. Students conducting primary research tend to spend the year away doing field research. Your third year on the Management and Business PhD programme will then be devoted entirely to data analysis, writing up and submitting your dissertation. You’ll have frequent interactions with your supervisor. You’ll also have the opportunity to attend professional development workshops in preparation for the academic job market. There is a four-year maximum period of study on the PhD programme for full-time students.

The Surrey Business School is a member of the Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and is accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA).

Research themes

We have key research themes in:

• Business transformation 

• Digital economy 

• Finance and accounting 

• Marketing and retail management 

• People and organisations 

• Strategy and entrepreneurship