The MLitt and MSc are research degrees requiring six full-time (or ten part-time) terms of research. Terms of research are normally consecutive, and, for full-time students, require residency in Cambridge. Not all departments offer part-time research degrees.
Candidates for research who feel that the quality (in terms of originality) of research required for the PhD on a given topic might be beyond their reach within the required time limit, or who have only two years of guaranteed funding, may consider applying for the MLitt or MSc degree instead. A Degree Committee may also recommend this as an outcome of a probationary period of research. Part-time research students are actively encouraged to consider applying for these degrees as a way-mark towards the longer PhD course. Subject to satisfactory progress, an upgrading may be applied for in due course.
Examiners also have the choice of recommending the award of the MLitt or MSc, rather than the PhD, to candidates whose dissertation is substantial and which takes due account of the previously published literature in the subject, but which nonetheless falls short of the quality and originality which is expected from a successful PhD thesis.
Courses offering a Master of Letters
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