The Master of Research degree prepares prospective PhD candidates for doctoral research in a specific area; a programme of projects, seminars and lectures is offered an area of research and can be tailored to help the student identify a specific PhD topic. Some programmes are designed to allow students to gain a breadth of experience across a range of multidisciplinary approaches to a particular topic.
An MRes has a major research element - which may be in the form of a number of short lab projects in rotation, which you will write up for assessment - but also a menu of taught elements providing training in a variety of general and discipline-specific research methods.
The MRes is generally offered as part of a four-year doctoral programme. In these four-year programmes, the MRes is offered ONLY in conjunction with the PhD; and continuation to the PhD is subject to satisfactory performance in the MRes and the indentification of a suitable topic and supervisor.