Getting a research degree is so much more than submitting a thesis. 

We are committed to helping postgraduate research students develop their academic skills. We put great emphasis on creating an active research environment that facilitates the exchange of research ideas and experiences inside and outside Norwich Business School. 

We are a member of the Business and Management pathway of The South East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS). SeNNS is a social sciences focused research and doctoral training partnership (DTP) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which enables doctoral students to build strong relationships with both academic, user, and practitioner networks at a number of different levels. The consortium already contains over 200 existing partnerships with external organisations and opportunities to engage with these organisations embedded in the design of its various training pathways and cohort development activities. UEA's doctoral students will also be able to access excellent research, transferable skills, and advanced training, provisioned in their home institution and across the other nine consortium institutions (which include the Universities of Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Reading, Royal Holloway, Goldsmiths College, Roehampton, and City University). 

Find out more about SeNSS

Contact us for more information about SeNSS

We offer a wide range of training opportunities, including personal and Professional Development (PPD) Training and a Social Sciences Faculty Advanced Training Programme to help you complete your PhD and also prepare you for the world of work. The school also offers specific training on Quantitative Methods and Analysis in Business and Management, the training covers a broad set of research designs and methodologies, ranging from the basic elements crucial to understand quantitative methods to more advanced topics. Specifically, the module consists of two parts: 

First, a basic course will introduce students to the basic methodological and statistical reasoning to investigate research questions. The sessions will offer an overview of descriptive statistics, hypothesis formulation and testing, experimental design and related statistics, survey design and regression analysis.  Moreover, it will focus on exploratory factor analysis. Finally, an introduction to one of the major statistical software packages used in social sciences, namely SPSS, is provided.  Every theoretical block is coupled with a practice block. 

Second, an advanced course will present several designs and methods to analyse relationships among variables. It provides students with a theoretical understanding of quantitative methods to a higher level than is typically available, and with an opportunity to familiarise and apply the statistical software packages widely used in analysing quantitative data. The start is made with moderation and mediation analyses with SPSS. This will include the SPSS macro 'process' as well as combinations of moderation and mediation. The next part is on multilevel analyses, again with practice in SPSS. Then structural equation modelling as well as moderation and mediation in SEM will be introduced.  Another topic is longitudinal analysis. The last topic is the introduction of the main steps and challenges involved in systematic review and meta-analysis, a critical skill for any PhD student 

We arrange a series of 10-12 research seminars every year. World leading academics in the UK and abroad come to our School to present their state-of-the-art research across a wide range of disciplines. The seminars offer a great opportunity for postgraduate research students to engage with world-leaders in their field of research and also to gain useful ideas on how research in other disciplines may strengthen their own research. 

The six research groups organise research workshops and seminars in which postgraduate research students and academics present and discuss their research ideas and projects. The meetings offers opportunities for students to liaise with and learn from other members of staff besides their supervisory team. 

Postgraduate research students are encouraged to present their research at national and international conferences. Students are provided with a budget to attend conferences and workshops. An additional allowance may be awarded at the discretion of the Postgraduate Research Director for students to attend notable international conferences. 

Postgraduate research students are encouraged to arrange research visits of short or longer duration to universities abroad. Such exchanges can be arranged through the supervisory team. 

We endeavour to offer all postgraduate research students the opportunity to take the Developing Teaching Skills training which is offered by CSED and to gain some teaching experience. There are opportunities for giving lectures, running seminars and marking, all to help postgraduate research students to get started on an academic career. 

Postgraduate research students have their own designated postgraduate research room in the Thomas Paine Study Centre where the Norwich Business School is located. Research students based in this room have access to hot-desking facilities and library/computing facilities, specific research computing facilities and IT assistance.  

We organise frequent social events including a welcome lunch, Christmas lunch, coffee mornings and postgraduate research meetings. Postgraduate research students are encouraged to share their experiences and concerns and discuss various issues related to their lives in Norwich Business School. Information about school's development and regulation and feedback on student's suggestions will also be shared in the events.