The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures is a vibrant community of world-class researchers. Our research environment has a basis in our expertise in French, German, Hispanic, Italian and Comparative Studies, and encourages collaboration and exchange across traditional disciplinary boundaries. Our strengths span literature, thought, film and the visual arts from the medieval period to the 21st century. Research themes cover gender, disability, politics and ethics, film, cultural memory and trauma, post-colonialism and globalisation, consumer culture, animal studies and ecocriticism, history of art and visual culture. We also specialise in the work of a wide range of individual authors, poets, philosophers, playwrights and filmmakers.

You will are encouraged to participate in our intellectual activities, including #Glossa reading group, work-in-progress seminars and regular research forum. We host an annual student-organised Postgraduate Colloquium in which research students present papers and culminates in a talk by a renowned keynote speaker.

In the Department, we run the Royal Holloway Centre for Visual Cultures.

We offer you the opportunity to pursue an original research project supported by world-class supervision.

You will write an 80,000-100,000 dissertation which can be on a wide range of topics.

You will be encouraged to participate fully in the research culture of the School, to attend relevant departmental and School skills-development events and to participate in the department's postgraduate research training scheme, giving you the opportunity to gain teaching experience.

We will usually require you to have a masters degree in a relevant area.

Before applying we recommend securing a supervisor in order to apply for your research project.

We advise getting in touch with the Director of Postgraduate Education making an informal enquiry for your chosen research degree to inquire whether there is any other additional material they require you to submit in your application.

English language requirements

All teaching at Royal Holloway is in English. You will therefore need to have good enough written and spoken English to cope with your studies right from the start.

The scores we require

• IELTS: 6.5 overall. Writing 7.0. No other subscore lower than 5.5.
• Pearson Test of English: 61 overall. Writing 69. No other subscore lower than 51.
• Trinity College London Integrated Skills in English (ISE): ISE III.
• Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) grade C.
• TOEFL ib: 88 overall, with Reading 18 Listening 17 Speaking 20 Writing 26.

Country-specific requirements

For more information about country-specific entry requirements for your country please see here.

In recent years a number of our postgraduates have gone on to successful academic careers in the fields of languages, critical theory and film. Alumni have also embarked upon many interesting careers outside academia – in the UK, continental Europe and the United States – including journalism work for NGOs, trade sales, publishing, professional translating, teaching, museum curatorship, creative arts, and librarianship.

Home (UK) students tuition fee per year*: £4,786

EU and international students tuition fee per year**: £25,500

Other essential costs***: There are no additional costs greater than £50 per item.

…How do I pay for it? Find out more about funding options, including loans, grants, scholarships and bursaries. 

* and ** These tuition fees apply to students enrolled on a full-time basis in the academic year 2025/26.

* Please note that for research courses, we adopt the minimum fee level recommended by the UK Research Councils for the Home tuition fee. Each year, the fee level is adjusted in line with inflation (currently, the measure used is the Treasury GDP deflator). Fees displayed here are therefore subject to change and are usually confirmed in the spring of the year of entry. For more information on the Research Council Indicative Fee please see the UKRI website.

** This figure is the fee for EU and international students starting a degree in the academic year 2025/26.  

Royal Holloway reserves the right to increase fees for overseas fee-paying students annually. Be aware that tuition fees can rise during your degree (if longer than one year’s duration), and that this also means that the overall cost of studying the course part-time will be slightly higher than studying it full-time in one year. The annual increase for continuing students who start their degree in 2025/26 will be 5%.  For further information see fees and funding and the  terms and conditions.

*** These estimated costs relate to studying this particular degree at Royal Holloway during the 2025/26 academic year and are included as a guide. Costs, such as accommodation, food, books and other learning materials and printing, have not been included.