Minimum entry requirements for MRes/PhD Anthropology

We require applicants to have a significant prior training in social anthropology at degree level. Normally, this will be evidenced by a merit or higher result on a taught MSc/MA in social anthropology from a UK university, or the equivalent of this from an overseas university; or by a 2:1 or higher result on an undergraduate BA/BSc in social anthropology from a UK university, or the equivalent of this from an overseas university. In brief, you need to have taken a significant number of anthropology courses at university level and to have achieved a good result in your degree overall.   

Applicants who do not hold these qualifications should first complete a one-year MSc/MA programme in social anthropology, such as those convened by our Department, before applying for the MRes/PhD track. 

Note that for students who are already currently registered on one of the Department’s MSc programmes, specific additional conditions of admission to the MRes/PhD programme may apply. 

Competition for places at the School is high. This means that even if you meet our minimum entry requirements, this does not guarantee you an offer of admission.

We welcome applications for research programmes that complement the academic interests of our members of staff, and we recommend that you investigate staff research interests before applying.

We carefully consider each application on an individual basis, taking into account all the information presented on your application form, including your:

- academic achievement (including existing and pending qualifications)
- statement of academic purpose
- references
- CV
- research proposal
- sample of written work.

See further information on supporting documents

You may also have to provide evidence of your English proficiency. You do not need to provide this at the time of your application to LSE, but we recommend that you do. See our English language requirements.

When to apply

The application deadline for this programme is 15 January 2024. However, to be considered for any LSE funding opportunity, you must have submitted your application and all supporting documents by the funding deadline. See the fees and funding section for more details.

Every research student is charged a fee in line with the fee structure for their programme. The fee covers registration and examination fees payable to the School, lectures, classes and individual supervision, lectures given at other colleges under intercollegiate arrangements and, under current arrangements, membership of the Students' Union. It does not cover living costs or travel or fieldwork.

Tuition fees 2024/25 for MRes/PhD Anthropology

Home students: £4,786 for the first year
Overseas students: £22,632 for the first year

The fee is likely to rise over subsequent years of the programme. The School charges home research students in line with the level of fee that the Research Councils recommend. The fees for overseas students are likely to rise in line with the assumed percentage increase in pay costs (ie, 4 per cent per annum).

The Table of Fees shows the latest tuition amounts for all programmes offered by the School.

Fee status

The amount of tuition fees you will need to pay, and any financial support you are eligible for, will depend on whether you are classified as a home or overseas student, otherwise known as your fee status. LSE assesses your fee status based on guidelines provided by the Department of Education.

Further information about fee status classification.

Scholarships, studentships and other funding

The School recognises that the cost of living in London may be higher than in your home town or country, and we provide generous scholarships each year to home and overseas students.

This programme is eligible for LSE PhD Studentships, and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding. Selection for the PhD Studentships and ESRC funding is based on receipt of an application for a place – including all ancillary documents, before the funding deadline.

Funding deadline for the LSE PhD Studentships and ESRC funding: 15 January 2024

In addition to our needs-based awards, LSE also makes available scholarships for students from specific regions of the world and awards for students studying specific subject areas. Find out more about financial support.

External funding 

There may be other funding opportunities available through other organisations or governments and we recommend you investigate these options as well.

Further information

Fees and funding opportunities

LSE is an international community, with over 140 nationalities represented amongst its student body. We celebrate this diversity through everything we do.  

If you are applying to LSE from outside of the UK then take a look at our Information for International students. 

1) Take a note of the UK qualifications we require for your programme of interest (found in the ‘Entry requirements’ section of this page). 

2) Go to the International Students section of our website. 

3) Select your country. 

4) Select ‘Graduate entry requirements’ and scroll until you arrive at the information about your local/national qualification. Compare the stated UK entry requirements listed on this page with the local/national entry requirement listed on your country specific page.

MRes

The first year focuses on fieldwork preparation and training in research methodologies. You will take courses and seminars based in the Department of Anthropology. Depending on your qualifications and background, you will also be asked to take additional coursework in social anthropology by attending lecture courses in, for example, economics, kinship or religion.

You will also audit (attend but not participate in assessment) one or two of the Department’s main lecture courses, to the value of one unit.

Throughout the pre-fieldwork year, your main task is to prepare – in close consultation with your two supervisors – a formal research proposal (with a 10,000-word limit). This is formally assessed by the Department. You will normally be upgraded from MRes to PhD registration if your proposal is approved, and if you have achieved the required marks in your coursework. You are then allowed to proceed to fieldwork. 

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists
Provides you with insights into the process by which anthropological knowledge is produced, and trains you in the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. 

Evidence and Arguments in Anthropology and Other Social Sciences
Considers research practices across a range of social and natural sciences in order to explore methodological issues which are specifically relevant to ethnography. 

Supervised Reading Course and Fieldwork Preparation
Gives you a detailed knowledge of the regional ethnographic literature relevant to your proposed research project, as well as providing you with a firm grounding in the theoretical literature relevant to your research objectives. 

Research Proposal
Preparation of a formal Research Proposal of 8,000-10,000 words for submission to the Department on or before the deadline in June/August. 

Seminar on Anthropological Research

PhD

After meeting the progression requirements, you will be upgraded to PhD registration and will commence the fieldwork phase of the programme. Most students carry out fieldwork for approximately 18 months, however the timing and duration of the fieldwork and post-fieldwork stages may vary to some extent between students. During fieldwork – depending on the practicalities of communication – you are expected to maintain close contact with your supervisor about the progress of your work.

After fieldwork, doctoral candidates begin writing their PhD dissertations under the close guidance of their supervisors. During this period of your studies, you will also attend seminars on: thesis-writing; professional development and our departmental seminar in which external speakers present their latest research. Most students complete their dissertations between one and two years after their fieldwork has ended.

First and second year of the PhD (typically 18 months)

Fieldwork

Second to fourth year of the PhD (typically 18 to 24 months)

Advanced Professional Development in Anthropology
Examines key theoretical concepts and approaches in anthropology at an advanced level that may be relevant to post-fieldwork doctoral candidates. Enhances your professional development by providing you with advanced training in writing and presentation skills and skills relevant to your career progression.

Thesis Writing Seminar
This non-assessed course involves you presenting draft dissertation chapters amongst your cohort.

Seminar on Anthropological Research

For the most up-to-date list of optional courses please visit the relevant School Calendar page.

You must note, however, that while care has been taken to ensure that this information is up to date and correct, a change of circumstances since publication may cause the School to change, suspend or withdraw a course or programme of study, or change the fees that apply to it. The School will always notify the affected parties as early as practicably possible and propose any viable and relevant alternative options. Note that the School will neither be liable for information that after publication becomes inaccurate or irrelevant, nor for changing, suspending or withdrawing a course or programme of study due to events outside of its control, which includes but is not limited to a lack of demand for a course or programme of study, industrial action, fire, flood or other environmental or physical damage to premises. 

You must also note that places are limited on some courses and/or subject to specific entry requirements. The School cannot therefore guarantee you a place. Please note that changes to programmes and courses can sometimes occur after you have accepted your offer of a place. These changes are normally made in light of developments in the discipline or path-breaking research, or on the basis of student feedback. Changes can take the form of altered course content, teaching formats or assessment modes. Any such changes are intended to enhance the student learning experience. You should visit the School’s Calendar, or contact the relevant academic department, for information on the availability and/or content of courses and programmes of study. Certain substantive changes will be listed on the updated graduate course and programme information page.

Supervision

You will be assigned two supervisors who are specialists in your chosen research field, though not necessarily in your topic.

Progression and assessment

You will need to meet certain criteria to progress to PhD registration, such as achieving certain grades in your coursework, and earning a minimum mark on your research proposal, which includes a viva oral examination.

Your progress will also be reviewed at the end of each year of your PhD study, and will be based on written reports. The mandatory third year progress review for students in anthropology is held in the third term (or, exceptionally, in the fourth term) after your return from fieldwork; this entails a viva with both supervisors and one external examiner.

Your final award will be determined by the completion of an original research thesis and a viva oral examination.

More about progression requirements.

We’re here to help and support you throughout your time at LSE, whether you need help with your academic studies, support with your welfare and wellbeing or simply to develop on a personal and professional level.

Whatever your query, big or small, there are a range of people you can speak to who will be happy to help.  

Department librarians – they will be able to help you navigate the library and maximise its resources during your studies. 

Accommodation service – they can offer advice on living in halls and offer guidance on private accommodation related queries.

Class teachers and seminar leaders – they will be able to assist with queries relating to specific courses. 

Disability and Wellbeing Service – they are experts in long-term health conditions, sensory impairments, mental health and specific learning difficulties. They offer confidential and free services such as student counselling, a peer support scheme and arranging exam adjustments. They run groups and workshops. 

IT help – support is available 24 hours a day to assist with all your technology queries.  

LSE Faith Centre – this is home to LSE's diverse religious activities and transformational interfaith leadership programmes, as well as a space for worship, prayer and quiet reflection. It includes Islamic prayer rooms and a main space for worship. It is also a space for wellbeing classes on campus and is open to all students and staff from all faiths and none.  

Language Centre – the Centre specialises in offering language courses targeted to the needs of students and practitioners in the social sciences. We offer pre-course English for Academic Purposes programmes; English language support during your studies; modern language courses in nine languages; proofreading, translation and document authentication; and language learning community activities.

LSE Careers ­– with the help of LSE Careers, you can make the most of the opportunities that London has to offer. Whatever your career plans, LSE Careers will work with you, connecting you to opportunities and experiences from internships and volunteering to networking events and employer and alumni insights. 

LSE Library – founded in 1896, the British Library of Political and Economic Science is the major international library of the social sciences. It stays open late, has lots of excellent resources and is a great place to study. As an LSE student, you’ll have access to a number of other academic libraries in Greater London and nationwide. 

LSE LIFE – this is where you should go to develop skills you’ll use as a student and beyond. The centre runs talks and workshops on skills you’ll find useful in the classroom; offers one-to-one sessions with study advisers who can help you with reading, making notes, writing, research and exam revision; and provides drop-in sessions for academic and personal support. (See ‘Teaching and assessment’). 

LSE Students’ Union (LSESU) – they offer academic, personal and financial advice and funding. 

PhD Academy – this is available for PhD students, wherever they are, to take part in interdisciplinary events and other professional development activities and access all the services related to their registration. 

Sardinia House Dental Practice – this offers discounted private dental services to LSE students. 

St Philips Medical Centre – based in Pethwick-Lawrence House, the Centre provides NHS Primary Care services to registered patients.

Student Services Centre – our staff here can answer general queries and can point you in the direction of other LSE services.  

Student advisers – we have a Deputy Head of Student Services (Advice and Policy) and an Adviser to Women Students who can help with academic and pastoral matters.

As a student at LSE you’ll be based at our central London campus. Find out what our campus and London have to offer you on academic, social and career perspective. 

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Your time at LSE is not just about studying, there are plenty of ways to get involved in extracurricular activities. From joining one of over 200 societies, or starting your own society, to volunteering for a local charity, or attending a public lecture by a world-leading figure, there is a lot to choose from. 

The campus 

LSE is based on one campus in the centre of London. Despite the busy feel of the surrounding area, many of the streets around campus are pedestrianised, meaning the campus feels like a real community. 

Life in London 

London is an exciting, vibrant and colourful city. It's also an academic city, with more than 400,000 university students. Whatever your interests or appetite you will find something to suit your palate and pocket in this truly international capital. Make the most of career opportunities and social activities, theatre, museums, music and more. 

Want to find out more? Read why we think London is a fantastic student city, find out about key sights, places and experiences for new Londoners. Don't fear, London doesn't have to be super expensive: hear about London on a budget. 

Jiazhi Fengjiang 
MPhil/PhD Anthropology
London, UK 

The PhD programme in Anthropology at LSE is extremely stimulating and rewarding. The department of anthropology produces world-class research and enables students to access extensive academic resources and network beyond LSE in London. 

The programme allows me to conduct my doctoral research with close supervision and mentorship from my two academic supervisors as well as numerous consultations and advice from faculty members, research student cohort, and visiting researchers in the department through reading, research, and writing-up seminars. After one year of preparation on my research proposal, I conducted an eighteen-month fieldwork in China’s southeast coast. Over the course of writing up my thesis, I got chances to teach an undergraduate course and present my work at the Friday morning departmental seminar. I was also part of the Argonaut (the departmental journal) project as a cover designer and illustrator. Beyond the LSE academic community, London is a hub of exciting events and networks. I got to participate in varied workshops and collaborate with colleagues beyond LSE in reading groups, publications, as well as exploring visual and graphic anthropology. 

Following my PhD at LSE, my main plan is to publish my thesis as a book and publish a couple of journal articles while developing a new post-doc research project on grassroots transnational humanitarianism in Asia. I hope to continue my academic career as an anthropologist and deliver my research in varied forms to a wider audience. 

Megnaa Mehtta 
MRes/PhD Anthropology
London, UK 

I am a PhD student in the department of Social Anthropology. I was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan, and did my undergraduate degree at Yale University with short stints at Delhi University and the University of Cape Town. After my B.A, I worked as a community organizer in Buenos Aires on issues of urban waste and labour. I also taught social anthropology at a bachillerato popular (community college) in the city. After Argentina, I moved back to where I grew up in southern Rajasthan and worked as a community mobiliser and ethnographer focusing on issues around alternative politics.

My PhD research is based out of the Sundarbans mangrove forests that range across the borders of India and Bangladesh and are internationally famous as a protected habitat of the Royal Bengal tiger. Less well known are the 4.5 million people who live alongside these forests, and the many thousands who venture into them on a daily basis to earn a livelihood collecting fish, crabs and honey. During 22 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I lived with communities that ‘do the jungle’, sharing in their daily lives and venturing into the forests with them to fish, collect crabs, and understand the relationship they have to their labour and surrounding rivers and forests. As an environmental anthropologist interested in the intersection of political ecology and everyday ethics, my research explores what conserving life means to the people living alongside a global conservation hotspot. I delve into the fishers’ motivations for undertaking life-threatening work in the jungle, their notions of sufficiency and excess, what it means to sustain a household, and ultimately the kind of life they seek to conserve for themselves in relation to their surrounding landscape.

One of the most exciting aspects of LSE’s PhD program in Social Anthropology is the opportunity to do such long-term ethnographic fieldwork. In my pre-field year I had a completely different set of questions I wanted to explore.  However, when I arrived in the Sundarbans, I realized that the themes and issues most important to my interlocutors were completely different from what I had conceived of in my research proposal in London. I feel privileged to have been encouraged to pursue what I think is the truest way of doing anthropology, paying attention to people’s lives, the categories with which they themselves make sense of things, and their attempts to live a full life amidst the forces that constantly renegotiate their everyday realities.

An additional perk of studying at the LSE is the opportunity to participate in the departmental seminar series known as ‘Friday Seminars.’ Through weekly presentations, students and faculty get to hear some of the most intellectually stimulating research papers in contemporary anthropology that showcase the creative breadth the discipline allows for. In addition to ‘Friday Seminars’, Fridays are doubly fun thanks to a ritual of gathering at the pub with one’s colleagues. The Anthropology Department is a vibrant place distinguished both by its ideas and its people.             

Itay Noy
MRes/PhD Anthropology
Tel Aviv, Israel

The PhD community is very social and I enjoy the mix of students, from different countries and walks of life. It is an intellectually stimulating environment with lots of interesting speakers coming to our seminars. My thesis supervisors are also great, they are always encouraging and giving me lots of useful feedback on my work.

Quick Careers Facts for the Department of Anthropology

Median salary of our PG students 15 months after graduating: £28,000

Top 5 sectors our students work in:

• Government, Public Sector and Policy   
• Financial and Professional Services              
• FMCG, Manufacturing and Retail              
• Advertising, Marketing, PR Media, Entertainment, Publishing and Journalism           
• Recruitment and Employment Activities

The data was collected as part of the Graduate Outcomes survey, which is administered by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Graduates from 2020-21 were the fourth group to be asked to respond to Graduate Outcomes. Median salaries are calculated for respondents who are paid in UK pounds sterling and who were working in full-time employment.

Students who successfully complete the programme often embark on an academic career. 

Students who graduated within the last ten years have gone on to a range of occupations such as:

Amit Desai (PhD 2007) – Research Fellow, Nursing & Midwifery Research Department, King’s College London
Fraser McNeill (PhD 2007) – Senior Lecturer of Anthropology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa
Andrew Sanchez (PhD 2009) – Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Elizabeth Hull (PhD 2009) – Lecturer in Anthropology, SOAS Food Studies Centre and the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research in Agriculture and Health
Judith Bovensiepen (PhD 2010) – Senior Lecturer, School of Anthropology & Conservation, University of Kent
Victoria Boydell (PhD 2010) – Rights and Accountability Advisor, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge
Katie Dow (PhD 2010) – Senior Research Associate, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge
Maxim Bolt (PhD 2011) – Reader in Anthropology and Africa at the Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham
Indira Arumugam (PhD 2011) – Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
Elizabeth Frantz (PhD 2011) – Senior Program Officer, Open Society Foundations
Tom Boylston (PhD 2012) – Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Edinburgh
Kimberly Chong (PhD 2012) – Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Sussex
Dina Makram-Ebeid (PhD 2013) –  Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Egyptology, The American University in Cairo
Giulia Liberatore (PhD 2013) – Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, COMPAS, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford
Ruben Andersson (PhD 2013) - Associate Professor of Migration and Development, International Migration Institute, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford
Jovan Scott Lewis (PhD 2014) – Assistant Professor, University of California UC Berkeley
Amy Penfield (PhD 2015) – Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Manchester
Méadhbh Mclvor (PhD 2016) – Teaching Fellow in Social Anthropology, UCL
Agustin Diz (PhD 2017) – LSE Fellow in Anthropology, LSE

Further information on graduate destinations for this programme

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Many leading organisations give careers presentations at the School during the year, and LSE Careers has a wide range of resources available to assist students in their job search. Find out more about the support available to students through LSE Careers.

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