Doctor of Philosophy

The Doctor of Philosophy at The Cairnmillar Institute is a research degree in psychology. You spend your time on a supervised research project that adds something new to what we know about human behaviour, mental health or clinical practice. Most candidates come in with a psychology background, often an honours degree or a master's, and want to dig into a question that has been nagging at them. The work is largely independent, but you are not on your own. You have a supervisor who guides the project, and you meet regularly to review progress, sort out problems and keep the thesis moving.

How the degree is structured

Australian doctorates are built around a single large piece of research, not a list of coursework units. At Cairnmillar, the PhD is set at 1.5 years full time, which is shorter than the usual three to four years for a doctorate. That tells you the programme is designed for candidates who already have strong research training and can get straight into the thesis. You will typically go through a confirmation process early on, where you present your research plan and show you are ready to proceed. From there, it is data collection, analysis and writing. The final product is a thesis that is examined by experts outside the Institute. There are no credit points to accumulate in the way a coursework degree works; the thesis itself is the qualification.

What you actually do

Your research topic is worked out with your supervisor. Cairnmillar is a psychology-focused institution, so projects usually sit somewhere in clinical psychology, counselling, mental health, or applied psychology. You might be looking at how a particular therapy works for a specific group, or testing a new way of measuring a psychological construct. The skills you build are the ones researchers use every day: designing a study that will actually answer the question, getting ethics approval, recruiting participants, managing data, running statistical analyses, and writing up findings clearly enough for other researchers to follow. You also learn to present your work at seminars and conferences, and to take feedback without taking it personally. That last one is a skill in itself.

Who it suits

This PhD suits someone who already has a solid research background in psychology and wants to complete a doctorate without the longer timeframe of a traditional programme. You need to be self-directed, because no one will chase you to write. You also need to be comfortable with the idea that research rarely goes to plan. If you are coming from overseas, you will need to meet the English requirement set by the Institute and the separate English threshold for the Student visa. While you study, the Student visa lets you work up to 48 hours per fortnight. After you finish, the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream may give you time to work in Australia, depending on your circumstances. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 115637G. Check the official page for the current details on entry requirements, fees and application dates.

• Academic researcher or lecturer in psychology at a university
• Postdoctoral research fellow in mental health or clinical research
• Clinical psychologist (with the required supervised practice and registration)
• Research and evaluation roles in hospitals, community health and mental health services
• Policy or research officer in government health departments and NGOs
• Data analyst or research consultant in health and social research organisations