This course consists of individual supervisions and guided research. Students are given guidance in areas specific to their subject and in advanced research methods. In the Easter term of the first year, students submit a PhD Progress Examination, which usually consists of a Critical Essay and a General Statement about progress to date and the likely course of their future research. At the end of each PhD programme, students will be expected to have: acquired the ability to read, interpret and translate primary sources fluently into their subject area (both spoken and written); acquired an excellent knowledge of the general scholarship on their chosen research topic; acquired an in-depth and focused knowledge of the secondary literature relevant to the subject of their thesis; developed the ability to formulate original research questions and produce a well-constructed, argument to answer them, in the form of an independent piece of research based on the use of primary and secondary sources and acquired the skills to use library and internet resources independently.