A PhD in Plant Sciences takes three or four years of full-time study to complete and consists of research and courses as required under academic supervision. Students are not registered for a degree in their first year and may either submit for an MPhil or continue to PhD study. Entry to the PhD programme is subject to satisfactory progress and passing a first year viva voce examination based on a written report. All graduate students attend induction and safety training courses in the department. As well as undertaking your research, you will attend courses and lectures on some of the following: instrumentation, sequencing and database use, statistics, experimental design, analysing data, writing reports and a dissertation, introduction to MIMAS (a national data centre run by the University of Manchester), and how to give effective scientific presentations. The Department will aim to provide guidance and, where appropriate, the facilities to allow Graduate Students to develop a number of different skills including: Research methodologies and the process of research including quantitative and qualitative methods and data analysis; project planning and management; The effective use of learning resources including library and information technology; Personal skills including oral and written communication, time management and team work skills, professional development and the preparation of curriculum vitae and employment applications; A broad knowledge of the discipline in which the Student is working; Technical training to enable the Student to undertake their research work effectively and efficiently; Teaching experience by bringing to the notice of the Student the opportunities within the Department for supervising and/or demonstrating to Undergraduates; Professional presentations. A thesis is the significant part of the means by which students are assessed for their degree. 48 months after the start of a student's PhD programme they will be expected to have completed and submitted a thesis ca. 60,000 words.