The PhD involves a minimum of three years full-time or six years part-time directed research, at the end of which students will produce an 80,000-word thesis on their chosen subject. Students should normally have a distinction at MA level both overall and for the dissertation, but each candidate will be treated on their own merits. As a doctoral student, students devise their own programme of research in consultation with their academic supervisor. Assessment is conducted by both an internal and external examiner and involves a viva voce examination. PhD students in the School of Humanities have access to hot desking computing facilities, and a personal locker, within the School Postgraduate Office which is shared by all departments; this creates an excellent environment for building a strong inter-disciplinary student community. The University of Nottingham is consistently named as one of the most targeted universities by Britain’s leading graduate employers.