Our Integrated PhD Accounting provides a route to doctoral study if you do not have a Masters degree, or have little to no research training. It enables you to spend your first year completing a full-time Masters-level qualification, which will equip you with the business knowledge and research skills needed to begin PhD study the following year. Your PhD will then be studied full time, over the next three years.
You can choose to follow a traditional thesis approach, where you write a dissertation, or follow a 'three paper' thesis, where you produce three research articles, framed by an introduction and conclusion. Your supervisors support you to submit these papers to conferences and for publication in international journals, so you can begin to build you research portfolio well before graduation.
Essex Business School (EBS) is world-renowned for research on governance, the impact of auditing and the effect of accounting practices in a globalised world and this PhD will give you the opportunity to engage with the debate and look at contemporary problems facing the world of accounting. As one of the few centres of Excellence for Critical Accounting Practices, we explore alternative aspects of accounting through a social science lens. We champion issues such as responsible management, sustainability and global development, business ethics and social responsibility, producing cutting-edge research that aims to make organisations better places to do business.
You study at Essex Business School, at our Colchester Campus. We are a business school with an international outlook. Our doctoral students join us from all over the world and we are committed to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Essex is ranked in the top 200 globally for accounting and finance in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025.
The University of Essex is home to a number of cutting-edge research centres and institutes, where academics across disciplines and departments come together to collaborate around a common theme, often engaging with external partners at a national and international level. Our accounting research centres, Essex Accounting Centre and Centre for Accountability and Global Development, organise seminars throughout the year, giving you access to the latest academic thinking and the opportunity to network with colleagues and visiting scholars from across the world.
In addition, our researchers investigate matters that are closely linked to people's lives, fitting with our belief that businesses and organisations should behave in a responsible and ethical way. Professor Thankom Arun, has recently been investigating whether there is truth in the claim that CSR in developing countries, when compared to developed countries, is influenced substantially more by moral, cultural and religious considerations and less by self-interest and profit seeking. By helping to understand why firms choose to act in responsible ways, it is hoped research such as this could lead to policy changes which encourage more of the same.
Essex Business School provides a highly flexible and supportive PhD experience, where your supervisors develop your professional skills and research expertise in your chosen area. We are the largest department at the University of Essex, with more than 100 doctoral students from more than 40 different nationalities. Essex is proud to be ranked 22nd for international outlook in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021.
We encourage you to attend international conferences and you will have the opportunity to present your work at our PhD conference each year.
If you already have a Masters degree or previous relevant research training, we also offer a PhD Accounting that you can study on a full-time or part-time basis. You may be eligible for a scholarship.