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Hebrew and Jewish Studies MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury

UK students International students

Study mode

UK tuition fees (2026/27)

£6,400

£3,200

Overseas tuition fees (2026/27)

£31,300

£15,650

Duration

3 calendar years

5 calendar years

Programme starts

October 2026

February 2027

May 2027

Applications accepted

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis but should be submitted at least three months prior to your preferred start date.

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of a Master's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, and a demonstrated knowledge of Hebrew or Yiddish, or another language appropriate to the research proposal.

The English language level for this course is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

Hebrew language and Jewish Studies have been taught at UCL since our founding in 1826. We are a multidisciplinary department with expertise across the entire field of Jewish studies, ranging from history (ancient to contemporary) and political science to language (all phases of Hebrew, several other Semitic languages and Yiddish), literature, and gender issues.

For more details of the specific research specialisations of our staff, see the Hebrew and Jewish Studies website.

Who this course is for

This course is designed for applicants with a research interest in one of the disciplines constituting Jewish Studies, and resonating with the research interests of a member of academic staff in UCL Hebrew & Jewish Studies. The course is suitable for graduates in the Humanities or Social Sciences, with demonstrated language skills appropriate for the proposed field of inquiry.

Read about what it takes to become a UCL graduate research student

What this course will give you

UCL Hebrew & Jewish Studies is unique in the UK and Europe as the only UK university department dedicated to this field. With an outstanding international reputation for its research, teaching, and expertise, we are warm, friendly, and highly ambitious.

Studying in London offers excellent access to a wealth of resources and opportunities. UCL is located in the heart of the city, within walking distance of the British Museum, the British Library, and other specialist libraries such as the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the Wiener Holocaust Library, and the Warburg Institute. With its own specialist library in Jewish Studies, UCL has access to some of the best resources for academic research in the subject.

Find out how your research could have an impact

The foundation of your career

Popular career paths for graduates from the department include libraries, museums and heritage (50%) and publishing, journalism and translation (50%).

Employers of our graduates include Chabad and the Science Museum Group.*

*Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of UK and EU graduates in the 2017-2022 cohorts.

Employability

The course is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary for successful careers in academia, as well as in the private and public sectors. UCL offers excellent networking opportunities for research students.

Networking

UCL Hebrew & Jewish Studies has a strong culture of collaborative research and brings together researchers (whether staff or students) from across UCL as well as other institutions and organisations. Crucial to this are our research groups and centres, which provide a focus for our research activity, including doctoral students, postdocs and staff with specific research interests. Doctoral students will be encouraged to contribute to the Graduate and Research Seminar as well as the event programme of the UCL Institute of Jewish Studies (IJS).

Teaching and learning

Throughout the course, you will benefit from a combination of structured supervision and independent research. You will have regular meetings with your supervisor to assess your progress, receive guidance, and refine your research approach. This is alongside independent work and research.

Graduate students initially register for the MPhil degree, but upgrade to full PhD student status at the start of the Second Year, if progress is satisfactory.

As well as contact hours through regular meetings with your supervisor, there is a high expectation of self-directed study for research students. PhD students should treat their research programme as a full-time job (at least 35 hours per week), pro-rata for part-time candidates.

Research areas and structure

Research activities in the department include:

Eastern European Jewish history and culture
Grammar of 19th-century Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew
Modern Yiddish literature
History of science and technology
Gender in Jewish history
Mediterranean and Middle Eastern studies
Israeli culture and politics
Jewish calendar
Antisemitism
The Jewish mystical tradition, and specifically the history of Hasidism
Jewish-non-Jewish relations in Christian Europe and the Muslim world
Jews and Visual Culture
Jewish migrations
Jewish culture in the English-speaking world
Babylonian Jewry
Aramaic Studies
Jews and Magic
Jewish history of medicine, history of the body

Research environment

The MPhil/PhD course draws on the wide-ranging expertise of UCL Hebrew & Jewish Studies, the only department of its kind in the UK, and offers research supervision in most areas, periods, and aspects of Jewish Studies. The course prepares you for careers in academia and in the private and public sectors. UCL offers excellent networking opportunities for research students.

The full-time PhD course spans three years, during which candidates undertake an independent research project. This project should be grounded in primary source materials, usually in their original languages.

Applicants are accepted in the first instance as MPhil students. MPhil candidates upgrade by submitting an upgrade chapter of up to 10,000 words after 9-12 months and successfully passing an upgrade viva, the date of which is agreed between the Graduate Tutor in consultation with the candidate's thesis Supervisor. The PhD thesis, of approximately 80,000-100,000 words in length, should be based substantially on primary source material and must make a substantial and original contribution to the candidate's area of study.

The part-time PhD course spans five years, during which candidates undertake an independent research project. This project should be grounded in primary source materials, usually in their original languages.

Applicants are accepted in the first instance as MPhil students. MPhil candidates upgrade by submitting an upgrade chapter of up to 10,000 words after 20-24 months and successfully passing an upgrade viva, the date of which is agreed between the Graduate Tutor in consultation with the candidate's thesis Supervisor. The PhD thesis, of approximately 80,000-100,000 words in length, should be based substantially on primary source material and must make a substantial and original contribution to the candidate's area of study.

Accessibility

The department will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities, including those with long-term health conditions, neurodivergence, learning differences and mental health conditions. This list is not exhaustive. If you're unsure of your eligibility for reasonable adjustments at UCL, please contact Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

Reasonable adjustments are implemented on a case-by-case basis. With the student's consent, reasonable adjustments are considered by UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services, and where required, in collaboration with the respective department.

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information about support available can be obtained from UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

For more information about the department and accessibility arrangements for your course, please contact the department.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time	Part-time
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£6,400	£3,200
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£31,300	£15,650

Postgraduate Taught students benefit from a cohort guarantee, meaning that their tuition fees will not increase during the course of the programme, but UCL reserves the right to increase tuition fees to reflect any sums (including levies, taxes, or similar financial charges) that UCL is required to pay any governmental authority in connection with tuition fees.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Where the course is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

Students may incur additional costs when travelling for research for PhD projects. This varies on a case-by-case basis depending on the nature and type of research undertaken by the student.

For in-person teaching, UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £119.90. This price was published by TfL in 2025. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

The department advertises the Hollier Scholarship to the value of £1,000 to postgraduate research students in UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies and across UCL annually. It is awarded on a competitive basis.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Next steps

Deadlines and start dates are usually dictated by funding arrangements so check with the department or academic unit to see if you need to consider these in your application preparation. In most cases you should identify and contact potential supervisors before making your application, or enquiry with the Departmental Graduate Tutor about potential supervisors. For more information see our How to apply page.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate courses (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

This course requires two references. Further information regarding references can be found on this Selecting your references page.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.