Postgraduate Study in Philosophy & Bioethics
The School of Philosophy and Bioethics offers a variety of postgraduate degrees ranging from subject-based coursework degrees for those new to Philosophy or Bioethics to thesis-based higher degrees by like the PhD. The overview of degrees page can help you decide which degree is right for you, if you don't know already.
- Research Degrees in Philosophy or Bioethics (MA, M. Bioethics, PhD)
- Pathways to Research Degrees in Philosophy or Bioethics. (Postgrad Dip. Arts Research)
- Coursework degrees in the Centre for Human Bioethics (Masters, Grad. Dip., Grad. Cert.)
Reputation
Monash is ranked third in Australia and New Zealand in the Leiter Report’s ranking of PhD programs in Philosophy. Although there are postgraduate programs that have more students, Monash has a superior success rate for completion. Monash’s staffing profile is unusual in being relatively youthful but also quite senior, with two full professors and four members at the level of reader or associate professor. Each professor has won the Arts Faculty’s annual award for best PhD supervisor.
Expertise
The School has a broad conception of philosophy and has been involved in postgraduate projects involving other disciplines including Physics, Computer Science, Medicine, Psychology, History and Classics. The School also has research expertise within the core areas of Philosophy and Bioethics:
- Logic and Metaphysics
- Moral, Political and Legal Philosophy
- Centre for Human Bioethics
- Research Unit in European Philosophy (PDF)
Rewards
Students undertake postgraduate study in Philosophy and Bioethics for a number of reasons.
- One common motivation for undertaking the PhD is entry to an academic career.
- Another common motivation for undertaking a Masters by thesis is entry to PhD programs here and abroad.
- Medical and biological science professionals undertake further study in Bioethics for further professional development and because of the ethical and intellectual challenges that advancing technology poses for them personally.
- Other graduates find that their studies in Philosophy or Bioethics provide them with skills that are highly valued by the public service, NGOs, and corporations.
- All our graduates have the satisfaction that comes from making a substantial contribution to knowledge in the field. The journey from your initial ideas to the bound copy of your own thesis has its own intrinsic value.
Survey
The School of Philosophy & Bioethics at Monash is trying to gather some data on how people reach decisions about where to apply for postgrad study and how to choose among competing offers if they get them. We’ve put together a brief survey on Surveymonkey to ask you some questions about how you came to decide on your current (or recently completed) course of study. In the second part of the survey, we also have a few questions on your impressions of Monash University as a place to undertake postgrad studies in Philosophy or Bioethics.
The survey is probably not as much fun as a Facebook quiz, but it is almost certain to be more useful. If we get enough responses, we will report on some of the more interesting aspects of the survey on our website. So, for example, we ask you to describe the area in which you are doing your research project. It will be interesting to see what percentage of Australian/NZ postgrads are working on, say, applied ethics as opposed to history of philosophy or epistemology. Postgrads only please. (No academics who want to vindicate non-classical logics as the hot topic for postgrad research!) Please respond only once and encourage your fellow postgrads to participate.
Please click here to take surveyThank you!