The School of Media at Mahindra University will launch its fully funded doctoral programme leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Media and Communication. The first cohort of scholars will be selected for the term beginning August 2024 after a rigorous assessment of their candidature through a multi-step process. Applicants may seek part-time or full-time enrolment.

Entry into our Ph.D. programme is not meant to be competitive—rather, it is qualitative. This means that deserving candidates will normally not be denied admission subject to the availability of advisory expertise, funding and assistantship work. Therefore, the idea is not to “fill the seats” but to nurture the production of scholarship of the highest quality by selecting scholars with high potential.

However, each of our cohorts of scholars will share some commonalities. Firstly, they will all be deep readers and well-read in the area they have pursued so far. Secondly, they will have a natural command over English, the language of instruction and output at the School. (We may in future introduce Indian language scholarship when both reference material and the School are suitably equipped.) Thirdly, they will be passionate about a humanities or social science approach.

We may view a field as a delightful and dynamic platform—like a field of force, where thought and domains of practice meet, interact, collaborate, conflict, and/or highlight fundamental differentiations or integrations. This interpretation of field forms the crux of the interdisciplinary nature of any solid research project. Thereby, interdisciplinarity is an organic part of the scholarship that is expected of each final product. Interdisciplinarity lends the dynamism and fluidity that must mark the implications of the scholarship as future scholars draw from, interpret and apply it further.