KCL Doctoral Studies Training Guide for PhD Students 2026

Overview of KCL Centre for Doctoral Studies

The Centre for Doctoral Studies at King’s College London is a university-wide professional services centre with a clear mission: equipping research students to excel. As one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities, King’s has invested in creating a structured, comprehensive support system that addresses every dimension of the doctoral experience — from mastering research methods to navigating career transitions after completion.

The CDS operates around four strategic priorities that together create a holistic support framework. Support focuses on providing timely, relevant, and useful information to doctoral researchers. Funding addresses the critical challenge of growing and resourcing research students. Training delivers high-quality personal, professional, and career development opportunities. Community nurtures a collaborative and welcoming environment where doctoral researchers feel they belong. These priorities reflect an understanding that completing a doctoral degree requires far more than academic expertise alone.

Based at the Waterloo Bridge Wing of the Franklin-Wilkins Building on Stamford Street, the Centre coordinates training across the entire university. All doctoral research students at King’s have access to the full range of CDS programmes, creating a shared training community that crosses faculty and disciplinary boundaries. For prospective students comparing doctoral support across institutions, the university programme guides on Libertify provide detailed comparisons of what different universities offer their doctoral researchers.

Three Modes of Training Delivery

The CDS delivers training through three complementary modes designed to accommodate different learning preferences and scheduling constraints. Live interactive workshops and webinars form the backbone of the programme, delivered both in-person on campus and online via Zoom or Teams. Most live workshops are available online for maximum accessibility, with additional on-campus versions scheduled throughout the academic year for those who prefer face-to-face interaction.

Registration for live workshops uses the SkillsForge platform, where students can search by course code or browse the full catalogue. Course registration opens at three set points during the year: the first Monday of September for autumn term courses running October to December, the first Monday of December for winter term courses running January to March, and the first Monday of March for spring term courses running April to June. If a workshop is fully booked, joining the waiting list helps the CDS identify demand and schedule additional sessions.

The second mode is on-demand online training, enabling self-paced learning where students choose their own path through modules. King’s has partnered with leading academic publishers and platforms to provide free access to an impressive range of self-paced courses. The third mode offers one-to-one personalized and confidential sessions, particularly valuable for career guidance and writing support where individual circumstances require tailored advice. This triple-delivery approach ensures that every doctoral researcher can access training regardless of whether they are full-time or part-time, on-campus or remote, early-stage or writing up.

Doctoral Essentials and Navigating Your PhD

The Doctoral Essentials theme addresses the fundamental challenges of undertaking a doctoral degree. The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Students workshop tackles the issues that most commonly derail PhD progress: finishing on time, overcoming isolation, managing self-doubt, defeating writer’s block, and maintaining a healthy balance between research and personal life. This workshop draws on evidence-based strategies that distinguish researchers who complete successfully from those who struggle.

Getting the Best from Your Supervisor provides practical guidance on one of the most important relationships in doctoral study. Students learn to understand their supervisor’s perspective and expectations, identify areas where they can exercise autonomy versus where they need closer supervision, and develop assertive communication skills that create mutually beneficial outcomes. The Staying Well During Your PhD workshop offers evidence-based strategies for dealing with setbacks, uncertainty, and loss of motivation — challenges that nearly every doctoral researcher encounters at some point.

Project management skills are covered through Completing Your PhD on Time, on Budget, and Under Control, which walks students through planning timelines, breaking projects into manageable tasks, preparing for contingencies, and managing research finances. Dedicated sessions for part-time PhD students address the specific time management challenges of balancing doctoral research with other commitments. The International PGR Buddy Scheme connects new international students with experienced peers, ensuring that those adjusting to a new country and academic culture receive guidance and social support from the outset. These practical offerings complement KCL’s Health Sciences doctoral training programme for faculty-specific support.

Career Development for KCL Doctoral Researchers

The Navigating Your Career theme recognizes that doctoral training must prepare researchers for diverse career paths, not just academic positions. The What Researchers Offer workshop provides frameworks for analysing the knowledge, attributes, skills, and experience that doctoral researchers develop, and teaches students to communicate their professional value effectively in job applications, networking situations, and selection processes. This is a critical skill that many doctoral students underestimate until they begin applying for positions.

For those considering academic careers, Inside Academia offers an in-depth look at the UK higher education system, examining differences between types of institutions and helping researchers choose the right institutional fit for their career aims. This workshop is particularly valuable for researchers from outside the UK who may be unfamiliar with the distinctive landscape of British higher education. The Advancing in Academia series on KEATS provides faculty-specific guidance covering Arts and Humanities, Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Public Policy, Health Professional Researchers, and Natural, Mechanical and Engineering Sciences.

Beyond Academia addresses the growing number of doctoral researchers who pursue careers outside universities, helping them identify opportunities, match their skills and experience to non-academic roles, and communicate effectively in unfamiliar professional contexts. The Brilliant Club offers a competitive development programme where doctoral researchers are trained and paid to deliver university-style tutorials in schools, supporting pupils from under-represented backgrounds while gaining valuable teaching experience. The Careers In Your Ears podcast features researchers sharing how they managed their career transitions and succeeded in diverse sectors, providing real-world inspiration and practical strategies.

Research Methods and Data Skills Training

The Research Methods and Data Skills theme equips doctoral researchers with the technical competencies needed to collect, manage, and analyze their research data effectively. Live workshops cover qualitative data analysis from the analyst’s perspective — including coding systems, systematic selection of extracts, interpretation, and the relationship between analysis and discussion sections in publications. A Comparison of Qualitative Methods workshop helps students choose between grounded theory, thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, and narrative analysis based on their research questions and data types.

Managing Research Data introduces the principles of research data management that meet the expectations of universities, funders, and publishers while reducing the risk of breaching legislation and codes of conduct. This increasingly important topic reflects the growing emphasis on open science and data sharing in the research community. The Introduction to Statistics for Researchers course on KEATS provides a foundation in fundamental statistical concepts, procedures, tests, and SPSS basics for those with limited statistical background.

Through Sage Campus, doctoral students can access a comprehensive R programming course that covers basic commands, data structures, quantitative statistical methods, and data visualization. A forthcoming Quantitative Research Methods Series will add live workshops covering the full spectrum from data collection and storage through to processing, visualization, and selecting appropriate statistical methods. King’s Libraries and Collections supplement these offerings with specialized training through the King’s Learning and Skills Service (KLaSS), providing interactive e-learning materials on literature searching, avoiding plagiarism, and conducting systematic reviews.

Academic Writing, Reading, and Publishing

Writing is perhaps the most critical skill for doctoral success, and the CDS devotes two full training themes to developing it. The Academic Reading and Writing theme builds foundational competencies, starting with Efficient and Effective Academic Reading on KEATS, which addresses reading habits, speed, and comprehension — skills that doctoral students often assume they already possess but rarely optimize. Clear and Concise Academic Writing teaches practical techniques for cutting excess words, making verbs work harder, maintaining argument flow, avoiding ambiguity, and adopting the appropriate academic tone.

Literature review writing is covered through discipline-specific workshops for Sciences and for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, recognizing that conventions differ significantly across academic fields. Turbocharge Your Writing reveals strategies for high-output, low-stress scholarly writing — a workshop that addresses the endemic problem of writing procrastination that affects doctoral researchers across all disciplines. The ten-part Academic Writing and Speaking Skills for PGR Students programme serves researchers with English as an additional language, building foundations in accurate and appropriate written communication and demonstrating criticality through writing.

The Publishing and Generating Impact theme takes these writing skills to the next stage, with discipline-specific workshops on writing for publication in Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences. Each covers structuring papers, approaching publishers, and responding to reviewer feedback. Nature Masterclasses provide additional self-paced training on scientific writing and publishing taught by editors from Nature Research journals. The King’s Engaged Researcher Network supports researchers who want to generate impact beyond academia through public engagement, and the Introduction to Public Engagement workshop helps students develop their own engagement strategies, with access to a small grants scheme for implementation.

Presentation Skills and Public Engagement

The Speaking and Presenting theme develops the oral communication skills that complement strong writing. Public Speaking for Research Students and Staff covers the full spectrum from structuring a speech and selecting appropriate language and imagery to mastering question-and-answer sessions and using relaxation and breathing techniques to manage nerves. The Fundamentals of Designing a Poster Presentation teaches students to create visually appealing posters that effectively communicate research through the balanced use of text and graphics.

The centrepiece of King’s presentation training is the Three Minute Thesis Competition, open to all students studying for a PhD or other doctoral degree. Participants must explain their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes — a deceptively simple challenge that demands extraordinary clarity of thought and communication skill. A series of heats held in spring leads to the King’s Three Minute Thesis Grand Final, and the overall winner is invited to represent King’s at the National Semi-Finals, providing significant visibility and recognition.

On-demand support includes the Present Your Research course on Sage Campus, a four-hour self-paced module building confidence and communication strategies, and The Good Presentation Video on KEATS, a focused thirty-minute resource developed with an experienced voice and presentation coach. These resources recognize that effective presentation is a skill that improves with practice and reflection, and that doctoral researchers need both structured training and accessible reference materials they can return to before important talks, conferences, and viva voce examinations.

Research Culture, Ethics, and Community

The Culture, Ethics and Community theme addresses the values and behaviours that underpin excellent research. Research Integrity: The Fundamentals of Research Excellence at King’s provides an introductory workshop on research integrity, its application in practice, and its significance within the national and international research context. The Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity team supports the King’s research community in ensuring that all research meets the highest standards of safety, legality, integrity, and rigour.

Understanding interpersonal dynamics is covered through How to Understand Yourself and Others in Research Groups, which uses self-assessment of personality preferences to help researchers work more effectively with colleagues who think differently. Cooperative Leadership explores leadership within the research context, helping doctoral students reflect on their own style and identify development opportunities. The Cultural Competency Kickstarter on KEATS examines how backgrounds influence reactions and develops the skills needed to communicate across cultures, communities, identities, and disciplines.

King’s commitment to an inclusive research community is reflected in its community networks. These include networks supporting LGBTQ+ researchers, staff of colour, disabled staff, parents and carers, and women. The Professional Skills for a Globalised World course on KEATS was designed in consultation with King’s students to provide tools for creating and sustaining inclusive environments. An upcoming Introduction to Research Ethics course will guide students through the process of applying for ethical clearance, providing the practical support that many doctoral researchers find challenging to navigate independently. Explore more about how other universities structure their doctoral support.

On-Demand Learning Platforms and Resources

One of the most valuable aspects of the KCL doctoral training ecosystem is the free access to four major on-demand learning platforms. KEATS, King’s virtual learning environment, hosts bespoke courses created specifically for KCL postgraduate researchers in the PGR Core Library. Highlights include the Doctoral Essentials series, Efficient and Effective Academic Reading, and a Wellbeing Toolkit for PGR Students. These in-house resources are tailored to King’s specific systems, policies, and support structures.

Nature Masterclasses provide premium self-paced courses on scientific writing and publishing, collaboration, managing research data, grant writing, and statistical analysis — courses taught by editors and experts from one of the world’s most respected scientific publishers. Sage Campus offers more than thirty online courses covering data literacy (including statistical significance and data visualization), data science (R and Python programming), research skills, and publishing guidance. LinkedIn Learning rounds out the portfolio with over 16,000 courses covering a broad range of technical and professional skills, free for everyone at King’s.

Beyond these platforms, King’s Libraries and Collections provide essential research support including the Learning and Skills Service with interactive e-learning materials, guidance on copyright, open access publishing, and managing research data. Students can also access support for choosing the right referencing software — comparing Mendeley, EndNote, and Zotero — to streamline literature management throughout their doctoral journey. This comprehensive digital infrastructure means that doctoral researchers can access professional development any time, from anywhere, fitting learning around the demanding and often unpredictable schedule of research work.

Making the Most of Your KCL Doctoral Training

To maximize the value of the Centre for Doctoral Studies training, begin by registering on SkillsForge and marking the three registration opening dates in your calendar: the first Monday of September, December, and March. Popular workshops fill quickly, and being ready to register on opening day ensures you secure places on the courses most relevant to your stage of study. In your first year, prioritize the Doctoral Essentials workshops, Getting the Best from Your Supervisor, and the time management and project management courses that will create a strong foundation for the years ahead.

Build a deliberate learning pathway across the on-demand platforms. Rather than browsing randomly, identify specific skill gaps — perhaps statistical analysis on KEATS, data visualization through Sage Campus, or leadership development on LinkedIn Learning — and work through courses systematically. The Nature Masterclasses on scientific writing are particularly valuable before you begin drafting publications, and the Sage Campus research presentation course is excellent preparation before your first conference. These platforms are available twenty-four hours a day, making them ideal for filling gaps in your knowledge during quieter research periods. The Nature Masterclass portal is particularly well-regarded across UK doctoral programmes.

Finally, engage with the community dimensions of the CDS programme. The Three Minute Thesis Competition develops skills that benefit you far beyond the competition itself. The International PGR Buddy Scheme works both ways — serving as a buddy in later years is as rewarding as receiving support in your first year. The King’s Engaged Researcher Network and community networks provide a sense of belonging that sustains motivation during the inevitable difficult periods of doctoral study. The Brilliant Club offers the chance to develop teaching skills while making a meaningful difference to pupils from under-represented backgrounds. A doctoral degree is not just a research qualification — it is a period of intensive professional development, and the Centre for Doctoral Studies provides the infrastructure to make the most of every dimension of that development.