Professional Doctorate in Religion and Education (DMin)

This innovative professional doctoral programme is designed to enhance the skills of practitioners working in faith-based and religion-related contexts. Currently, it is possible to follow the programme through three main pathways or ‘streams’:

• Rural Ministry
• Church School Studies
• Studies in Contemporary Spirituality and Implicit Religion

Key facts

• The programme has been developed and is delivered in collaboration with the St Mary’s and St Giles’ Centre.
• The Centre for Studies in Rural Ministry offers students a special opportunity to pursue enquiries into their own key topics.
• The programme is supported by a faculty of scholars, who are internationally recognised for their research and publications in the fields of faith-related and religion-related education.
• You will need to attend three residential seminars during each year to fulfil the requirements of programme.
• Residential seminars are held at Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden, and are designed to provide opportunities for critical and supportive discussion of your ideas and work at key times in the academic year.
• Gladstone’s Library has an outstanding collection of more than 250,000 books, journals and pamphlets on a wide range of subjects but specialises in Theology and Victorian Studies. Glyndwr University offers good online access to a wide range of electronic resources and journals.
• Designated tutorial staff will support you between seminars and you are encouraged to develop informal peer-support networks. These will allow those working on similar problems, or using similar methods, to benefit from each other’s experience and commitment

Course duration

Part-time
Up to 6 years
Location: attendance at three residential seminars a year is expected
Start month: September

Course content

The built-in flexibility of the programme in terms of content as well as delivery means that it is able to respond to the diverse professional development needs of those working in faith-based and religion-related contexts.

The whole programme is designed to cover six years of part-time study, and includes the following exit points:

• Year 1 (on completion of two modules) leads to a Postgraduate Certificate
• Year 2 (on completion of two modules) leads to a Postgraduate Diploma
• Year 3 (on completion of an 18,000-word dissertation) leads to an MA
• Year 4 (Research and Proposal module, enabling progression to doctoral thesis)
• Years 5 and 6 (45,000-word doctoral thesis) leads to a DMin

Course modules

The modules, dissertation, and thesis all focus on selecting and applying appropriate research methodologies to investigate questions formulated by the student that are of relevance to their own working context. Modules available in years 1 and 2 provide experience in the use of a variety of research methodologies, which are then developed further in larger studies in years 3 to 6. In years 1 and 2, you can select four modules from the following options:

• Ethnographic Studies in Religion and Education
• Interview Studies in Religion and Education
• Qualitative Studies in Religion and Education
• Historical Studies in Religion and Education
• Philosophical Studies in Religion and Education
• Quantitative Studies in Religion and Education
• Theological Studies in Religion and Education
• Questionnaire Studies in Religion and Education
• Biblical Studies in Religion and Education

Career opportunities

The Professional Doctorate integrates taught, research-based modules with your professional career development. The curriculum’s scope allows you to engage, apply and develop a range of research and methodological approaches to your own professional practice. Importantly, it is also designed to give you opportunities for professional development and reflection.

You will be expected to demonstrate your ability to undertake professional-level research and publication that could make an original contribution to knowledge in the field of faith-based and religion-related professional practice.

Entry requirements

Ideally, you will be a graduate with three years’ professional experience in faith-based or religion-related contexts undertaken in the previous five years. This includes voluntary professional level engagements.

You must have access to a professional setting in a field appropriate to your area of study. (If you are not a graduate, but have extensive and relevant experience in ministry, you may be able to apply for this to be recognised as an entry qualification for the programme.)