Imperial College London is dedicated to the wellbeing of its doctoral students, which includes supporting the development of their ability to communicate their research effectively and to manage the writing-up process independently. As part of this support, incoming doctoral students are assessed via Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement Assessment 1 within the first 3 months. This provides them with a clear understanding of their writing ability in relation to the demands of a research degree at Imperial and identifies areas for development.
The Requirement
The Requirement
After fulfilling the English language entry requirement for admission, all doctoral students must also fulfil the Imperial College London Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement (DACR). This is done through taking DACR Assessment 1. Depending on the result of this initial assessment, students may also need to have a progress check (DACR Assessment 2), as part of the Early Stage Assessment (ESA) carried out by their department.
How to fulfil the Requirement
Students must take the first available DACR A1 within 3 months of their doctoral programme start date (or 6 months for part-time students). This allows CfAE to help students develop their writing from the very beginning of their doctoral degree.
Exemptions
All students meeting the exemption criteria will receive formal email confirmation of their status at the beginning of their doctoral programme. Students are exempt if they:
- have a valid* 3-year (minimum) undergraduate degree studied in full within a majority English speaking country
- or they have a valid*† IELTS 8.0/TOEFL 110 overall (minimum) at the time of fully registering on the doctoral programme
- or they are a national of a majority English speaking country
*Please note that the above are only valid if awarded within the two years prior to the doctoral programme start date. †Other English proficiency tests as equivalents are considered on a case by case basis.
Please note that the award of a Master's degree is not an exemption criterion.
Please note that if you are doing a '4-year PhD', i.e. studying as part of a 1+3 arrangement (1-year MRes/MSc plus 3-year PhD), like all 1st-year doctoral students, you will still need to fulfil the Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement (DACR) at the start of the PhD stage. In this arrangement, the master’s degree is considered as the English language entry requirement for the PhD and therefore, as for other master's students, the degree is not an exemption criterion for the DACR.