History: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - UBCV is a doctorate in Arts, Design & Architecture programme taught at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The programme is delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition for international students is CAD 10,082 per year (CAD 5,739 per year for local students).
At a glance
Degree:Doctorate
Field:Arts, Design & Architecture
Delivery: On Campus
Language: English
Local tuition: CAD 5,739 / year
International tuition: CAD 10,082 / year
Information for the 2027/28 academic year · Last reviewed September 2026 ·
Program details
Overview
A doctoral programme with more than eighty years behind it, working from the premise that historians study the past to better understand the present by analysing the forces and influences that have shaped human experience and different societies over time. Analysis proceeds from social, cultural, political and intellectual perspectives in diverse contexts across the world, and doctoral students have carried out research on every continent in fields including Indigenous history, gender history, the history of science, international relations and migration history. The department has over thirty full-time faculty and more than sixty graduate students, organised into research clusters covering all the continents and thematic areas: Culture/Power/History, environmental history, Indigenous history, the history of children and youth, the history of science, technology and medicine, and international relations. UBC Library, the second-largest research library in Canada, underpins the work with especially strong collections for East Asia, Canada, Britain and Central and Eastern Europe.
Requirements
Minimum GPA:76.00 / %
Admission Requirements: The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies sets this PhD's baseline requirement at a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC); the Department of History may set a higher standard given competitive selection, and a completed master's degree is not a stated prerequisite for admission. Applicants from universities outside Canada where English was not the language of instruction must meet the Faculty's standard within 24 months of applying: TOEFL iBT 4.5 on the current six-point scale (90 on the pre-2026 scale); IELTS Academic 6.5 overall; or Duolingo English Test 125 overall. The application requires official transcripts from every post-secondary institution attended, three letters of reference, and a statement of interest describing the applicant's proposed research; applicants should indicate in their application which faculty members they are interested in working with, though contacting a supervisor beforehand is optional and the GRE is not required.
Application Details
Start Date:September
Application Deadline:Domestic and international undergraduate applicants both apply through EducationPlannerBC for Winter Session 2027/28 (September 2027 entry) and Summer 2027: applications open in early October 2026 and the equal-consideration deadline is 15 January 2027, 11:59 p.m. PST, the same date for both groups; a few programs keep reviewing late applications on a space-available basis afterwards. Earlier dates apply only to entrance-award consideration -- 15 November 2026 for the International Scholars Program and 1 December 2026 for Presidential/Centennial/Beyond Tomorrow scholars. Several limited-entry programmes -- Law, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing (advanced entry), Occupational/Physical Therapy, Social Work and Teacher Education -- set their own earlier deadlines from October 2026 through February 2027. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
