Linguistics: 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
UBC's doctoral program in Linguistics treats language as an object of scientific study, asking how sounds, words, sentences and meaning are structured, how languages differ, how language is acquired and processed, and how it changes over time. Departmental research spans syntax, semantics, morphology, phonetics, phonology and pragmatics, with recognised strengths in formal-theoretical work, experimental and field linguistics, acquisition, and computational approaches to communicative behaviour, and deliberate attention to the interfaces between these subfields. The department is well known for its commitment to the Languages of the Americas, particularly documentation and theoretical research on First Nations languages of Canada, alongside ongoing work on African, Indo-European, Japonic, Sino-Tibetan, Uralic and Korean languages. Students study in person at UBC Vancouver and complete a dissertation.
Requirements
Minimum GPA:76.00 / %
Admission Requirements: The Department of Linguistics normally requires applicants to already hold a master's degree, or at least one year of graduate-level training, together with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' baseline minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). Applicants are also expected to have substantive undergraduate coursework in syntax, phonology, phonetics and semantics, equivalent to UBC's LING 300, 311, 313 and 327. Applicants from universities outside Canada where English was not the language of instruction must meet, within 24 months of applying, TOEFL iBT 90 overall (Reading 22, Listening 22, Writing 21, Speaking 21), IELTS Academic 6.5 overall with no component below 6.0, or Duolingo English Test 125 overall. The application requires official transcripts from every post-secondary institution and three academic or professional letters of reference, plus a statement of interest; the GRE is optional, and applicants are asked to indicate a faculty supervisor of interest without needing prior commitment.
Application Details
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.
