In British universities the PhD (Doctorate of Philosophy) is traditionally awarded solely on the basis of a dissertation, a substantial piece of writing which reports original research into a closely defined area of enquiry. The completion of the PhD dissertation is generally expected to take three years, and most funding is based on this assumption. It's also possible to take a part-time route through research degrees, for which the expected timeframe would be five years.

During your research, you will have the opportunity to work closely with a supervisor who is a specialist in your research area. You might reasonably expect to see your supervisor fortnightly or at least three times per term. In addition to your supervisor, you will normally also be able to draw on the help and support of other members of the Section with expertise in your field of study.

In addition to the specialist supervising provided by the Section, the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages runs a programme of professional training for the benefit of all research students. The programme includes seminars and workshops on library resources, giving conference papers, publishing, applications and interviews, and teaching skills. The School of Arts and Humanities runs a central programme covering a range of skills relevant to doctoral students. Doctoral students may also be offered opportunities to do small-group teaching for the undergraduate Colleges and, in some cases, language teaching for the Faculty.

The University of Cambridge has been judged the best in the UK for Russian and East European Studies in the 2017 University Subject Tables compiled by The Complete University Guide. The Slavonic Studies section is part of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, which has a Graduate Centre with computing, study, seminar, and social areas. It maintains extensive library resources, which include the Catherine Cooke collection of Soviet visual materials. Graduate students at Cambridge benefit from a rich, diverse research culture, both within the Slavonic Studies section and the University as a whole.