Over the last six years the department has welcomed postgraduate students from the USA, Austria, Australia, Romania, Taiwan, Jordan, Singapore and Korea as well as from within the UK. Doctoral students from the USA, where the PhD is usually a taught programme, value the special research training provided by the department’s one-to-one supervision. Alongside supervision, the department holds staff/student seminars, providing opportunities for visiting scholars, departmental staff and research candidates to present papers in a context of friendly and sympathetic critique.
Although members of staff have their own specialisms, they understand theology to be a coherent and cohesive discipline and encourage dialogue and discussion both within the department and with other departments of the University.
The Department of Theology and Religious Studies has been ranked officially as one of the best research destinations by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The RAE confirmed that Nottingham had retained its place in the top 10 elite theology departments across the UK, with 95 per cent of its published research ranked as having international recognition in terms of originality, significance and rigour. Over a fifth of published outputs were considered to be 'world-leading'.
Staff work to the highest standards, studying primary texts in the original language (whether that be Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic or Arabic) and using secondary sources in various modern languages. The Centre of Theology and Philosophy, directed by Professor John Milbank, is based in the department.
For research students, the Graduate Centre offers a comprehensive range of research training courses. Postgraduate students in the department are also eligible to take the Academic German course, which is offered by the School of Humanities and designed for students with little or no German language experience. The University library has online access to all books published in Britain and Ireland from the beginning of printing to 1800.