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Biochemical Engineering MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury

This is the programme information for 2025 entry

If you require details of the previous year's programme, Biochemical Engineering MPhil/PhD (2024), click here

UK students International students

Study mode

UK tuition fees (2025/26)

£6,215

£3,105

Overseas tuition fees (2025/26)

£33,000

£16,500

Duration

3 calendar years

5 calendar years

Programme starts

October 2025

February 2026

May 2026

Applications accepted

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis but should be submitted at least three months prior to your preferred start date.

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree, or a UK Master's degree, in life or physical sciences or engineering, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Relevant industrial experience can also be considered.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 1

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

If you are intending to apply for a time-limited visa to complete your UCL studies (e.g., Student visa, Skilled worker visa, PBS dependant visa etc.) you may be required to obtain ATAS clearance. This will be confirmed to you if you obtain an offer of a place. Please note that ATAS processing times can take up to six months, so we recommend you consider these timelines when submitting your application to UCL.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

Become an expert in the biotechnologies that are reshaping our society and improving outcomes across a diverse range of sectors, from healthcare and pharmaceuticals to sustainability.

As a doctoral researcher working at UCL Biochemical Engineering’s dedicated Industrial Doctoral Training Centre, you’ll benefit from a wide range of research degree opportunities, many of which are funded by UKRI and the EPSRC.

Our research centres are partnered with more than 80 different bioprocess companies and organisations, such as Pall, AstraZeneca, Lonza and Mitsubishi Chemical Group. This allows our doctoral researchers to collaborate with leading bioindustry professionals to address strategically significant issues, often working as part of an international research team.

With a strong emphasis on the translation of scientific advances through to commercial application, you’ll pursue your PhD projects in alignment with the following research areas: environment and sustainability, harnessing genomics, affordable therapeutic outcomes, the processing of complex biological materials, and improving the precision and rate of process development.

Who this course is for

Read about what it takes to become a UCL graduate research student

What this course will give you

This degree offers you the following benefits and opportunities:

Take your place in the UK’s only biochemical engineering university department, with over £60m in current research and industry grant funding supporting more than 160 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers
Learn from internationally-renowned academics at UCL Engineering, ranked as one of the top four UK engineering schools by grade point average (GPA), with 97% of our research activity rated by the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.
Join a supportive, inclusive research community where talent and hard work are properly rewarded and celebrated, in line with the aims of our 10-year Research Culture Roadmap.
Access unprecedented learning and career opportunities through the EPSRC-funded Industrial Doctoral Training Centre (IDTC).
Refine your bioprocessing skills at the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering (ACBE), where you’ll access world-class facilities including a fully equipped bioprocess pilot plant and a suite of laboratory automation platforms. We are the only UK university to have a scaled bioprocessing pilot plant like this.

Find out how your research could have an impact

Making an impact

UCL Portico building with welcome sign between columns.

Case study: Fifteen cents saves lives

Our quest for a next generation vaccine for less than 15¢ a dose.

The foundation of your career

The department places great emphasis on its ability to assist its research degree graduates in taking up exciting careers in the sector. The research centres in UCL Biochemical Engineering are partnered with over 80 UK and global companies in total, and provide an extensive access to all major companies in the sector. The department's UCL-accredited MBI courses also give you the opportunity to engage and network with industrialists.

Employability

As a graduate of this programme, your interdisciplinary skills and expertise will be in demand across a wide range of leading companies and organisations for many roles.

Recent graduates of this doctoral degree include the managing director of Medisieve, the project manager at Lonza and a bioprocess development engineer at the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine.

Completing this programme also means you’ll be well placed to pursue an academic career in postdoctoral research or university lectureship, either here at UCL or at any number of universities across the world.

As part of your studies, you’ll also participate in the Modular Training for the Bioprocess Industries Programme (MBI).

Attended by more than 1,500 participants from over 300 companies since its inception, the MBI programme is designed for students from a range of disciplines across UCL to work alongside industrialists looking to upskill and harness our bioprocessing expertise. Delivered by UCL faculty members in collaboration with over 70 industrial experts, including Barry Buckland (BiologicB), Oliver Hardick, Derek O' Hagan (GSK), and Sabine Gaillard (Sanofi), MBI cohorts often include group leaders, senior-level directors, and executives keen to gain insights into current trends in new therapy areas, regulatory affairs and cutting-edge research.

Networking

You’ll have regular opportunities to connect, collaborate and build professional contacts as part of your Master’s.

Attend tailored events facilitated by UCL Careers, the Office of Vice Provost Advancement (OVPA), and UCL Innovation and Enterprise at the faculty and departmental levels.
Participate in and organise student-led events, such as industry visits or guest lectures, with a focus on specific industrial sectors relevant to your studies.
As a PhD student, you’ll attend major international biochemical conferences such as local events like The Syn Bio conference and The Chemical Engineering Day UK Conference and global events such as The ESBES (European Symposium on Biochemical Engineering Sciences) and Metabolic Engineering Conference, and enjoy opportunities to promote your work.
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, connect with like-minded innovators and successful entrepreneurs through UCL’s innovation hubs and startup incubators.

Teaching and learning

Researchers may take a range of taught modules to support their research and fulfil any taught course requirements. Many are taken together with industrial delegates as part of the Department's MBI Training Programme.

PhD students at UCL do not take any credit-bearing modules. Instead, you will have to complete training courses for which you receive “Roberts points”. The Roberts points system provides opportunities for you to do generic and transferable skills training as part of your programme. The training courses or workshops are provided by UCL or its affiliated member institutions. The training is free of charge and there is a wide variety of useful courses available. See more information on the Doctoral Skills Development programme’s website. You receive Roberts points for all core and optional modules as well.

PhD students in our department have several “core” training courses/modules to complete and have relative freedom to decide what to choose as optional ones, as long as it is in agreement with the supervisor. We would expect this to be a discussion between you and your supervisor as part of the first few supervisory meetings where a training plan should be agreed and recorded on the Research log. You have to complete 20 points worth of skills courses to be eligible to attempt upgrade from MPhil to PhD candidacy and 60/80 points to be eligible to submit your thesis/be awarded a PhD degree (20 points per year).

The core training skills courses for students on the Research Degree: Biochemical Engineering course are listed below. You must complete the assessment for all core modules and pass in order to satisfy the training requirements and receive Roberts points for them.

Year 1

Pilot Plant Unit Operations (BENG0057), - one week intensive module on campus, in the Pilot Plant
Design of Experiments for Bioprocess Optimisation (BENG0077) – 3.5 day intensive course
3. Research Skills (BENG0097) – Weekly classes, Terms 1 and 2

Year 2

Pilot Plant Project (BENG0056)

Optional modules can be chosen from the list of training courses on the Doctoral Skills website. With the approval of the Departmental Graduate Tutor you may enrol on any other postgraduate (Level 7) module listed in the UCL Module catalogue. The majority of our students enrol on several MBI courses that are short courses that we offer to people in industry and research students. Once you agree with your supervisor which modules you are doing in the next academic year please email the MBI Manager for availability and registration. You will normally receive Roberts points for attendance only on optional modules but some module leads may ask you to submit an assessment as well.

Typically these are full-time research programmes that will draw upon the expertise in the department, equivalent to a full-time research position.

Research areas and structure

UCL Biochemical Engineering is a world leader in bioprocess research. Our researchers create novel engineering solutions to underpin future biomanufacturing operations across a range of sectors. Research in our Department falls primarily into the following domain areas:

Environment and Sustainability: exploiting green biological catalysts for biorefining and high-value pharmaceutical syntheses.
Harnessing Genomics: directed evolution, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology can deliver efficient cell systems for producing biopharmaceuticals and enzymes.
Making Outcomes Affordable: business approaches coupled with engineering paradigms offer new healthcare opportunities.
Complex Biological Materials: epitomised by the use of proteins, viruses and cells for therapy, the challenge is to process materials of increasing complexity to make them available to all who need them.
Efficient Processes, from Discovery to Application: using small mimics, microfluidics and mathematical models provides process understanding for effective scale-translation enhancing the precision and rate of process development.

Visit UCL Biochemical Engineering's research website for more.

Research environment

The department offers a range of research degree opportunities; many supported by EPSRC awards, and by industrial sponsors. The projects draw upon the expertise within the department and the multidisciplinary research linkages of the department. Many of the PhD projects are collaborative with leading bioindustry companies and all address strategically significant issues, frequently on a truly global scale.

In our department you are able to make full use of over £30m of investment into comprehensive and unique facilities. All our leading-edge facilities are underpinned by state-of-the-art analytical equipment and experiences obtained from these world class facilities make students from the department much sought after. Facilities and labs include:

Fully equipped pilot plant;
Micro-engineering and lab-on-a-chip facility;
Cell therapy bioprocessing labs;
Responsive bioprocessing facility

The length of registration for the research degree programmes is 3 years for full-time and 5 years for part-time.

In your first year, you are registered for the MPhil award in the first instance; the upgrade process is put in place to check your progress and ability to complete a PhD. As a full-time student your upgrade normally takes place in your first year. As a part-time student, whose programme of study is typically 5 years, your first upgrade attempt usually takes place in Year 2. You will be examined by an internal examiner other than your supervisors and your secondary supervisor at an upgrade viva. Additionally, you are expected to complete 3-4 compulsory, non-credit bearing modules run by the department during the first year (see below).

By the end of the second year of training you should have completed all compulsory, non-credit bearing elements including a fourth or fifth one which are also run by the department. Emphasis at this stage is on the status of the scientific paper, which represents the essence of the original research work carried out by you. In addition, your supervisory team expect that you provide evidence that you have developed project management skills as demonstrator and also as leader of an undergraduate/MSc research project. Demonstratorship normally takes place in Year 2 and 3 of the training.

In the beginning of third year of training, you are expected to give a comprehensive talk in the departmental seminar series in term one. It is preferable that all practical work should cease three months before the end of the final period of MPhil/PhD registration (e.g. end of June for September/October starters).

After you complete your third year of studying you may register as a Completing Research Status (CRS) student which lasts for up to one year (two years part-time) while you write up your thesis. The thesis must be submitted at latest by the end of the CRS period. Note: Students funded for 4 years are not normally eligible for CRS and are required to submit their thesis by their funding end date.

Year 1 compulsory modules:

BENG0077 - Design of Experiments
BENG0057 - Pilot Plant Unit Operations
BENG0097 - Research Skills

Year 2 compulsory module:

BENG0056 - Pilot Plant Project

The programme is full-time but students may request to move to part-time if on a case-by-case basis as agreed with their supervisor.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services team.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time	Part-time
Tuition fees (2025/26)	£6,215	£3,105
Tuition fees (2025/26)	£33,000	£16,500

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

The programme may be subject to an Additional Fee Element (AFE). The AFE (also known as a bench fees) is levied to cover the additional costs related to consumables, equipment, materials, attending conferences etc. As each PhD project is unique in nature, the AFE is calculated on a student-by-student basis and is determined by the academic supervisor. The AFE is banded into four fixed amounts: £1,000, £2,500, £5,000, £10,000 with one further band for variable sums over £10,000.

UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £114.50. This price was published by TfL in 2024. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

The Department receives a range of UKRI funding that students may be considered for, this includes the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Bioprocess Engineering. Please see the page for the EngD in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership course for more details. For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

: CSC-UCL Joint Research Scholarship

Value: Fees, maintenance and travel (Duration of programme)

Criteria Based on academic merit

Eligibility: EU, Overseas

Next steps

Applications are considered throughout the year. Deadlines and start dates are usually dictated by funding arrangements so check with the department or academic unit to see if you need to consider these in your application preparation. In most cases you should identify and contact potential supervisors before making your application. For more information see our How to apply page.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

This programme requires two references. Further information regarding references can be found on this Selecting your references page.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.