Home

Medicine MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury and London, Hampstead (Royal Free Hospital)

This is the programme information for 2026/27 entry

If you require details of the previous year's programme, Medicine MPhil/PhD (2025/26), click here

UK students International students

Study mode

UK tuition fees (2026/27)

£6,400

£3,200

Overseas tuition fees (2026/27)

£38,300

£19,150

Duration

3 calendar years

5 calendar years

Programme starts

October 2026

February 2027

May 2027

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 first or an upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree in an appropriate subject, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard or a recognised taught Master’s degree.

The English language level for this course is: Level 3

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.

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

The multidisciplinary Division of Medicine combines excellent facilities with world-leading scientific and clinical expertise directed towards better understanding and treatment of human disease.

Research students benefit from a training environment that fosters collaboration across the interface between basic science, clinical practice within our associated hospitals, and the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

During your research degree, you will be able to select training courses to develop a wide variety of transferable research, teaching, and leadership skills. There will also be opportunities to put these skills into practice in laboratory and teaching environments. We aim to enhance not only your research project, but also your communication skills and career prospects.

You will receive regular guidance and support from your project supervisors and from an independent thesis committee across your full registration period.

Who this course is for

We aim to recruit the best graduates in science and medicine from across the world with a genuine passion and talent for biomedical research.

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

What this course will give you

This programme offers you the following benefits and opportunities.

You join the multidisciplinary Division of Medicine, which trains and inspires the next generation of leading biomedical scientists and clinicians.
An excellent educational experience and unrivalled opportunities for interdisciplinary research, networking, career development and employment across the biomedical and healthcare sectors.
Networking and career opportunities from our academics' international collaborative links with academic and commercial organisations.
A unique springboard for ambitious clinicians and scientists.

Find out how your research could have an impact

The foundation of your career

Through close collaborations between scientists and clinicians in a wide range of clinical disciplines, a research degree in the Division of Medicine provides a unique springboard for ambitious clinicians and scientists. Our alumni have progressed to senior leadership positions in many areas of academia, the health services and industry.

According to the HESA Graduate Outcomes survey (2018-2022), around 95% of our Medicine PhD graduates were in work (88%) or further study (7%), with the vast majority taking highly skilled roles.

Employability

A PhD from the UCL Division of Medicine is internationally recognised as a high achievement. Our graduates are expected to be independent thinkers that bring rigorous expertise to solving complex problems. Recent graduates have taken up clinical, academic, postdoctoral, and scientific advisory positions in the public and private sectors, nationally and internationally.

According to the HESA survey, our graduates have gone onto a range of destinations and employers. These include:

Hospitals, both UK and overseas (NHS Trusts, Charité Berlin, University Hospital Koln)
Private and partner medical enterprises (Medefer)
Medical research organisations (Brainlab AG, Cancer Research UK, Crown Bioscience, Francis Crick Institute, Lumanity)
Pharmaceuticals (GlaxoSmithKline, Lonza Biologics, UCB)
IT (Faculty AI, IBM, Synthace)
Universities, UK and overseas (UCL, Cambridge, King’s, Oxford, Cape Town, Karolinska Institute, Lausanne).

Most are employed as specialist medical practitioners, GPs, researchers, and biochemists or biomedical scientists. Others have become biological scientists, electronics engineers, lab technicians, medical radiographers. Others have become managers in health services, R&D or in marketing or commerce. A number have also become higher education teaching professionals.

Networking

The Division runs several seminar programmes that attract high-profile national and international external speakers.

There is also an annual day retreat away from the university, paid for by the Division, where we discuss ideas and hear presentations from staff and students across the entire Division.

Students are encouraged to present their results at a major national or international conference at least once during their project period.

Our academics have numerous national and international collaborative links with academic and commercial organisations. These provide students with broad opportunities for networking and career development.

Teaching and learning

Most of your research will be carried out independently with guidance provided by your supervisory team and Thesis Committee. There will also be a series of training requirements that you will need to complete in the early stages of the programme. Your supervisory team will provide guidance on appropriate training requirements relevant to your proposed area of research.

Your first milestone will be to upgrade from MPhil to the PhD degree. For this, you will submit and present a report (upgrade viva). You will also need to give an oral presentation to your Upgrade Panel. In your final year, you submit a thesis covering your research and discuss this at a formal interview known as a viva examination.

Most of your time will be spent conducting independent research, alongside regular meetings with your supervisory team and Thesis Committee, and completing your training requirements. We also encourage you to attend relevant research events at UCL and elsewhere.

Contact hours and hours of self-study are agreed between the student and the supervisor at the beginning of their research degree and should be reviewed on a regular basis. Full-time postgraduate research students are expected to work a minimum of 36.5 hours per week on their project. With agreement of their supervisors, contact time can be on-site or remote working depending upon the nature and stage of the project. PGR students can access UCL facilities ‘out of hours’ including weekends and holidays during their period of registration provided that local safety procedures have been complied with. Students will have research meetings with their supervisors at least once per month.

Research areas and structure

The biomedical disciplines represented within the research departments and institutes of the UCL Division of Medicine include:

Research environment

Our world-class undergraduate and postgraduate courses attract the best students from all over the world and train the next generation of basic and clinical scientists and practitioners. Over 200 postgraduate research students are enrolled on our PhD programme at any given time.

The UCL Division of Medicine forms one of the most sizeable concentrations of biomedical scientists in Europe in one of the world's leading universities. Our aims are:

To educate, train, and inspire the next generation of scientists and clinicians.
To be at the international forefront of biomedical research from lab bench to bedside.
To attract, retain and develop the most gifted biomedical researchers and teachers at all levels.
To develop and deliver outstanding patient care together with UCL’s partner hospitals.

Our research aims to understand the basis of disease, and to develop better diagnostics and treatments for diseases with an emphasis on experimental medicine. In the REF 2021 Clinical Medicine unit of assessment, we are ranked first in the UK for our impact and research environment.

Our clinical mission is to provide the highest quality medical care, as practitioners of medicine and leaders of the NHS, and to work in partnership with patients to fulfil our research and teaching missions. The Division’s clinical academics are active as physicians in partner hospitals, with programmes of national and international standing in major medical specialities.

The full-time registration period for a PhD is three years.

You initially register for an MPhil. In your first few months, you discuss and agree a deliverable plan and timeline for your research project with your supervisors. This plan can be revised as new results are obtained.

You will be eligible to upgrade to PhD registration in year two (at around 12-18 months). The assessment is a written report that is assessed in an oral exam.

After three years, you can apply for 'completing research status' if you have completed your research and you are focused on writing your thesis.

The part-time registration period for a PhD is five years.

You are initially registered for an MPhil. In your first few months, you discuss and agree a deliverable plan and timeline for your research project with your supervisors. This plan can be revised as new results are obtained.

You are eligible to upgrade to PhD registration in years two to three (at around 15-30 months). The assessment is a written report that is assessed in an oral exam.

After five years, you can apply for 'completing research status' if you have completed your research and you are focused on writing your thesis.

Accessibility

The department will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities, including those with long-term health conditions, neurodivergence, learning differences and mental health conditions. This list is not exhaustive. If you're unsure of your eligibility for reasonable adjustments at UCL, please contact Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

Reasonable adjustments are implemented on a case-by-case basis. With the student's consent, reasonable adjustments are considered by UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services, and where required, in collaboration with the respective department.

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information about support available can be obtained from UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

For more information about the department and accessibility arrangements for your course, please contact the department.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time	Part-time
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£6,400	£3,200
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£38,300	£19,150

Postgraduate Taught students benefit from a cohort guarantee, meaning that their tuition fees will not increase during the course of the programme, but UCL reserves the right to increase tuition fees to reflect any sums (including levies, taxes, or similar financial charges) that UCL is required to pay any governmental authority in connection with tuition fees.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Where the course 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

Your research degree may be subject to an Additional Fee Element (AFE). The AFE (also known as bench fees) is an additional cost, incurred by yourself or your sponsor. It is levied to cover the costs related to consumables, equipment and materials etc. which are not included in the tuition fee. As each research project is unique, the AFE is calculated on an individual basis and is determined by your academic supervisor.

You should discuss finding support for these costs with your proposed primary supervisor.

For in-person teaching, 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 £119.90. This price was published by TfL in 2025. 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

Research council and charity studentships and fellowships are occasionally available for MPhil/PhD students. Opportunities may also exist for studentships funded via the UCL Division of Medicine, the Faculty of Medical Sciences, and UCL doctoral training programmes. These are usually advertised on major medical research funding sites and findaphd.com when they become available.

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

Next steps

You should identify and contact potential supervisors and agree on a project before making your application. Deadlines and start dates may be dictated by funding arrangements and UCL guidelines, so check with the department, academic unit, or funder to see if you need to consider these when preparing your application.

Applicants are advised to apply at least two months prior to their start date. There are currently three entry points during the academic year: October, February and May.

Your references must be from individuals unconnected to your proposed supervisory team.

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

This course 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.

Year of entry: 2026-2027

Research Degree: Division of Medicine, Full-time

Research Degree: Division of Medicine, Part-time

Year of entry: 2025-2026