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Security and Crime Science MPhil/PhD

London, Bloomsbury

UK students International students

Study mode

UK tuition fees (2024/25)

£6,035

£3,015

Overseas tuition fees (2024/25)

£34,400

£17,200

Duration

3 calendar years

5 calendar years

Programme starts

Research degrees may start at any time of the year, but typically start in September.

Applications accepted

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

Evidence of graduate research experience, for example a Master's degree, and a minimum of an upper second-class UK Bachelor's degree, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

Applicants must also consider whether the Department of Security and Crime Science has the relevant expertise available to offer sufficient supervision in their chosen area of research.

You will be expected to identify two UCL academics to supervise your research before applying. Ideally you will have contacted them before applying to ensure they are able to support your application.

Following consideration of applications at the department's Graduate Research Committee, students may be requested to attend an interview with prospective supervisors (either in person or by telephone).

The English language level for this programme 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 Department of Security and Crime Science is organised into five centres of excellence:

Geographical analysis
The "Designing Out Crime" group
The crime policy and evaluation group
Terrorism and organised crime
Forensic science

Staff and students work across these groups, across UCL and in the wider research community, which includes active international collaborations.

Who this course is for

Security and Crime Science is a multi-disciplinary subject, drawing on expertise in psychology, social science, statistics, mathematics, architecture, forensic sciences, design, geography and computing. This is reflected in our students, who come from a variety of backgrounds. This makes the department an interesting and stimulating environment in which to study.

We seek graduates from all disciplines who want to solve real-world security and crime problems.

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

What this course will give you

UCL Security and Crime Science is devoted specifically to reducing crime through teaching, research, public policy analysis and by the dissemination of evidence-based information on crime reduction. Our mission is to change crime policy and practice.

At UCL Security and Crime Science, we are committed to the quality and relevance of the research supervision we offer. As an MPhil/PhD student, you will work with academics at the cutting edge of scholarship. You will also be an integral part of our thriving and collaborative research community, in the department and more widely at UCL.

Find out how your research could have an impact

The foundation of your career

This PhD programme is a well-established programme that draws in students from around the world who have gone on to exciting careers in security and crime sectors.

Graduates from our research programmes go on to research careers and to take up lecturing posts in academic institutions. Others have taken up policy-related positions in the public and private security sectors.

Employability

This is the first Phd programme of its kind to combine a multidisciplinary crime or security doctoral degree with a programme of taught modules (focusing on the application of scientific method to crime reduction) and professional skills training.

Our aim is to produce a new generation of crime and security practitioners with the skills to tackle modern and evolving crime threats. With over 60 partners in industry and the public sector and some of the world's leading academics at UCL working in these areas, we provide excellent supervision and career prospects.

Networking

We have long-established links with police forces, policy makers at all levels, academic research centres of excellence and security organisations in both the UK and internationally

The department attracts leading figures in the field to our extensive programme of events which inform debates around crime prevention. Regular events include the Women in Security showcase, annual International Crime Science conference, regular seminars and outside speakers.

These events provide a platform for students to connect with crime science practitioners and researchers across academia, government, and industry, offering a chance to learn from their expertise and establish valuable contacts.

Collaborative working at UCL is also an important aspect of our multidisciplinary research programme.The MPhil/PhD in Security and Crime Science gives students the opportunity to mix with peers from backgrounds including architecture, computer science, statistics, electronic engineering, chemistry, forensic sciences, psychology, philosophy, ethics and laws.

Teaching and learning

The initial registration on the programme will be on an MPhil basis. In order to progress to the PhD, students are required to pass an ‘upgrade’. The purpose of the upgrade is to assess your progress and ability to complete your PhD programme to a good standard and in a reasonable time frame.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) consists of a piece of supervised research, normally undertaken over a period of three years of full-time or five years of part-time study. Assessment is by means of a thesis, which should demonstrate your capacity to pursue original research based upon a good understanding of the research techniques and concepts appropriate to the discipline.

You should meet frequently with your supervisors and engage with the departmental and UCL communities more widely through events, training, and networking opportunities.

The PhD is examined by a viva committee comprising two experts in the field, an external examiner, and an internal examiner. Your supervisor nominates suitable examiners during your final year, in consultation with you, and the nominations are scrutinised by UCL’s examinations office who may approve or reject them. You should not have had prior contact with either examiner. The viva usually takes two to three hours.

As a full-time student you are expected to devote at least 35 hours per week to your studies for the full duration of your programme. If you are studying part-time, you should expect to spend at least 17.5 hours per week.

As a research student, your principal supervisor will establish a timetable of regular meetings where all matters relating to your work can be discussed.

These meetings should take place at least once per month. Subsidiary supervisors should stay acquainted with the progress of your work and be present at annual supervisory meetings, as a minimum.

Research areas and structure

The department has five main research groups:

Counter-terrorism: situational prevention of terrorism; technology for counter-terrorism; transferable training between crime and terrorism
Crime mapping: innovation in crime mapping methods; prospective crime mapping
Crime policy analysis and evaluation: evaluation of crime prevention schemes; knowledge transfer
Designing out crime: role of design in crime prevention; environmental design; crime risk and administrative procedure design
Forensic sciences: forensic science reconstruction; interpretation of evidence; trace evidence dynamics (including DNA, residues/particulates, environmental evidence etc.).

UCL Security and Crime Science hosts the UCL Security Science Doctoral Research Training Centre (UCL SECReT), an international centre for PhD training in security and crime science.

We offer an integrated PhD programme for students wishing to pursue multi-disciplinary security or crime-related research degrees. We expect their research to be interdisciplinary and to involve some 'hard science' element.

Our research is underpinned by a methodology combining science and engineering expertise with expertise from wider disciplines including the social sciences. We see four research 'domains' which can interact:

Science and technology innovation: to create the next generation of security technologies
People factors: understanding and incorporating human factors (via behavioural science, decision-making techniques, etc.) into the development of security solutions
Process factors: enhancing security processes by increasing our understanding of the operational processes of activities, organisations or infrastructures under threat
Policy: contributing to the development of government policy through research findings.

Research environment

Our department has a distinctly interdisciplinary outlook on the prevention of crime, terrorism and organised crime. We have long-established links with police forces, policy makers, academic research centres of excellence, and security organisations in the UK and internationally.

The department has a successful track record of working closely with practitioners and is widely recognised for its knowledge transfer and exchange activities, as well as the impact of its research on real world crime problems.

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise, the department’s research environment was deemed to be 87.5% ‘world-leading' and 12.5% ‘internationally excellent’, placing it 6th in this area of REF assessment.

As a Security and Crime Science MPhil/PhD student, you will have the opportunity to learn from, and contribute to, this thriving research culture.

The length of registration for ourresearch degree programmes is three years for full-time study and five years for part-time study.

You are required to register initially for the MPhil degree with the expectation of transfer to PhD after successful completion of an upgrade viva 9-18 months after initial registration.

Upon successful completion of your approved period of registration, you may start a writing period called Completing Research Status (CRS), within which you write up your thesis.

To successfully upgrade to a PhD, you are required to submit a piece of writing demonstrating sufficient theoretical, conceptual, and methodological development as well as a clearly articulated plan to finish the thesis.

You are also required to present and answer questions about this work to a panel consisting of your subsidiary supervisor and another member of the faculty who acts as an independent assessor.

The length of registration for ourresearch degree programmes is three years for full-time study and five years for part-time study.

You are required to register initially for the MPhil degree with the expectation of transfer to PhD after successful completion of an upgrade viva 24 months after initial registration.

Upon successful completion of your approved period of registration, you may start a writing period called Completing Research Status (CRS), within which you write up your thesis.

You are also required to present and answer questions about this work to a panel consisting of your subsidiary supervisor and another member of the faculty who acts as an independent assessor.

Accessibility

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

Visit us

All open days and events

Online - Open day

Security and Crime Science PhD Open Evening

Join our open event series to learn more about our PhD programme, future career opportunities and what it's like to be part of our fantastic community. There are also questions for our academics, admission tutors and current students.

Watch on demand event

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time	Part-time
Tuition fees (2024/25)	£6,035	£3,015
Tuition fees (2024/25)	£34,400	£17,200

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

There are no additional costs associated with this programme.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs.

Funding your studies

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

If you meet the entry requirements, you will need to identify at least two UCL academics with the expertise needed to assess your technical skills and act as your supervisors. To support with this, we suggest you check our departmental website to identify the interests and areas of expertise of current academics.

Before applying, please ensure you focus on a research proposal of approximately 3000 words which introduces the research questions and hypotheses you would like to investigate, and the research methods you would like to apply in your work. Clearly indicate how the required data will be obtained, and what resources you need for your project. You can find guidance on writing a research proposal online.

Deadlines and start dates are usually dictated by funding arrangements, so please check with the department or academic unit before applying to see if you need to consider these. In most cases, you should identify and contact potential supervisors before making your application.

For more information see our How to apply page and ensure you visit our website.

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.