Postgraduate research degrees

The Division is made up of four Research Departments: Mental Health of Older People, Mental Health and Neuroscience, Marie Curie Palliative Care Research, and Epidemiology and Applied Clinical Research.

Our students come from a range of academic backgrounds including nursing, medicine, psychology and social sciences.

How to apply

Expressions of interest

When you have formulated a PhD research idea and would like to discuss options for studying within the Division of Psychiatry, please approach a member of the Division who shares your interests (broad research interests can be found further down this page under 'Supervisors'). At this stage, you would be expected to share your research interests, thesis idea, training needs and the methods you would hope to use with potential supervisors. You may also want to ask supervisors about future grant proposals on which there might be PhD opportunities. 

Once you have contacted a staff member and have their agreement to be a supervisor, you should register your interest via the form below so that we can support your application. In this form you will be asked to provide contact information, list your supervisor(s), and tell us more about your project plan.  This form also includes the option of providing diversity monitoring information, which will only be used for internal purposes and will not be passed on to supervisors. This information will be stored following UK GDPR guidance.

Register your interest

A prospective supervisor may then invite you to further online meetings, to visit the department for informal discussion, or to complete the UCL application form. At this stage it is essential that a suitable subject area can be identified and that you are sufficiently interested, motivated and able to produce a doctoral thesis. The interaction between student and supervisor can often be a crucial ingredient for the success of any research. 

MPhil to PhD

Under UCL regulations, all PhD students at UCL are initially registered as MPhil students, and must go through the process of an upgrade from MPhil to PhD status.

For full-time research students, this happens between 9 and 18 months after initial registration, and for part-time students, this is between 15 and 30 months after starting. We adhere to the standard UCL expectations for upgrade in the DoP. This involves submitting an upgrade report, presenting your work and future plans to the department and taking part in an upgrade viva.

Funding

See UCL Fees and Costs section for further information on fees.

We have over 70 PhD students in the division. Some are self-funded (often through working part time on studies within the division alongside study), while others have been awarded funding to cover fees and a stipend for living costs. If you have a research idea and would like to discuss PhD options with a member of the Division, do feel free to contact any of us directly, having looked through the webpages describing individuals' research interests.

Available funding opportunitities at UCL include:

• Soc-B Centre for Doctoral Training in Biosocial Research
• UCL-Birkbeck MRC DTP

Other main sources of funding for UK/EU applicants are studentships from:

• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Graduate Research Scholarships (GRS/ORS & CSC)
• Medical Research Council (MRC)
• UBEL DTP Studentship

Below are also some links to opportunities for funding by specialised charities:

Wellcome Trust
National Institute for Health Research

Cancer Research UK

Please check the information for prospective graduate students on the UCL web site for a full listing of funding possibilities. Another source of funding information can be found FindaPhD.com.

Overseas students are eligible to apply to a number of sources of funding, including The British Council, Commonwealth Scholarships and WHO Scholarships. In the majority of instances you must apply direct to the funding organisation and it is vital to make early enquiries (up to a year in advance).

Please also review eligibility for the funding streams listed by clicking on the links provided as conditions vary. If you have a query after checking all the information signposted below please contact us.

Supervisors

Please click a supervisors name to view further information regarding their background and contact details.

Supervisors

Supervisor	Research interests
Dr Rick Adams	Causal inference Genetics Electronic medical records Alzheimer’s disease Neurodevelopment Pharmacoepidemiology
Dr Emma Anderson	Genetic and environmental determinants of dementia Alzheimer’s Mendelian randomisation Genetic epidemiology Polygenic risk scores
Dr Becky Appleton	Children and young people's mental health Health services research Systematic reviews Mixed methods research
Dr Nick Bass	Genetics Psychosis Dementia
Dr Jo Billings	Clinical Psychology Trauma and PTSD Vicarious traumatisation Wellbeing and resilience Evaluating novel treatment interventions Case series design research Qualitative research
Professor Steven Bloch	Communication and conversation in palliative care Communication and conversation in terminal care Conversation analysis Interventions to improve conversation in health and social care
Dr Michael Bloomfield	Neuroimaging Psychopharmacology and psychiatric treatment Psychosis and Schizophrenia Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy PTSD and Complex PTSD Trauma
Professor Elvira Bramon	Schizophrenia Biploar Disorder Psychosis Genetics Neurophysiology Biomarkers
Dr Simon Chen	Environmental epidemiology (air pollution and dementia) Vascular risk factors for dementia Dementia incidence trend and birth cohort effect Clinical prediction model Time-dependent variables in survival analysis
Professor Anthony David	Insight into illness Longitudinal studies of risk for psychosis using the ALSPAC cohort Functional neurological disorders Depersonalisation disorder
Professor Neil Davies	Causal inference Genetics Electronic medical records Alzheimer’s disease Neurodevelopment Pharmacoepidemiology
Dr Jennifer Dykxhoorn	Psychiatric epidemiology Social determinants of mental health  Severe mental illness, self-harm, and suicide
Dr Sally-Anne Francis	Palliative care Medication management and pharmacy practice Patient safety Professional and informal systems of care Health services research
Professor Rebecca Gould	Psychological interventions Older people Dementia Physical health conditions Clinical trials Carers
Professor Angela Hassiotis	Health services research Epidemiology Qualitative research Intellectual developmental disabilities Challenging behaviour Borderline intelligence
Dr Joe Hayes	Psychiatric epidemiology Pharmacoepidemiology Prediction and personalisation Ecological momentary assessment Causal Inference methods Psychosis and schizophrenia Mood disorders Physical health-mental health interface
Professor Paul Higgs	Sociology of ageing Cultures of ageing Personhood and later life Medical Sociology
Professor Quentin Huys	Computational psychiatry Treatment mechanisms Neuromodulators Cognition, metacognition and thought choice Relapse mechanisms and prevention Depression, anxiety and substance use disorders
Dr Artemis Igoumenou	Epidemiology and applied research  Forensic Psychiatry/Forensic mental health  Rehabilitation psychiatry  Risk assessment and risk management  Prison research  Comorbidity of physical and mental health conditions in people with severe mental illness  Education evaluation
Dr Sushrut Jadhav	Clinically applied anthropology Cross-cultural psychiatry Psychiatric ethnography Cultural formulations in mental health Caste & mental health in India Mental health of marginalised populations across cultures
Professor Sonia Johnson	Mental health care for people with severe mental health problems, especially for early psychosis, bipolar or people with a "personality disorder" diagnosis Crisis and acute mental health care Loneliness/social connection and mental health
Professor Helen Killaspy	Rehabilitation Psychiatry Health Services Research Complex psychosis
Professor James Kirkbride	Psychiatric epidemiology Psychosis and schizophrenia Social and economic determinants of mental health Immigration and ethnicity in mental health Causal Inference methods
Professor Karoline Kuchenbaecker	Genetics Depression Diverse populations
Dr Nuriye Kupeli	Dementia care End of life care/palliative care Carer wellbeing Compassion/emotion regulation Psychological interventions
Dr Gemma Lewis	The causes, treatment and prevention of depression and anxiety Self-harm and suicidality Young peoples mental health
Professor Glyn Lewis	Epidemiology and aetiology of depression Relationship between reward and punishment mechanisms and the treatment and outcome of affective disorders
Professor Gill Livingston	Dementia Family Carers Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Quality of Life Trials Technology
Dr. Brynmor Lloyd-Evans	Health services research Social care research Process and implementation research
Dr Natalie Marchant	Dementia prevention Psychological risk factors Subjective cognitive decline Behavioural interventions
Professor Andrew McQuillin	Molecular genetics of schizophrenia Molecular genetics of bipolar Disorder Molecular genetics of alcohol Dependence Molecular genetics of Wernicke Korsakov's syndrome
Dr Kate Merritt	Psychosis Schizophrenia Neuroimaging Brain development Effect of social risk factors on the brain Glutamate
Professor Joanna Moncrieff	Psychiatric drug treatment Decision making in mental health History of psychiatry Critical psychiatry
Dr Nicola Morant	Qualitative research methods Shared decision making for psychiatric medication Experiences of medicine taking for mental health problems PPI and Lived Experience Researcher support in mental health research
Dr Naaheed Mukadam	Dementia – risk factors, prevention, management Ethnic inequalities in health pathways and outcomes Health related behaviours
Dr Vasiliki Orgeta	Dementia prevention, treatment and care Psychological interventions for older people living with and without dementia Depression in late life Traumatic stress and ageing Domestic abuse in older people Family carer well-being Missing with dementia
Professor David Osborn	Epidemiology and randomised trials Cardiovascular health in psychosis Evaluation of interventions in severe mental illness Interface between Mental health and physical health Psychosis including schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder
Dr Alexandra Pitman	Psychiatric epidemiology Suicide and self-harm: risk and protective factors Understanding the suicidal mind Interventions to reduce the risk of suicide Loneliness and social isolation: associations with mental ill-health and suicidality
Dr Penny Rapaport	Dementia care and support interventions Clinical trials in dementia Qualitative research Inclusion health
Dr Sarah Rowe	Self-harm and suicidality Eating disorders Personality disorders Young people’s mental health
Professor Liz Sampson	Delirium End of life care Dementia research Liaison psychiatry for older people Pain
Professor Marc Serfaty	Cognitive behaviour therapy Randomised clinical trials End of life care
Dr Francesca Solmi	Eating disorders and body dissatisfaction Autism and eating disorders, including ARFID Social media and eating disorders Inequalities in eating disorder treatment access and outcomes Policy evaluation Weight stigma and mental health Causal inference methods Epidemiology
Dr Andrew Sommerlad	Dementia Social cognition Social functioning Epidemiology Care home residents
Professor Paddy Stone	Palliative Care Terminal Care Prognosis Symtom Control Cancer-related fatigue Palliative sedation
Dr Vaso Totsika	Intellectual Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorders Family adaptation and well-being Quality of life and well-being in ID and ASD (adults and children) Challenging behaviours
Dr Bella Vivat	Wellbeing Anthropology Sociology of scientific knowledge Mixed methods Patient-reported outcome measure development
Professor Zuzana Walker	Dementia research Treatment trials Lewy Body Dementia Neuroimaging Subjective cognitive decline
Dr Sarah Yardley	Palliative care for potentially life-limiting illnesses when people are also living with severe and enduring mental illness Interpretivist-constructionist socio-culturally orientated theoretical perspectives Critical qualitative approaches to empirical research, secondary analysis, plus review and synthesis methods for complex interventions (e.g. realist, metanarrative and meta-ethnography methods)

Supervision

Along with many areas of UCL, the DoP are introducing thesis committees from October 2019. These are basically expanded supervisory teams. All research students therefore must have:

• A Principal Supervisor, whose area of expertise is closely aligned with the student’s chosen research topic and who is responsible for directing their research training.
• A Subsidiary Supervisor, who is there to help assess progress, provide continuity of supervision and additional expertise.
• At least two additional supervisors with relevant academic experience. Only one of the three non-primary supervisors can be from the same team as the Primary Supervisor. These members may be UCL staff or external to UCL, but at least one of your subsidiary or additional supervisors should be a member of UCL academic staff.
• Your Principal and Subsidiary supervisors will discuss the composition of your thesis committee when you start and this will be approved by one of the Graduate Tutors.

Supervisors do not necessarily need to come from the same division and can even be drawn from different institutions.

The UCL Doctoral Skills Development programme runs training sessions on supervisory relationships, for example “Getting the Most Out of Your Supervisory Relationship”, and confidential one-to-one problem-solving sessions. You can find the full list and sign up on the training sessions webpage. Resources on Good Supervision are also available. If you are having any difficulties with your supervisor, you can speak to the divisional graduate tutors (Claudia Cooper or Liz Sampson).

Training & development 

Personal development

The UCL Doctoral Skills Development programme offers personal and professional development training courses tackling topics such as ‘Building up Emotional Strength as a Researcher’, ‘Mindfulness Meditation’ and ‘Managing the Anxieties of a PhD’. You may find these helpful for your wellbeing as a PhD student. You can find the full list and sign up on the website.

Doctoral training school

There is a mandatory UCL Doctoral School training session that runs in Term 1 called Introduction to Doctoral Skills Development and the Research Student Log. This induction provides an outline of the policy on transferable skills training for doctoral students and the national Researcher Development Framework that informs UCL’s programme. The session will explain how the Research Student Log and the Skills function work together, and how students may record their academic progress and skills development during their degree. 

Support and wellbeing

Mental health and wellbeing support

If you are struggling with your mental health or personal issues, there is a range of support available specifically for UCL students:

• UCL 24/7 Student Support Line is a free, confidential wellbeing support service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 
• UCL Student Support and Wellbeing: a team of expert wellbeing, disability and mental health advisers, offering a range of support for students, including confidential meetings, daily drop-in sessions and advice on extenuating circumstances and interrupting studies. You can call 0207 679 0100, email student.wellbeing@ucl.ac.uk, or find more information on the student support and wellbeing page.
• UCL Student Psychological and Counselling Services: a free service providing short-term counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychiatric support and psycho-educational groups to help you deal with a range of personal, emotional and psychological concerns.
• PhD students can access some additional sources of support from UCL Workplace Health, on top of what's offered for all our students, including SilverCloud, an online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) platform, that offers wellbeing support to UCL staff and PhD students.
• UCL Student Funding Advisors: confidential financial support, advice and guidance for UCL students struggling with money management or complex funding issues. Current students can raise a query on the askUCL system. Prospective students can email: studentfundingadvice@ucl.ac.uk. 

Quiet room

In Wing B there is a quiet room, which can be used for breastfeeding, expressing breastmilk, prayer, or simply as a quiet space. The room is on the left hand side of Wing B, behind meeting room 8.

See what it's like to study a PhD at UCL 

"The best thing about my PhD is getting to learn and develop from the world class researchers within the prestigious faculty and having access to all the opportunities that come with this."

Read what past student, Lucy Webster thought about pursuing a PhD at UCL Division of Psychiatry

1. What is your educational background?

I have a BSc in Psychology, and straight after I came to UCL in 2014 to study for an MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences. I then worked as a Research Assistant within UCL’s Division of Psychiatry for two years before staring my PhD.

2. What are your motivations for pursuing a PGR?

I wanted to study for a PhD as I was motivated to develop my research skills further, to enhance my career prospects, as well as the opportunity to study a topic in-depth that I was interested in.

3. Why did you apply to UCL Brain Sciences?

I had already studied in the Faculty of Brain Sciences for three years by the time I applied for my PhD, so I knew that I liked the faculty, and in particular the Division of Psychiatry. Across both I knew that there was lots of support available for early career researchers and that there is world class quality research going on, which encouraged me to apply to study for my PhD.

4. What is the best thing about your course?

The best thing about my PhD, although it can be challenging, is getting to learn and develop from the world class researchers within the prestigious faculty and having access to all the opportunities that come with this.

5. What do you find interesting about your field of study and what inspires you?

I am researching sleep problems that people living with dementia can experience, what can cause these problems, and what the impact of this is. I was inspired to primarily research dementia as it something that has affected my family personally, and as it is predicted that more and more people will have dementia in the future, it is of increasing importance for research to improve the everyday lives of people with dementia and their families.  

6. What are your career plans once you’ve completed your current programme of study at UCL?

Once I have completed my PhD I hope to have an academic career as a dementia researcher, and as part of my PhD I have completed many courses within UCL Doctoral School to develop my academic and transferable skills needed for this career.

7. Have you undertaken any networking opportunities either as part of your degree or outside of your studies?

UCL has an exchange programme with Yale University specifically for PhD students, and I have been lucky enough to receive funding to undertake an exchange at Yale in the autumn of 2019. I know this will be a great opportunity to widen my academic network internationally. I have also had the opportunity to present at dementia conferences both nationally and internationally, which has enabled me to increase my network.

8. What is it like studying in London and how do you think it has benefited your studies?

Studying in London has benefitted me in so many ways, including the opportunity to attend events such as lectures and networking events, as well the opportunity to make friends with colleagues from around the globe.

9. If you received funding either through a scholarship, award, studentship or bursary, how has it helped you achieve your aspirations and what impact has it had on your studies?

I am funded by a studentship from the UBEL Doctoral Training Partnership, and without this I would not have been able to undertake a PhD on a full-time basis. My funding also provides additional money for research costs such as attending conferences, which has enabled me to present work from my PhD internationally.