Graduate Research

Together, over 350 graduate students and 60 academic staff create our diverse and vibrant community that benefits from the vast array of resources and facilities at UCL and throughout London. There are few other settings in the world that can offer such a stimulating context for advanced research and learning.

Our research covers fieldwork, laboratory analysis and conservation, artefact studies, and theoretical and synthetic work from a wide range a range of perspectives. Staff projects are active on on five continents and in tropical Africa, Asia, Britain and Europe, China, Egypt, the Pacific, South America and the Caribbean, funded by regular and substantial research funding from a wide range of national and international sources.

We are organised into three management sections: Archaeological Sciences, Heritage Studies, and World Archaeology, and we have a number of research networks that form hubs and clusters in various areas of archaeology. Research focuses on a wide range of topical areas, including:

• Archaeological theory
• Archaeology of hunter-gatherer, early agrarian and ancient urban societies
• Comparative archaeology in a global context
• Human palaeobiology, subsistence, diet and health
• Indigenous archaeology
• Museum studies, heritage management and public archaeology
• Palaeoecology and environmental change
• Prehistoric, ancient and classical art
• Quantitative methods and computer applications
• Technology and conservation of ancient materials.

Research Topics

PhD supervision at the Institute of Archaeology is available in almost all areas of archaeology and staff welcome proposals from prospective students.

• For a list of subjects currently being pursued by students at the IoA, please see here

You are strongly advised to contact your proposed supervisor with your proposal before submit an admissions application.

• Details of IoA staff’s research interests can be found here 

Applications and Funding

Students can register for and start research degree programmes on 1 October or 1 February, but are strongly encouraged to start in October if at all possible.

Applications for entry on 1 February 2026 is now open. Applications for entry on 1 October 2026 will open on 13 October 2025. Students are advised to submit a complete application by 1 May at the latest. Students applying for funding are advised to submit complete applications (with references) early. For further details on funding deadlines and what we look for in a research proposal please click on the link below. Any queries please contact the SHS PGR team.

Research degrees may also be pursued on a part-time basis. 

Publish with us

In partnership with BAR, we publish the UCL Institute of Archaeology PhD series, which offers rapid publication of largely unaltered PhD theses. The series covers the full range of subject areas studied at the Institute, including world archaeology, archaeological science, cultural heritage, conservation and museum studies. It makes data, analyses and interpretation available promptly to a wide audience.  

Student voice - Giacomo Fontana

PhD student 2019-2023

Giacomo was awarded the Nick Ryan Bursary Award (CAA) in 2023 for his paper titled ‘A Quantitative and Transferable Multi-scale Approach for the Study of Hillfort Communities.’  The award covered Giacomo’s expenses for attending the next CAA conference in Auckland, New Zealand. 

According to Giacomo:

“UCL Institute of Archaeology’s unique worldview prompted me to go beyond regional boundaries and examine different cultural contexts when modelling and interpreting my data. This allowed me to challenge the prevailing classical view dominating the research in the area and explore how models and theoretical frameworks developed elsewhere provide a better explanation for the data.”