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Research Studentships

Departmental Funding

1 Studentship available - Initial deadline 15 April 2024 (deadline to be extended on a rolling basis until position is filled)

Deadline for Applications: 15 Apr 2024

Applications are invited for 1 PhD Studentship based at the Department of Statistical Science, UCL. The position can involve any topic within the Statistical Science remit.

The Department is among the three largest Statistics groups in the UK with more than 30 academic members of staff. Research in the Department is organised into six themes: Biostatistics; Computational Statistics; Economics, Finance and Business; Environmental Statistics; General Theory and Methodology; Multivariate and High Dimensional Data. Research often cuts across these areas. Much of the research is interdisciplinary and involves collaborations within and outside UCL.

The position available is:

  • 1 Departmentally-funded Teaching Assistantship (TA) - Starting date in September 2024

Important information: 

  • The provided Teaching Assistantship (TA) is open to applicants eligible for Home Fees. 

The Teaching Assistantship (TA) will be 3.5 years in duration (or 6 years for part-time students) and will cover the full tuition fees, an annual maintenance stipend of £22,181 for 2024/25 (with some rise applied in subsequent years) and an allowance for research training. Full-time students will spend 6 months of their time teaching (spread across the 3.5 years) and devote the remainder to undertaking their research.

Person Specification

The requirement for admission to the MPhil/PhD in Statistical Science is a 1st class or high upper 2nd class Bachelor’s degree, or a Master’s degree with merit or distinction, in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative discipline. International qualifications of an equivalent standard are also acceptable. Further details can be found on the Departmental website.

The requirements for appointment as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (TA) are detailed in the PGTA person specification

How to Apply

Candidates will need to identify and be in contact with a prospective supervisor in the department in advance of submitting an application.

Step 1: All candidates should first apply for admission to a MPhil/PhD in Statistical Science by visiting the relevant UCL website.

Step 2: The following two documents should then be sent to stats.pgr-admissions@ucl.ac.uk, after changed into a PDF format:

  1. Funding application form (link to Word document to be completed by the candidate)
  2. Supervisor reference form (link to Word document to be completed and sent by the prospective supervisor)

Step 3: For an application to be completed, candidates should also fill in the following online form:

Diversity data form (link to Microsoft Form to be completed by the candidate)

Applications must be submitted by the deadline of 15th Apr 2024, with shortlisting decisions made very soon after this date. Interviews are expected to take place in the second half of March. 

UCL Funding 

UCL Research Excellence Scholarships

UCL Research Excellence Scholarships (UCL-RSE) aim to attract outstanding scholars to undertake doctoral research at UCL. The University is offering 40 fully funded UCL Research Excellence Scholarships - across all UCL Departments - to exceptional applicants from any country. Both prospective and current UCL doctoral students can apply.

Full details on these scholarships, including the eligibility requirements and application procedure are available from the link below. 

As described at the linked webpage above, there are two steps must be followed for the submission of an application. The second step is the one described in the linked webpage under the title "Step 2 - submit your scholarship application documents to your academic department", and it involves the submission of a number of forms to the Department of Statistical Science.  The contact in the Department of Statistical Science for the submission of these forms is:

Ms Marina Lewis
stats.pgr-admissions AT ucl.ac.uk

The deadline for completing all steps of the application procedure is 12 January 2024

UCL Research Opportunity Scholarships

UCL Research Opportunity Scholarships (UCL-ROS) supports BAME postgraduate research degree students. There are 5 scholarships available in total, across all UCL Departments. Applicants must be UK-permanent residents and belong to a BAME ethnic group.

Full details on these scholarships, including the eligibility requirements and application procedure are available from the link below. 

UCL's Research Opportunity Scholarship

The deadline for applications is 12 January 2024

CSC-UCL Joint Research Scholarships

Funding offered by UCL and the China Scholarships Council (CSC) aims to expand the educational, cultural and technological co-operation between the UK and China.  Candidates must be citizens of the People’s Republic of China. Some more eligibility criteria apply - see the "Eligibility" section at this website for the full list of criteria. Applicants must apply first to UCL via the procedures described below and, if succesfull in their UCL application, they must then apply to CSC. UCL covers the tuition fees, while CSC covers the stipend and some extra expenses. Both the UCL and the CSC applications must be successfull for the funding to be awarded.

Funding is available for: 

  • Scheme (A): up to 10 studentships in the Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences (this Faculty includes the Department of Statistical Science) - this scheme is referred to as Dean's Prize.
  • Scheme (B): up to 5 studentships in any subject area in accordance with the CSC’s priorities, including areas covered by the Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences (this Faculty includes the Department of Statistical Science) - this scheme is part of the UCL Research Excellence Scholarships (RES).

Scheme (A): This scheme is referred to as Dean's Prize.

To be considered for 1 of the up to 10 studentships in the Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, candidates must follow the instructions in the dedicated Dean's Prize website. In particular, the documents mentioned in that website should be sent by email to the following contact in the Department of Statistical Science:

Ms Marina Lewis
stats.pgr-admissions AT ucl.ac.uk

The deadline for sending all above described documents to the provided email address is 17 January 2024

Scheme (B): This scheme is part of the UCL Research Excellence Scholarship (RES).

To be considered for 1 of up to 5 studentships in any subject area in accordance with the CSC’s priorities, including areas covered by the Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, candidates must first submit an application for the UCL Research Excellence Scholarship (RES) before submitting an application to the CSC. UCL will then select its five CSC-UCL Joint Research Scholars from the pool of students that applied to the RES. Full application instructions can be found on the RES webpage

All applicants for the UCL-RES, who have an overseas fee status and satisfy the eligibility criteria for the CSC-UCL studentships will automatically be considered for the latter ones via Scheme (B). There is no need to submit a separate application to UCL beyond the one submitted for the UCL-RES scholarship. If succesfull in their UCL application, candidates must then also apply to CSC.

The deadline for completing all steps of the application procedure for a UCL-RES is 12 January 2024

Eligibility Criretia and Timeline for both Schemes (A) and (B):

Candidates can apply separately for both Schemes (A) and (B). All details on the eligibility criteria and the timeline on the announcement of results can be found here:

UCL-EPSRC DTP Studentships

The UCL EPSRC DTP (Doctoral Training Partnership) has 70 fully-funded four-year studentships available for 2024/25. Prospective students may apply to any of a number of projects available.

Studentships are open to both Home and International fee status students, however EPSRC caps the number of International students at 30% so a maximum of 21 International students can be recruited and competition for these places will be particularly strong.

Studentships are expected to start on 01-Oct-2024 unless exceptional circumstances require an alternate start date.

For all relevant information, and details of the application process, please visit: 

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epsrc-doctoral-training/prospective-students/apply-ucl-esprc-dtp-studentship

Upon accessing the above website, you will be able to locate a number of projects submitted by academic members of our department (alongside projects submitted by academics from various other departments). You can select these projects when completing your application.

Doctoral Training Centres

UCL Security Science Doctoral Research Training Centre

The SECReT international centre for PhD training in security and crime science at UCL offers 4 year PhD scholarships to students interested in multidisciplinary security- or crime-related research degrees, which may have a strong overlap with areas of statistics.

Interested students should apply directly for admission to the Department of Security and Crime Science. It may be advantageous to discuss research topics with staff members in the Department of Statistical Science so that they may be identified as potential supervisors at the time of application.

UCL Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science

The Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science (DIS) offers 4 year PhD scholarships. DIS encompasses a wide range of areas in the field of 'big-data' including the collection, storage and analysis of large datasets, as well as the use of complex models, algorithms and machine learning techniques to interpret the data. Over 80 academics from across UCL are involved in the Centre, including some from the Department of Statistical Science.

Interested students should apply directly for admission to the Department of Physics and Astronomy. It may be advantageous to discuss research topics with staff members in the Department of Statistical Science so that they may be identified as potential supervisors at the time of application.

 University Partnerships

Martingale Foundation

The Foundation's mission is to find, fund and support a new generation of STEM postgraduates.  The Martingale Foundation
supports students to undertake postgraduate study at some of the UK’s leading research universities. As a Martingale Scholar, you will receive full funding for a master’s and a PhD, or an integrated PhD, at one of five partner universities.

Interested students should apply directly to the Foundation. It may be advantageous to discuss research topics with staff members in the Department of Statistical Science so that they may be identified as potential supervisors at the time of application.

HDR UK-Turing Wellcome PhD Programme in Health Data Science

The HDR UK/Turing Wellcome PhD Programme aims to develop future leaders in health data science. Its underlying philosophy is that health data science requires a combination of expertise spanning three fundamental areas: statistical, computational and health sciences.

Interested students should apply directly to HDR UK. It may be advantageous to discuss research topics with staff members in the Department of Statistical Science so that they may be identified as potential supervisors at the time of application.

The London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership

The London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) at UCL offers 4 year scholarships to students interested in multidisciplinary research degrees in environmental science, which may have a strong overlap with areas of statistics.

Interested students should apply directly to the DTP. It may be advantageous to discuss research topics with staff members in the Department of Statistical Science so that they may be identified as potential supervisors at the time of application. A list of PhD projects submitted by UCL researchers (some of whom are based in the Department of Statistical Science) is available at the link below.