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Departmental Funding
- Up to 5 Teaching Assistant (TA) Studentships available via our Department - deadline 10 January 2025
Deadline for Applications: 10 January 2025
Applications are invited for up to 5 PhD Studentships based at the Department of Statistical Science, UCL. The positions 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: Causality; Computational Statistics and Machine Learning; Economics, Finance and Business; Environmental Statistics; Probability; Statistics in Biomedicine and Health Economics. Research often cuts across these areas. Much of the research is interdisciplinary and involves collaborations within and outside UCL.
Each Teaching Assistant (TA) Studentship 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 (this was £22,237 for 2024/25, with some rise expected to be applied for 2025/26 and for each of the subsequent years during the PhD) 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 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 10th January 2025, with shortlisting decisions made very soon after this date. Interviews are expected to take place in late January or beginning of February.
UCL Funding
- UCL Research Excellence Scholarships - Positions Open - deadline 10 January 2025
UCL prestigious Research Excellence Scholarship (UCL-RES) aims 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, at the section termed "How to apply", there are two steps that 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.ukThe deadline for completing all steps of the application procedure is 10 January 2025.
- UCL Research Opportunity Scholarships - Positions Open - deadline 10 January 2025
UCL's Research Opportunity Scholarship (UCL-ROS) supports supports Black, Asian and ethnic minority postgraduate research degree students at the start of their academic career. The aim of the UCL-ROS is to address under-representation and help improve equality, diversity and inclusion in UCL’s post-graduate research student body. The scholarship offers full financial support and a skills development programme, both designed to promote academia as a more attractive career option.
The scholarship is run jointly by the UCL Student Funding Office and the UCL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team, in collaboration with the Windsor Fellowship.
There are 5 scholarships available, across all UCL Departments. Applicants must be UK-permanent residents from certain Black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups under-represented at UCL. See the Research Opportunity Scholarship website for details. In particular, the documents mentioned in that website should be sent by email to the following contact at the Department of Statistical Science:
Ms Marina Lewis
stats.pgr-admissions AT ucl.ac.ukFull 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 10 January 2025.
- CSC-UCL Joint Research Scholarships - Positions Open - Deadline 10 January 2025 or 15 January 2025
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 and permanent residents of the People’s Republic of China at the time of application. Some more eligibility criteria apply - see the "Eligibility" section at the Scholarships' website for the full list of criteria. Applicants must apply first to UCL via the procedures described below and, if successfull 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 (UCL-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 at the Department of Statistical Science:
Ms Marina Lewis
stats.pgr-admissions AT ucl.ac.ukThe deadline for sending all above described documents to the provided email address is 15 January 2025.
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 10 January 2025.
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 Research Excellence Scholarships for Cross-disciplinary Training - Positions Open - Deadline 10 January 2025
For the 2025/26 academic year UCL is offering 4 fully funded scholarship places - across all UCL departments - to current UCL MPhil/PhD and EngD students from any country wishing to spend an additional year of their MPhil/PhD or EngD in another UCL department acquiring research skills and knowledge from a different discipline, which can be applied in their normal area of research. Training should be of one year's full-time duration to permit sustained exposure to the new discipline.
The scholarships can be taken at any point during the fee-paying period of an exsiting MPhil/PhD or EngD programme.
Full details on these scholarships, including the eligibility requirements and application procedure are available from the link below.
UCL Research Excellence Scholarships for Cross-disciplinary Training- Complete applications must be submitted by 10 January 2025.
Doctoral Training Centres
- EPSRC CDT in Collaborative Computational Modelling at the Interface (CCMI) - Applications to be accepted soon for Sep 2025 entry
CCMI offers fully funded 4-year PhD positions at either UCL or Imperial College. The Centre is a collaboration between UCL and Imperial College with an aim to offer a novel and innovative PhD training programme at the interface of computational modelling, data sciences, and research software engineering.
CCMI will offer a bespoke cohort training programme consisting of dedicated block workshops, software weeks, summer schools, and many other activities. The Centre will provide research opportunities across computational mathematics, scientific algorithms, high-performance computing, research software engineering, data sciences, and applications.
Interested students should apply directly via CCMI's website, following the link below.
- 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 - Positions Open - deadline 27 October 2024
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 can receive full funding for a master’s and a PhD, at one of eight partner universities.Interested students should apply directly to the Foundation.
- 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.