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Find our more about our postgraduate research programme, how to apply and funding available
About us
Our mission is to identify excellent students from around the world and train them to conduct leading edge research in security and crime science. Numerous scientific leaders have passed through our programmes, before going on to work in prestigious careers in our organisations such as the UK Home Office, DSTL (the UK Defence Science and Technology Lab), the UK National Crime Agency and a range of top universities.
Our programmes embody not only world class doctoral research, supervised by leading academics, but also focuses on developing important transferable skills such as networking, presenting and entrepreneurship.
At UCL, every PhD student is affiliated to a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) that is responsible for their pastoral care and co-curricular activities. In our department, you have the choice between:
1. EPSRC CDT in Cyber-physical risk NEW!!!
- Providing an MPhil/PhD in Cyber-physical risk (4 years full time)
- Features taught components and extra-curricular elements
- Topics of interest can include hybrid threats, disinformation, offender behaviour in cyber and physical spaces, cyber-physical systems, etc
- Providing an MPhil/PhD in Cybersecurity (4 years full time)
- Features taught components and extra-curricular elements
- Topics of interest can include information security, encryption, cryptocurrencies. security testing, etc.
3. UCL CDT in Security Science (SECReT)
- Providing a choice of MPhil/PhD in Security & Crime Science (3 years full time, 5 years part time) or an MRes + MPhil/PhD in Security Science (4 years full time, 6 years part time)
- Topics of interest can terrorism and organised crime, policing, forensic sciences, etc.
New EPSRC CDT in Cyber-physical risk
We have just launched a new Centre for Doctoral Training in cyber-physical risk in collaboration with UCL Computer Science (CS), designed to provide students with a broad range of competencies to manage criminal and security threats that develop jointly across the cyber and physical spaces in increasingly digital societies.
Students on this new four year programme will study cyber-physical risk through different disciplinary lenses and progressively develop an acute awareness of the wider issues and dilemmas posed by hybrid threats in democratic societies, as well as complementary professional skills for their future careers.
Applications will be open in the coming months via our dedicated UCL website. Please check our dedicated page regularly for updates.
Find out more about our CDT in Cyber-physical risk
PhD Open Evening 2024
This event has now passed.
Watch the recording via our YouTube channel
What we offer
- We offer the most comprehensive integrated PhD programme for students wishing to pursue multidisciplinary security or crime-related research degrees.
- We recruit our doctoral students from a range of scientific backgrounds to pursue research in crime or security domains across the engineering and social sciences.
- Students can enter through various funding routes (self-funded, industry sponsors, scholarships).
- We have a thriving student society, which all our postgraduate research students (from Routes A & B) automatically become members of when they enrol. The SECReT Society organises research seminars, poster sessions and social events throughout the academic calendar. Follow the SECReT Society LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram accounts to find out more
- Our PhD graduates have gone on to a wide variety of interesting careers in the civil service, NGOs, think tanks, private sector organisations and academia. You can read some of their testimonials on our alumni webpage.
Interested in applying?
You can find out more about potential research topics and supervisors on our Areas of study page. Before applying, it is very important that you have researched and contacted a potential supervisor, and the information on this page will help you to do this.
Once you feel that you are ready to apply, you can find out everything you need to know on our Applying for a PhD and PhD scholarships pages. Please make sure that you have familiarised yourself with the information on all of these pages before applying or emailing us. We cannot accept speculative CVs by email and we will direct you to these pages if you contact us in this way.