How to Apply

Detail on how to apply for PhD study.

Departmental application process and deadlines

STS's Dr Erman Sozudogru, at Graduation 2018

All MPhil/PhD admissions decisions are made by the Departmental Graduate Committee, chaired by the departmental Graduate Tutor (Professor Brian Balmer). Please note that a key component in the admission decision is the research proposal submitted with the application form. Since the MPhil/PhD is a research-only degree, we expect candidates to have a fairly well defined research proposal at the time of the application. We strongly encourage candidates to contact the STS Postgraduate (Research) Programme Tutor, Professor Brian Balmer. and potential supervisors in advance of submission to discuss their proposal.

You must apply via the UCL online application.

Please select the UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) as your home department in the application. In order to be considered as a prospective PhD candidate, and in addition to the documentation formally required by UCL, you will need to submit the following:

A research proposal. This should be uploaded as a separate attachment to your application. The proposal is an outline of the research you intend to carry out for your PhD. It should be no more than five pages long (plus a bibliography), and should contain a precise contextualisation in the literature, an original research question and an outline of the methodology you will use in your research (or for purely philosophical projects a clear justification of the research question).
Please make sure you complete the personal statement section on the electronic application. Please include a brief statement on how your research fits within the department, and a rationale for why STS is the best home for your project

Here is some useful advice from UCL Registry on how to approach a potential supervisor and on writing a proposal