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(Image credit: Enrico Salvati, DPhil in Engineering Science / Graduate Photography Competition)

Last updated

26 May 2023

DPhil in Engineering Science

About
Studentships
Entry requirements
Resources
Funding and Costs
College preference
How to Apply

About the course

The DPhil in Engineering Science will offer you the opportunity to develop in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in your chosen field of engineering research. To support your research, you will develop broad skills in relevant areas of mathematical and computational modelling, in the design and build of apparatus, in the development of software, and in data analytics and visualisation.

A key aspect of your research experience in the department will be exposure to the broad sweep of today's engineering research. The department’s research groups cluster into the following general areas:

thermofluids and turbomachinery
solid mechanics and materials engineering
civil and offshore
information, control and vision
electrical and optoelectronic
chemical and process
energy
biomedical engineering.

However, the department is committed to considering engineering as a unified subject, allowing interdisciplinary research to flourish, both across these areas and to other departments in the University.

In the first year, you will develop research skills in two ways. Firstly, you will read the current literature, often in reading groups, and attend research seminars, relevant lectures and training courses. Secondly, you will design and build apparatus, develop software, or both to address your own research topic. Often there is external involvement and you will develop your work in collaboration with researchers from industry and other research organisations.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Department of Engineering Science and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Department of Engineering Science.

You will join your supervisor's research group which normally has post-doctoral researchers and other research students working on broadly similar research themes. Typically you would interact daily with members of the group and have weekly contact with your supervisor. Many groups have weekly meetings where members discuss their research or perhaps present other published work.

Assessment

You will receive ongoing assessment and feedback from your supervisors. At the end of your first year (second year for a part-time student) you will be required to Transfer your Status from a Probationary Research Student (PRS) to DPhil Student. For the transfer process you need to write a report and give a presentation on your research to date and your plans for progressing. Your work is assessed by two faculty members or researchers in the department who are not your supervisors and involves an oral exam. At the beginning of your third year of study (beginning of fifth year for a part-time student) your progress towards completion is again formally assessed, by a Confirmation of DPhil Status process. A report of your progress and your plan for completion is submitted and is assessed by two faculty or researchers in the department who are not your supervisors and involves an oral exam

At the end of your research you will be required to submit a substantial thesis which is read and examined by experts in the field, one from the department and one from elsewhere. You will then defend this thesis at a Viva Voce examination with the two examiners. It is anticipated that the thesis will result in the publication of two or three journal papers.

Graduate destinations

Doctoral graduates from Engineering Science are ideally equipped for careers in a wide range of engineering, which is often in their specialisms but in many cases is not. Most enjoy engineering-related careers including: engineering companies, consulting companies, start-up companies (sometimes based on the students research) research and development companies and academia. Others enter the broad range of professions where their high degree of ability in mathematical and systems modelling is required, such as finance and patent law. The location of jobs varies from Oxford to New Zealand.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic (including Covid-19), epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Other courses you may wish to consider

If you're thinking about applying for this course, you may also wish to consider the courses listed below. These courses may have been suggested due to their similarity with this course, or because they are offered by the same department or faculty.

All graduate courses offered by the Department of Engineering Science

Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems EPSRC CDT

Energy Systems MSc

Engineering Science DPhil

Engineering Science MSc by Research

Future Propulsion and Power EPSRC CDT

Nanotechnology for Medicine and Health Care MSc

Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures (DPhil) EPSRC CDT

Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures (DEng) EPSRC CDT

EPSRC iCASE studentships

The Department of Engineering, supported by EPSRC, iCASE and a number of industrial partners, is offering six, fully-funded studentships in a range of research areas. Unless otherwise stated below, these studentships are open to all applicants and all six projects are offered on both a full-time and part-time basis.

The studentships include the opportunity to undertake a work placement with the industrial partner listed for each project. To comply with EPSRC Industrial Case conditions, no application fee will be charged to apply for any of the projects listed below.

More information about iCASE studentships can be found on the UKRI website.

The How to apply section of this page provides further information about the application process and links to the application form. Any questions can be directed to the departmental administrator via the contact details provided on this page under Further information and enquiries.

Project 1:
Heat transfer for hydrogen based propulsion

Supervisor and Industrial Partner

Professor Peter Ireland and Rolls Royce

Description

Rolls-Royce is committed to reducing net carbon emissions throughout its product portfolio. In terms of aircraft propulsion, use of hydrogen is one potential avenue in achieving carbon reduction and it is timely to explore key enabling technologies required to achieve this.

One of the big challenges for hydrogen fuelled aerospace propulsion is the use of liquid hydrogen to enable higher payload/range aircraft. Liquid Hydrogen requires compression and heating before being introduced into the combustion chamber. Hydrogen’s high heat capacity and low molecular weight present significant challenges as well of opportunities in terms of heat transfer. The University of Oxford Osney Lab’s expertise in heat transfer is therefore key to studying novel light weight heat transfer solutions that would be suitable for engine applications. The proposed research in two-phase flow heat exchangers would enable conditioning of hydrogen in the fuel system prior to burning of combustor and is therefore critical to the success of hydrogen burning combustion.

Project 2:
Deep reinforcement learning for long- and short-horizon motion planning for domestic robots

Supervisor and Industrial Partner

Dr Ioannis Havoutis and Dyson Technology

Description

Recent works on RL have demonstrated an impressive ability to locomote over challenging and unstructured terrain. The control intelligence to perform sophisticated manoeuvres, including traversing highly irregular environments that require planning ahead, however, is an active area of research. The goal of this project is to develop a learning-based approach, trained using deep RL, which performs long-horizon motion planning online during locomotion, while also tracking and adapting these motion plans to address external perturbations and tracking drifts.

Project 3:
Application of System Theoretic Process Analysis to understand safety requirements for a domestic robot

Supervisor and Industrial Partner

Dr Lars Kunze and Dyson Technology

Description

System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) is a technique to identify unsafe control actions and hazardous states with the aim to generate detailed safety requirements to prevent the occurrence of the identified hazardous scenarios. STPA has been developed at MIT more than a decade ago. Since its inception, it has been adopted in different industries including the automotive sector. In the past, STPA has been shown to be very effective in understanding emergent behaviours and complex interactions of novel products. In this project, we aim to identify the high-level safety requirements that would apply to domestic robots. Application scenarios might include robot navigation and/or manipulation tasks. In this context, STPA will be used to complement risk assessments based on safety measures and strengthen the safety case for domestic applications. A focus will be on the operation of robots in open-ended, dynamic environments.

The successful candidate will join the Cognitive Robotics Group (CRG) within the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI).

Cognitive Robotics Group (CRG)

The Cognitive Robotics Group (CRG) investigates problems in perception, inference, learning, and interaction with the goal to endow autonomous systems with intelligence to explore, adapt, and collaborate with people in open-ended environments.

Oxford Robotics Institute

The Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) is an independent institute within the Department of Engineering Science. We are built from collaborating and integrated groups of researchers, engineers, and students all driven to change what robots can do for us. Our current interests are diverse – from flying to grasping, from inspection to running, from haptics to driving, from exploring to planning. We are the only group in the UK that specialises in large-scale mobile autonomy - both indoors and outdoors. We validate our thinking and challenge ourselves by fielding robotic systems in real application environments.

Project 4:
Machine learning assisted understanding of the impact performance of EV battery protective enclosures as a function of their geometric shape and constraints imposed by the choice of materials systems, their manufacturing processes and topology

Supervisor and Industrial Partner

Professor Nik Petrinic, Dr Kevin Bronik and Constellium UK Limited

Project Description

Following from Constellium’s successful initial development and validation of advanced aluminium battery enclosures concept in IUK projects (AL-ULEV & LiBERATE) and APC project (ALIVE), the scope for further research and consequent advancements has been identified. Understanding the effects of selected materials systems manufacturing routes, their temperature, pressure and rate dependent mechanical performance upon the topology and shape optimisation in the design is expected to be dramatically improved by engaging machine learning. A number of processes that comprise a new product development with expected advanced performance in-service require better synchronisation and cross-correlation in order to appreciate the variabilities arising from the underlying materials systems manufacturing processes, the topology and shape of product sub-components, as well as the product assembly/fabrication.

The proposed investigation will rely upon stochastic approaches to modelling the anticipated materials systems mechanical performance at multiple length scales in order to furbish topology and shape optimisation methodologies engaged in product design with clearer data sets that enable machine learning methodologies to assist the product design as well as the whole product life cycle.

The objective of this PhD research project is to develop novel elements of the desired advanced methods and tools to enable an automated, or semi-automated, design of the crash structure required to build a fully functional battery enclosure.

Project 5:
Learning task and motion planning for mobile manipulation robots

Supervisor and Industrial Partner

Dr Ioannis Havoutis and Siemens AG

Description

Robotic task automation, both in domestic and industrial settings, currently requires detailed process planning that often relies on state machines that are inflexible and designed for repetitive tasks. This severely limits the applicability of robotic technology to dynamic environments such as service, business and domestic settings, where robots are likely to share the same space interact and collaborate with humans.

This project will build the framework required for robust and agile robotic mobile manipulation in a range of dynamic environments that require physical interaction with everyday objects. An example can be a robotic assistant that completes tasks in a kitchen environment, for example to load and run the dishwasher. The mobile robot needs to reason about the sequence of tasks required to accomplish the goal, react and adapt to changes in the environment, as well as perform a series of distinct manipulation tasks.

Project 6:
The mechano-biological response of living muscle tissue to high energy injury

Supervisor and Industrial Partner

Professor Robin Cleveland and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)

Eligibility

This studentship is co-funded with DSTL and is open to applicants eligible for a UKRI ‘Home’ award.

Description

The goal of the project is to understand how blast waves result in injury to tissue with particular focus on the genesis and evolution of progressive tissue loss in skeletal muscle. Progressive tissue loss is the situation where apparently healthy soft tissue decays in the days and weeks after blast exposure and is a major challenge in the treatment of blast victims. This project will employ both numerical modelling and experimental measurements to advance understanding of progressive tissue loss with the goal of improving its management. The exact balance of computational and experimental work will depend on the background and expertise of the student.

Experimental studies will employ commercial hand-held ballistic shock sources, which produces a waveform like a blast wave, in order to assess tissue damage at organ level, cellular level and molecular level in perfused living muscle tissue. Protocols for analysing damage will be determined and thresholds for tissue damage will be linked to the mechanical insult delivered to the tissue. The project will provide the opportunity for field visits to DSTL through the project in order to carry out experiments with their blast wave facilities.

The computational component would involve the development for model of blast wave propagation (eg OpenFoam or Abaqus) in order to estimate loading conditions in tissue samples. Initial work will look at simple targets, eg a homogenous block of tissue in which mechanical parameters such as shear stress, strain energy and strain rate, can be assessed and compared to measurements. The mechanical parameters from the model will be compared to experimental measurements of tissue damage and progressive tissue loss. The model can then be developed further to account for phenomenon such as: more complex structures; the presence of multiple tissue types; more detailed viscoelastic models; full limb geometries.

The outcomes will be to link the mechanical insult to the tissue to the genesis of progressive tissue loss. This will provide insight into better management of blast induced tissue damage.

Informal enquiries are encouraged and should be addressed to Professor Robin Cleveland.

Entry requirements for entry in 2023-24

Proven and potential academic excellence

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in engineering or a related discipline relevant for the proposed area of research, such as physics, materials science, computer science, applied mathematics or chemistry.

A previous master's qualification is not required.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

Prior publications may be an advantage when applying for graduate study in engineering science.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's higher level. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

Minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level requirement
Test	Minimum overall score	Minimum score per component
IELTS Academic (Institution code: 0713)	7.5	7.0
TOEFL iBT, including the 'Home Edition' (Institution code: 0490)	110	Listening: 22 Reading: 24 Speaking: 25 Writing: 24
C1 Advanced*	191	185
C2 Proficiency^†	191	185

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
^†Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides further information about the English language test requirement.

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

References

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The How to apply section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application, including an official transcript and a CV/résumé. The How to apply section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews in person or by other means may form part of the admissions process.

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements published under that heading. References and supporting documents submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our 'After you apply' pages provide more information about how applications are assessed.

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of the University’s pilot selection procedure and for scholarships aimed at under-represented groups;
country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.

Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information about processing special category data for the purposes of positive action and using your data to assess your eligibility for funding, can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the About section of this page;
the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our After you apply pages provide more information about offers and conditions.

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a Financial Declaration in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any relevant, unspent criminal convictions before you can take up a place at Oxford.

Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS)

Some postgraduate research students in science, engineering and technology subjects will need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate prior to applying for a Student visa (under the Student Route). For some courses, the requirement to apply for an ATAS certificate may depend on your research area.

Resources

Engineering research and teaching at Oxford takes place in a unified Department of Engineering Science with over 100 academic staff who are committed to advanced work in their own specialities while recognising a common engineering foundation. This creates an intellectual space where interdisciplinary work thrives and where expert advice is available to students in areas which though not central to their core research still impinge on it. The department (and the University) host expert speakers from around the world which provides opportunities for students to listen to and interact with leaders in their own fields; but also to learn about other fields of interest as well.

There are strong links too with researchers in other departments in the mathematical and physical sciences and, ever increasingly, with researchers and practitioners in medical science departments and University hospitals.

The eight research clusters in engineering science at Oxford are:

thermofluids and turbomachinery
solid mechanics and materials
civil and offshore
information, control and vision
electrical and optoelectronic
chemical and process
energy
biomedical engineering

These research clusters are well-supported by experienced teams of technical, computing, and administrative support staff. The department has well-equipped research areas and workshops, which together with offices, lecture theatres, library, common room, stores, reprographics and other facilities, occupies some 16,000 square metres.

The department has around 550 research students and about 200 postdoctoral researchers and research fellows. Direct funding of research grants and contracts, from a variety of sources, amounts to an annual turnover of approximately £25m in addition to general turnover of about £26m.

Funding

The University expects to be able to offer around 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2023-24. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships, if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential.

For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:

Select from the list:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the department's website.

Funding for EPSRC iCASE studentships

ICASE students receive funding for a full EPSRC studentship for four years (full time equivalent). If you submit an eligible application for a studentship and you are successful, you will receive a stipend of at least £17,668 to cover living costs and expenses and your course fees will be paid on your behalf for the duration of your fee liability. More information about iCASE studentships can be found on the UKRI website.

Costs

Annual fees for entry in 2023-24

Full-time study

Fee status	Annual Course fees
Home	£8,960
Overseas	£29,700

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Part-time study

Fee status	Annual Course fees
Home	£4,480
Overseas	£14,850

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Information about course fees

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges.

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Continuation charges

Following the period of fee liability, you may also be required to pay a University continuation charge and a college continuation charge. The University and college continuation charges are shown on the Continuation charges page.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Funding section of this website provides further information about course fees, including information about fee status and eligibility and your length of fee liability.

Additional information

Full time study

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees (or, after fee liability ends, continuation charges) and living costs. However, please note that, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Part-time study

Please note that you are required to attend in Oxford for a minimum of 30 days each year, and you may incur additional travel and accommodation expenses for this. Also, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur further additional expenses, such as travel and research expenses. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for grants from your department and/or college, or from an industrial sponsor, to help you cover some of these expenses.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2023-24 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,290 and £1,840 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2023-24, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of 5% or more each year – although this rate may vary significantly depending on how the national economic situation develops. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

If you are studying part-time your living costs may vary depending on your personal circumstances but you must still ensure that you will have sufficient funding to meet these costs for the duration of your course.

College preference

All graduate students at Oxford belong to a department or faculty and a college or hall (except those taking non-matriculated courses). If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. The Colleges section of this website provides information about the college system at Oxford, as well as factors you may wish to consider when deciding whether to express a college preference. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 45 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as Permanent Private Halls (PPHs).

For some courses, the department or faculty may have provided some additional advice below to help you to decide. Whatever you decide, it won’t affect how the academic department assesses your application and whether they decide to make you an offer. If your department makes you an offer of a place, you’re guaranteed a place at one of our colleges.

Full-time study

The following colleges accept students for full-time study on this course:

Part-time study

The following colleges accept students for part-time study on this course:

Before you apply

Our guide to getting started provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. Check the deadlines on this page and the information about deadlines in our Application Guide. If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance.

Application fee waivers
Application fee automatically waived for 'Standard'-type EPSRC iCASE studentship applications

All applications except EPSRC iCASE studentships

An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

applicants from low-income countries;
refugees and displaced persons;
UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and
applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged to check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver before you apply.

EPSRC iCASE studentship applications

The application fee of £75, which is usually payable per course application, will be waived for EPSRC iCASE studentship applications to this course. You should apply for the studentship using the relevant button below. When selecting the application type, please choose 'Standard'. When you submit your application you will not be shown the screen that collects payment details and you will not need to enter a waiver code.

Readmission for current Oxford graduate taught students

If you're currently studying for an Oxford graduate taught course and apply to this course with no break in your studies, you may be eligible to apply to this course as a readmission applicant. The application fee will be waived for an eligible application of this type. Check whether you're eligible to apply for readmission.

Application fee waivers for eligible associated courses

If you apply to this course and up to two eligible associated courses from our predefined list during the same cycle, you can request an application fee waiver so that you only need to pay one application fee.

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

You are encouraged to communicate with the department in order to refine your application, especially where studentships are involved.

Please ensure that you have researched the specialisms of the department and those of your potential supervisor(s) before making contact. Once you have done this, you can either contact the academic staff member directly or route your enquiry via the Admissions Administrator using the contact details provided on this page.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents. If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Proposed field and title of research project

Under the 'Field and title of research project' please enter your proposed field or area of research if this is known. If the department has advertised a specific research project that you would like to be considered for, please enter the project title here instead.

You should not use this field to type out a full research proposal. You will be able to upload your research supporting materials separately if they are required (as described below).

Proposed supervisor

Under 'Proposed supervisor name' enter the name of the academic (s) who you would like to supervise your research.

You can enter up to four names and you should list them in order of preference or indicate equal preference.

Referees:
Three overall, of which at least one must be academic

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

Professional references are welcomed, but these must be obtained from your line manager (or equivalent). At least one academic reference must be provided.

Your references will support your intellectual ability, academic achievement and potential, motivation, creativity, and ability to work singly and in a group.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

CV/résumé

A CV/résumé is compulsory for all applications. Most applicants choose to submit a document of one to two pages highlighting their academic achievements and any relevant professional experience.

Research proposal:
A minimum of 1,000 words, up to a maximum of 1,500 words

You should submit an outline of your proposed research, written in English. The overall word count should not include any bibliography.

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

This will be assessed for:

your past commitment to sustained and intense study and your reasons for wishing to undertake research
evidence of interest in, experience of, and understanding of the proposed area of study
the originality of the proposed research
the feasibility of successfully completing the project in the time available
your ability to present a reasoned and coherent case in English.

Inevitably your ideas will change as you develop your project. You should nevertheless make the best effort you can to describe the extent and ambition of your proposed research using sources and methods from the current literature. Your proposal should focus on your research ambitions in engineering, rather than on personal achievements, interests and aspirations.

Start or continue a non-studentship application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please refer to the requirements above and consult our Application Guide for advice. You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.

Application Guide Apply - Full time Apply - Part time