The University of Birmingham offers supervision for the degree of Ph.D. in Computer Science in many research areas of computer science.
We are looking for highly motivated and well-qualified graduates to join us to work towards a doctorate. Most of our PhD students are full-time students; a small number are part-time students, usually working for UK companies.
Our work is regularly presented in international conferences and journals, indicating the high standards we achieve in research. In 2008, the UK Funding Councils undertook a national assessment of the quality of research at British universities, the RAE. Among 81 submissions nationally for computer science, the School is equal 7th in the proportion of 4* awards, for research quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
The Computer Science department has expanded rapidly over the last decade. Academics and their PhD students are loosely organized into research themes. Much of our school's development in the last five years has been in the development of new areas, notably the Natural Computation, Programming Languages, and Computational Linguistics groups.
When applying as a Computer Science PhD student, the research proposed should be relevant to the research interests of a potential supervisor (see the School's research groupings and personal home pages of academics for suitable topics). Applicants are encouraged to contact potential supervisors informally, whose names can then be given on the formal application via Admissions. Applications can be processed more quickly if it is clear who the potential supervisors are. All accepted applicants will be automatically considered for our departmental PhD scholarships. These scholarships are by nomination only, so that there is no separate application.
We occasionally admit students on the M.Phil. in Computer Science, but applicants looking for a research training degree shorter than a Ph.D. are encouraged to apply for our MSc in Advanced Computer Science.
