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The Department of Computing at Imperial College is a leading department of computer science among the UK universities and offers an exciting research environment for prospective postgraduate students. It has consistently been awarded the highest research rating (5*) in Research Assessment Exercises, including the most recent one held in 2001, and was rated as "Excellent" in the previous national assessment of teaching quality.
Two research degree programmes are offered, one leading to the MPhil degree and the other to the PhD degree. All students are initially registered for MPhil but may transfer to the PhD programme if their progress is satisfactory. The programmes may be followed in either full-time or part-time modes, for which the minimum periods of registration are two or three calendar years, respectively. The time taken for a full-time student to complete the PhD programme is normally expected to be three years from the date of initial registration.
The funding details are different for UK, European and Overseas students.
Each year the Department has a number of EPSRC-DTA studentships which are awarded to suitably qualified research students. These pay for the fees and bursary.
Fees: £3,010 per year
Bursary: £13,200 per year
The current situation is that the Department has some scholarships to fund the fees for suitably qualified European students (this typically includes citizens from countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004). The student or supervisor has to find the funding for the bursary. It is not likely that this situation will change in the foreseeable future.
Fees: £3,010 per year
Bursary: £13,200 per year (for EU students that fulfill "residency" requirements)
There are national scholarships for overseas students, called ORS awards, which cover the difference between the overseas fees (£10,850) and the home fees (£3,010). These awards are prestigious and competitive. The student or supervisor has to find the funds for the remainder of the fees and the bursary. To ensure eligibility for these awards, please apply as early as possible, e.g. in early November for the competition of the subsequent year. Please refer to the 2005 Guidelines for the ORS Awards Scheme.
Fees: overseas students fees are currently £10,850. The ORS award covers the difference between overseas fees and the EPSRC home fees.
Please see Scholarships and Awards for other funding opportunities, in particular the Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards. Through its Industrial Liaison Unit, the Department is able to offer enhanced PhD scholarships to selected students. These are supported through generous donations from industrial sponsors. They are allocated early in the first year of study and are tenable for up to 3 years and renewed on an annual basis. The criteria for award and financial value differ between scholarships and are publicised at the start of the selection process.
This years Deutsche Bank PhD scholarship has been awarded to Henry Styles, who graduated with a First from our department and is now studying for a PhD under Wayne Luk's supervision.
This year's Microsoft scholarship will be shared between Tyrone Grandison, supervisor Morris Sloman, and Ioannis Xanthakos, supervisor Fariba Sadri.
Please note that the Department does not provide funding
for either tuition
fees or maintenance. There are sometimes
Scholarships available through
the Department, College, or
individual supervisors.
Opportunities for
Fellowships, Teaching Assistantship (TA)
and Research Assistantship (RA)
posts are not that frequent
and you would need to refer to www.doc.ic.ac.uk/about/situationsvacant/
on a regular basis to see what (if anything) is available.
The Department welcomes new applications from all suitably qualified candidates. Applicants are required to have a good Honours MSc degree or equivalent degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or some IT-related discipline. Candidates who have a BSc degree only will not be considered. Additionally, applicants need to demonstrate strong research potential. Where appropriate, we may encourage applicants to register first for the MSc in Advanced Computing and then, upon successful completion of this, to apply for registration for a research degree. The MSc course includes special research-oriented provisions for students intending to take this route.
We strongly advise you to first read
before sending our PhD Admissions Team any questions by email
phdadmissions
"at" doc.imperial.ac.uk or Cristina Novakovic
using cmn "at" doc.imperial.ac.uk. Please read item 4
carefully to assess
whether your achievements would meet
the college's expectations.
Strong candidates
increase their change of acceptance or facilitate the
processing of their application by
If you have any problems accessing electronic information regarding taught postgraduate degrees please email the Postgraduate Admissions Secretary Mrs. Barbara Claxton or write to:
The Assistant Registrar (Admissions),
Imperial College London,
SW7 2AZ.
In either case the completed application form should be returned to the above address, not to the Department (unless you have explicit instructions to do that). This should be done, preferably, by 1 May 2006 for admission in October 2006.
We no longer can accept ORS and LEE applications for 2006.