PhD Social Statistics

The University holds an annual PGR open day, where you will have the opportunity to tour the campus and find out more about our facilities and programmes.

On this day, you will find out more about the School of Social Sciences, our Social Statistics department, and our resources.

You'll also be able to meet academic and admissions staff who will be able to answer any questions you have.

For more information and to book your place, see open days .

International applicants are advised to submit their application by July to ensure sufficient time for applying for a Visa.

Admission to studying for a PhD is highly competitive, so please allow as much time as possible to prepare your application, browse our research pages and academics' profiles, and familiarise yourself with the application process and any important deadlines.

Your supervisor will be an important part of your PhD programme. It's a close relationship over many years, through which you develop your ideas, skills, thinking and research. Your supervisor's research interests should therefore closely align to yours.

If you aren't applying for a specific project, you'll need to find potential supervisors who will support your research. Details on recent publications, ongoing projects and particular research interests are all available on our academics' profiles .

We strongly recommend that you reach out to academics that complement your research interests before you apply. Your potential supervisor should be able to give you advice on developing your research proposal as well as critical feedback to help make your proposal strong and competitive when it comes to applying for funding. 

If you'd like us to match you to a suitable supervisor, providing clear details of your research area or group within your application will make it easier for us to identify suitable opportunities for you. Include any details in section six of your application from under `Proposed programme of study'.

Although guarantees cannot be made, we'll do our best to match your area of research to the most suitable supervisors within the field. 

The PhD in Social Statistics at the University of Manchester has a thriving and diverse research community.

Combined with Sociology, we had the highest proportion of research rated `world-leading' of any UK university by the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education. The REF 2014 also rated our research environment as one of the top two in the UK.

Our research themes include:

• census and survey methodology;
• statistical methods in the analysis of social data;
• social network analysis;
• latent variable modelling;

• population studies and demographic methods;
• global inequalities and international comparisons;
• employment; and
• the labour market.

For example, recent PhD titles include:

• `The Role of Privacy and Confidentiality in the Collection and Dissemination of Census and Survey Data'; and
• `Race and Population - a Statistical Demographic Approach'.

You will be supervised by at least two members of staff who are experts in their areas of research. You also have an array of potential training options available, including places on postgraduate course units and short courses.

Read more about our research groups .

We have staff members within the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Change (CMI) where there is a PhD programme on Applied Social Research (ASR) and our staff act as PhD supervisors. The Social Statistics department also hosts two ESRC Centres for Doctoral Training on Biosocial Research and on Data Analytics and Society.

If you wish to conduct your thesis on important substantive issues based on large-scale and complex social surveys using advanced statistical methods, you could also apply to the ASR programme directly.

You'll be assigned to a specific research grouping that complements your research interests and have access to a variety of interdisciplinary research institutes.

Our working environments are often spacious and open-plan, giving you plenty of opportunities to communicate with colleagues and staff within the School, and you will have your own desk space as well as access to our fantastic range of libraries on campus.

All of our academic supervisors are research active and will support you to work on challenging research problems and develop rigorous, creative and original research.

You can expect to meet with your supervisor at least once a month to discuss progress on your project.

You will have access to a large and diverse community of internationally recognised academic experts offering an environment that will stimulate intellectual debate and development.

We provide additional financial support for a number of activities related to your PhD, including:

• presenting at international conferences;
• attending workshops that provide relevant professional opportunities;
• conducting fieldwork in the UK and overseas.

Graduate Teaching Assistants

You can also get hands-on, paid teaching experience as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Graduate Teaching Assistants in the School of Social Sciences are valued members of the teaching team. As such, we take pride in the opportunities provided for the professional development of graduate teaching assistants.

Our training includes preparation for application to the Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. This brings a range of benefits as follows:

• consolidates your personal development and emphasises your professional practice in HE
• entitlement to use post-nominal letters - AFHEA;
• provides a valuable measure of success and is increasingly sought by employers across the education sector as a condition of appointment and promotion;
• recognised and valued by a growing number of international institutions.

For more information, see the Associate Fellowship HEA .

• lectureships;
• research posts;
• senior administrative positions in local government;
• NHS;
• educational institutions;
• homeworking and trade union; and
• union linked positions.

There is a need for well-trained social scientists who are able to apply advanced methods of analysis to complex data. These skills are in short supply and graduates of the Social Statistics programme, in particular, leave in a good position to obtain jobs in:

• the academic sector;
• central government; including
• the Office for National Statistics;
• local government; and
• the commercial research sector.

As a postgraduate researcher, you'll have access to a dedicated Researcher Development Team who will support your professional development throughout your PhD journey and beyond.

Our researcher development programme will enable you to become more aware of your developing researcher identity, equipping you with the skills you need during your PhD and prepare you to integrate into the researcher community.

At every stage of your career, you'll receive relevant, effective and comprehensive professional development opportunities.

We offer training sessions to build your skills and confidence in writing and presenting, with specific sessions on viva preparation, thesis submission and preparing for your Review Panel.

You'll also have access to a range of workshops, covering areas such as:

• increasing research impact through blog posts;
• making the most of social media;
• publishing in journals;
• applying for fellowships;
• designing academic posters;
• improving time and self-management.

In addition, our Humanities training hub ( ProGRess@humanities ) gives you additional training opportunities within the University. You can choose courses in public engagement, wellbeing, language training and teaching, alongside more specialist courses in tools and software such as Python, R and NVivo.

methods@manchester , meanwhile, is an initiative that gives you the chance to learn from the very best in research methods expertise at Manchester and beyond. Regular talks, workshops and other methods-related events are organised throughout the academic year, bringing in experts from across the University and externally.

Finally, taking a placement provides a great opportunity to engage in knowledge exchange and to develop professional networking opportunities for your future career development.

We have established Postgraduate Researcher Exchange programmes with a small number of institutions around the world, offering you the opportunity to visit another institution, access research resources and experience another academic culture as well as build professional networks.

Successful applicants will receive some funding towards travel expenses, accommodation, subsistence, education materials and/or other education-related costs for anything from two weeks to a three month visit.

For more information, see training and development .