PhD Social Statistics / Programme details

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 .