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An Integrated PhD provides a route into research study if you do not have a Master’s degree, or have very little research training. It enables you to spend your first year completing a Masters-level qualification, followed by a full-time PhD studied over 3-4 years. We also offer a ‘standard’ PhD in this subject which can be studied either full-time (3-4 years) or part-time (6-7 years).

Game theory, with roots in mathematics, statistics, and economics, is routinely applied to understanding and predicting human behaviour. Problems of protection of digital information against piracy are closely related to aspects of set systems. And the RSA cryptosystem, used on computers all over the world, depends on classical results of number theory.

In your first year of our Integrated PhD Mathematics, you’ll study many aspects of discrete mathematics and their potential use in practice, and provides you with options in optimisation, machine learning, data mining, and statistics.

Our interdisciplinary research recognises that mathematics, including what can be very abstract mathematics, is an essential part of research in many other disciplines.

Our Department of Mathematical Sciences has an international reputation in many areas including semi-group theory, optimisation, probability, applied statistics, bioinformatics, and mathematical biology.

In your second year you move onto the PhD element of the course. We offer supervision in a wide range of mathematical areas, including both pure and applied subjects. Possible areas of research include algebra, group theory, semigroup theory, graph theory, matrix theory, numerical analysis, differential equations, but interested persons are invited to contact our department to discuss other potential research areas.

All University of Essex research students have access to our innovative and unique scheme, Proficio. Postgraduate research students are automatically enrolled on Proficio, which provides a variety of training courses, and a fund of up to £2,500 per student for conference attendance and relevant external training courses.

Your future

Key employability skills you gain from this course include analytic reasoning, problem solving, techniques of discrete mathematics and an understanding of application areas of these techniques, algorithm design and implementation, and data analysis.

Our graduates are highly sought after by a range of employers and find employment in financial services, scientific computation, decision making support and government, risk assessment, statistics, education, and other sectors.

Many of our former PhD students have gone on to work as academics in prominent institutions across the world, such as the University of Cambridge, University of Nottingham, and many other international universities. Some have also remained at the University of Essex, working as postdoctoral research fellows, research impact officers, or lecturers.

Other graduates have joined organisations like the Met Office, the Ministry of Defence, and companies based in the City of London. There is a high demand for those with a numerate background in all sectors of the economy, so our graduates are sought after in the UK and abroad.