As a research student, in the first and second year you will follow an agreed programme of lectures and reading courses agreed with your supervisor to introduce you to research skills and methods, and to advance your knowledge in your chosen field. These include formal assessment.

This includes a broad choice of postgraduate courses provided through the national collaborative networks:

• MAGIC (for pure/applied mathematics)
• NATCOR (for operational research)
• APTS (for statistics).

Regular seminars in all subject areas, as well as the Cardiff Mathematics Colloquia and the yearly Welsh Mathematics Colloquium, provide insight into cutting-edge research.

Moreover, research students benefit from a carefully developed graduate program including computational, presentational and subject-specific skills.

Students will also write a substantial end-of-year report and give a seminar in the department.

The PhD programme leads the student, through taught courses and individual project supervision, to the frontier of an area of mathematics, with the aim of creating a piece of original research, written up in the doctoral thesis. In the process, the student acquires essential research, problem-solving and communication skills. The MPhil programme is similar, but less ambitious due to its more limited scope; work on an MPhil can lead on to completing a PhD.

Skills developed

In addition to in-depth knowledge of a mathematical research area, PhD students gain general research and presentation skills, and (optionally) undergraduate teaching skills, HEA accreditation possible.

The School of Mathematics offers an exceptionally wide range of opportunities for postgraduate studies in mathematics. The academic staff are engaged in research projects in fields that are as varied as number theory, functional analysis and spectral theory in pure mathematics, image processing, operational research, statistics and quantum field theory.

Many research projects undertaken by members of staff in the School are being generously funded by the public and private sectors. The leader of the Operator Algebras and Non-Commutative Geometry group is the co-ordinator of the European Network on Non-Commutative Geometry funded by the EU TMR programme. Other sources of funding include EPSRC, Leverhulme Trust, NATO, INTAS, Ministry of Defence, Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline, Proctor and Gamble.

We have close links with several universities and institutions abroad. These include the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, the Australian National University and the Australian Road Research Board in Melbourne, Ecole Superieure d'Electricite in Gif-Sur Yvette, ETH in Zurich and universities in Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Malaysia and USA.

Research environment

The individual research groups run weekly seminars with guest speakers, and postgraduate research students regularly attend the seminar in their research area, and are encouraged to profit from talks in other areas, too. We organise about three mathematics colloquia with distinguished guest speakers per term.

Moreover, Cardiff is the venue for a number of international workshops and conferences organised by members of the School , thus giving postgraduate students a welcome opportunity to learn about world-leading current research. They are also encouraged to take part and present their results at major conferences in the UK and abroad.

At the annual Welsh Mathematics Colloquium at Gregynog, postgraduate students can showcase their work in the group of Welsh Mathematics departments.

Supervisors

Informal contact with potential supervisors in the School of Mathematics is recommended before applying.

Research areas

Applied Mathematics

Research in this area spans: Wave propagation in inhomogeneous media; Homogenisation; Fluid mechanics; Structural and solid mechanics; Numerical analysis and scientific computing; Applied mathematical modelling; Memory effects; Inverse problems; Integral transforms.

Operational Research

Research in this area spans: Modelling of traffic flow; Healthcare modelling; Modelling of the spread of infectious diseases; Queueing theory; Scheduling and timetabling problems; Metaheuristics; Discrete optimisation.

Probability and Statistics

Research in this area spans: Multivariate statistical analysis; Time series analysis; Statistical modelling in market research; Optimal experimental design; Stochastic global optimisation; Change point detection; Probabilistic methods in search and number theory; Fisheries; Medical statistics; Random fields; Mathematical finance.

Pure Mathematics

Research in this area spans: Ordinary and partial differential equations; Functional analysis; Analytical and computational spectral theory; Quantum mechanics; Number theory and its applications; Mathematical physics; Operator algebras; Algebraic geometry.

A broad variety of careers in academia or industry.

Funding

A small number of EPSRC-funded doctoral training grants are available for UK/EU applicants, awarded on a competitive basis, subject to research council residence requirements.

See our latest PhD studentships and projects and find out more about other funding opportunities.

Tuition fees

Students from the UK

Get the latest information on postgraduate fees.

Students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland

Get the latest information on postgraduate fees.

Students from the rest of the world (international)

Get the latest information on postgraduate fees.

Suitable for graduates in Mathematics (or a suitable related field). A 1st or upper 2nd class UK Honours degree, or equivalent is required.

English language requirements

IELTS with an overall score of 6.5 with 5.5 in all subskills, or equivalent. Please see our English Language Requirements guidance for more details.