Earning a doctorate is an excellent way to advance your career and education, especially in advancing industries like medicine, technology, and more. It can also provide graduate students the means to become more proficient in their fields through rigorous study and analysis. Many companies and employers worldwide honor this credential in high regard, which leads to many job opportunities in one’s profession.

The United Kingdom is the best destination in Europe for a Doctor of Philosophy or Ph.D. degree, specifically in data science, like almost every other field. Students pursuing the highest university degree in the multidisciplinary field won’t run out of options in the land of Brits. However, picking a top-tier university ensures your degree stands out.

That’s why here’s a list of the seven best universities in the UK that offer a Ph.D. in Data Science. Read to learn more about the offered programs!

Top Schools Offering Data Science Ph.D. Programs in the UK

1. University of Oxford

Founded over 900 years ago, the University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world. Multiple major university rankings recognize it as one of the world’s best higher institutions. Its student population is almost 27,000, with international students from more than 170 countries making up nearly 47 percent. As many as practically 30 Nobel laureates have attended this school.

Oxford offers several DPhil (equivalent to Ph.D.) programs relevant to data science. One is Social Data Science, administered by the Oxford Internet Institute. The program takes three to four years for a full-time student, while a part-time student requires six to eight years. A student gets two supervisors: one faculty member from the Computational Sciences and another from the Social Sciences. Another relevant program is the four-year DPhil in Healthcare Data Science based at the Oxford Big Data Institute.

2. University of Essex

The University of Essex, founded in 1964, was crowned University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2018. Over 19,000 students are enrolled in different programs at its three campuses in Colchester, Southend, and Loughton in Essex County. More than one-third of its student population hails from outside the country. It is the alma mater of Nobel-winning economist Sir Christopher A. Pissarides. This prestigious institution offers its Ph.D. in Data Science at its Colchester Campus.

The School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Actuarial Science runs this program with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.  It allows students to investigate in real depth any of the numerous areas within data science, including deep learning, information retrieval, its mathematical foundations, and multidimensional scaling. Completing the program takes four years for a full-time student and seven years for a part-time student.

3. University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh began its journey in 1583 as the sixth university in the English-speaking world. With its five main campuses in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, the university offers higher education to over 49,000 students. It claimed the 22nd spot globally in the 2024 QS World University Rankings.

The EPCC (previously the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre) offers Ph.D. degrees in many related areas, such as Computational and Data Science, Software Engineering & Sustainability, Parallelism, and High-Performance Computing. Moreover, each student is supervised by one of the 85 faculty members from the two schools. Students also interact with over 30 industrial partners, including Microsoft Research, IBM, Amazon, and Samsung.

Nobel laureates like physicist Igor Tamm, chemist Sir James Fraser Stoddart and molecular biologist Richard Henderson are some of its notable alumni.

4. University of Exeter

Established in 1955, the University of Exeter is a public university with over 29,500 students. It has three campuses: Streatham, St Luke’s, and Penryn. The first two are located in the cathedral city of Exeter in Devon County, while the last one is in the town of Penryn in Cornwall County. Multiple major university rankings recognize it as one of the world’s top 200 universities.

Exeter offers an MPhil/Ph.D. Computer Science program whose research areas include concepts relevant to data science, like machine learning, data and network science, high-performance computing and networking, artificial intelligence, and more. When studied full-time, the program takes three to four years. It takes place at the Streatham campus.

5. University of Stirling

The following university in the UK offers a Ph.D. degree in data science: the University of Stirling. It is a public institution in the Scottish city of Stirling, with one of the best campus environments in the country. Beginning its journey in 1967, the school has a student population of 17,000. Around 30% of them are international students, representing over 180 nationalities.

Moreover, it is the alma mater of Jonathon Fletcher, who is often regarded as the father of search engines for creating the first modern search engine, JumpStart. Stirling’s Ph.D. program is the Professional Doctorate in Data Science. It is a campus-based program supervised by the university’s academics in collaboration with industry experts. A full-time student can complete the program in three years, while a part-time student requires six years. 

6. University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham began in 1881 as a university college before finally gaining its status in 1948. It has multiple campuses, including four sites in Nottingham: University Park, Jubilee, Castle Meadows, and King’s Meadow. The institution’s total student population is over 47,000, with a quarter being international students. It claimed the eighth spot in the Research Power category of the Research Excellence Framework 2014.

Its School of Computer Science offers Ph.D. degrees, which allow students to specialize in a research area relevant to data science through its research activity centers, such as Computational Optimisation and Learning, Intelligent Modelling and Analysis, and more. Meanwhile, the computer science doctoral research program takes place at the Jubilee campus, and there are options for both full-time and part-time study modes. Its research topics include data science and other fields like computational optimization, functional programming, machine learning, etc.

 

In conclusion, getting a Ph.D. in data science can lead to more job opportunities and professional knowledge in its related fields. Many universities in the United Kingdom, like the ones listed above, can undoubtedly provide graduate students with excellent data science education in this degree program. That’s why feel free to choose carefully and pick the school that best suits you!

 

We hope this article on the UK universities with Ph.D. programs in data science was helpful. For some of the UK’s available programs, make sure to check out our Open Courses in the United Kingdom and visit our Study in the UK page!

About the Author: Hyun Lee

Hi! I am Hyun, and I am the founder at Global Scholarships. I've received a full-tuition scholarship at Birmingham-Southern College and a $1,000 Burger King Scholarship for my undergraduate degree and was offered a fully funded scholarship consisting of tuition, living stipend, and health insurance for computer science Ph.D. program at North Carolina State University. You can read more about my scholarship journey here. If you are interested, you can follow me on Linkedin where I regularly write about scholarships. I also provide consulting services as well, and you can check the consulting services page for more information.

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