What you will study
The Vision, Speech and Signal Processing PhD programme at University of Surrey takes a maximum of four years of full-time study to complete. After 12 months, you’ll write a confirmation report, which is assessed by two independent examiners. After that, you’ll submit a written PhD thesis after a minimum of three years of full-time study.
You’ll be allocated two Surrey-based academic supervisors, in addition to any external collaborative supervisors. Your principal supervisor will be an expert in your area of research and they will monitor your research progress on a regular basis. Your supervisors will help you define the initial objective and scope of your research, and to refine these as your project evolves. They’ll direct you to resources and they’ll be able to advise you on how to complete your PhD and your thesis. We often appoint external collaborative supervisors to contribute specific expertise or to allow access to external resources or organisations.
You’ll also be assigned to a research group that includes a team of academics, postdoctoral researchers, guest scientists and fellows. Lots of our research at CVSSP is interdisciplinary and you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with scientists at universities, research establishments and industries around the world. We encourage active interaction with your peers and our researchers and academics, and we offer a friendly environment that nurtures openness and collaboration. You’ll be encouraged to present your research at renowned national and international conferences to gain experience and establish networks with leading researchers.
Programme Structure
Research themes
- Creative vision and sound focuses on machine perception, spatial audio and machine audition, specialising in 4D immersive VR content production
- Healthcare focuses on medical imaging technologies and works closely with leading healthcare institutions
- Robotics focuses on autonomous systems, covering a broad range of technologies relating to visual interaction with computers, this includes sign language recognition and autonomous vehicles
- Security focuses on biometric and security-related technologies, specialising in facial biometrics and lip tracking
- Data focuses on understanding and preservation including visual recognition, distributed ledger technologies and the understanding of AI systems
- Distributed ledger technologies (DTL) focuses on alternative uses for DLT, including safe online identity, healthcare and secure digital archives.
Admission requirements
Academic requirements
GPA: Lower Second Class; Upper Second Class (recommended)
English requirements
- Duolingo English Test: 120
- TOEFL iBT: 88 OR 4.5 (new CEFR-aligned score, equivalent to the 0-120 score)
- PTE Academic: 67
- IELTS: 6.5
Other requirements
General requirements
Applicants are expected to hold a first or upper second-class (2:1) UK degree in a relevant discipline (or equivalent overseas qualification), or a lower-second (2:2) UK degree plus a good UK masters degree - distinction normally required (or equivalent overseas qualification).
Fees and funding
Tuition Fees
International: 53,904 AUD / year (≈ 28,300 GBP / year)
Domestic: 9,977 AUD / year (≈ 5,238 GBP / year)
Additional Details
Part-time: UK £2,619; Overseas £14,200
Living costs
Guildford, United Kingdom: 1,257-2,171 AUD / month
