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SEtS Doctoral Studentships

Contact us

If you have any questions about the SEtS Doctoral Studentships, please get in touch.

Email:  cs-pgr-admissions@york.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1904 325412

The Doctoral Centre for Safe, Ethical and Secure Computing (SEtS) is a key initiative within the Department of Computer Science at the University of York. It supports the Department's strategic vision to internationally lead education and research in the engineering of safe, ethical and secure computational systems.

The Doctoral Centre provides studentships which cover the payment of tuition fees, a stipend paid on a quarterly basis (currently £17,668 (full time equivalent) for 2022/23), and specially tailored doctoral training activities. Its aim is to attract highly capable and motivated PhD students and to prepare them to contribute towards the Department’s research strategy.

The Centre's research directions are in line with the University of York’s vision of being a university that exists for public good.

Our training programme

As well as the regular postgraduate training available to all doctoral candidates in the Department of Computer Science, the Centre offers its students additional activities in line with the topics of safe, ethical and secure computing.

Activities include interdisciplinary sandpits, mentored teaching and app jams, as well as workshops on ethics, scientific storytelling and policymaking. In addition to weekly supervision meetings, the Centre’s students also have end-of-the-week cohort meetings to reflect on the activities of the past and coming week, and to share good practices in research productivity, resilience and overall well-being.

"Doctoral training provides valuable skills that foster innovation with rigorous scientific foundations. These skills are extremely important in a world where computing plays a key role in so many aspects of everyday life, and there are many challenges in ensuring the technology is safe, ethical and secure."

Professor Paul Cairns, Head of Department

Our students

We expect that each and every graduate of the Centre will produce original research with significant academic and societal impact, and will have developed the skills to communicate and apply the results of their research to industry, policy makers and other researchers. 

"Studying for a PhD at York and being a member of SEtS has been fantastic. I regularly have the opportunity to talk to academic members of staff about their work and this has been inspirational. SEtS has also given me the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and, through this, I have been able to fund my field work in Ecuador."

Jamie Sykes, SEtS PhD student 

Our projects

The Department of Computer Science is a leading centre for teaching and has an established reputation for its research. We conduct research that has real impact, tackling fundamental questions and addressing the problems which face today's computer scientists. 

When our doctoral studentships are open for applications, we offer an extensive list of projects to match a wide range of research interests within the field of Computer Science.

Forthcoming opportunities

The most recent cohort to be awarded SEtS Doctoral Studentships commenced their studies in September 2023.

We hope to announce opportunities for more doctoral studentships in the future. News of any opportunities that may become available will published on these web pages.

Read more about research programmes in Computer Science at York