The School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences has a vibrant and multi-disciplinary research environment, which is home to a wide range of research projects that tackle important questions in the social sciences. We have an excellent international reputation for producing high quality research which has global impact. Our work is centred around three key themes: persistent and emerging socio-economic challenges, policy and practice in divided societies, and national global social justice.

If you are interested in joining our School as a PhD candidate, you can be confident that you’ll be joining a community of committed researchers, who offer dedicated and tailored supervision. You will be fully integrated into the research environment within the school and join a lively research student community.

Criminology is an evolving field dealing with an extensive range of sensitive issues. From traditional forms of deviance and offending, through to contemporary issues such as cybercrime, criminology continues to be highly relevant to the harms faced in society. As indicated by the list of themes below, the criminology team at Ulster University is diverse in terms of teaching and research interests, which range from the more formal aspects of the criminal justice process, policing and prisons for example, through to community responses to deviance and offending. Our research extends from a focus on individual offences and victims on a local level, through to corporate and state crimes on a national and global scale.

PhD graduates are recognised by employers to hold valuable transferrable skills, as the nature of the degree trains candidates in creativity, critical inquiry, problem solving, negotiation skills, professionalism and confidence. The most recent Ulster survey of PhD graduates found that 92% had secured employment within the first year since graduation (HESA Destination of Leavers Survey 2015), and while two thirds end up in the Higher Education or Research sectors, the range of skills acquired equips the remainder for employment in a wide range of contexts.