Health and Medical Sciences

PhD in Nutrition and Metabolism

Director of the Faculty Graduate School
Susanna Hourani
Programme length
PhD - Full-time: 33-48 months , Part-time: 45-96 months
MD - Part-time: 24-60 months
Programme start date
October, January, April, July

We offer a PhD programme and Doctor of Medicine programme within Nutrition and Metabolism.

PhD Programme

We value our PhD students – their research education is important to us because they will become the academics, researchers, medical and health care professionals and policy makers of the future. PhD students are initially registered for a probationary period and proceed to full PhD registration after one year, subject to a successful upgrade viva. The research towards a PhD would normally take approximately three years, with a further year to write the PhD thesis and take the viva voce exam. The University and the Faculty provide a programme of training in generic, transferable skills, as well as research skills, as these are clearly important for the future employment prospects of our graduates.

Doctor of Medicine (MD) Programme

Research for an MD may be carried out in the clinical workplace and/or in the Faculty and will be supervised jointly by a collaborative supervisor from the hospital and a principal supervisor from the Faculty. The research area may be in any branch of medicine that links in with our research portfolio and students should expect to commit approximately two years to research and training activities, plus some time to write up the MD thesis and take the viva voce exam.

Entry Requirements

PhD Programme

Candidates should have a good honours degree (upper second) in an appropriate discipline, but prior experience in research or industry may be acceptable. Enthusiasm for, and commitment to, independent study is essential, as is a good command of the English language. Please contact the Faculty Graduate School to discuss your experience and qualifications.

MD Programme

Open to candidates registered with the General Medical Council and working within the NHS or in an approved institution.

We offer intensive English language pre-sessional courses, designed to take you to the level of English ability and skill required for your studies here.

Fees and Funding

Fees

Study modeUK/EU feesOverseas fees
Full-time£3,900 Available soon
Part-timeAvailable soonAvailable soon

Funding

As well as an annual competition with a studentship prize, we also have a number of academic scholarships. These and other scholarships are advertised as and when they become available on the Faculty Graduate School website. All postgraduate researchers are eligible for the University’s Postgraduate Student of the Year award.

Nutrition and Metabolism at Surrey

The research mission of the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism is to understand human metabolic demands for nutrients and to optimise their provision as safe and appropriate food. Our biomedical research, including nutrition and metabolism was ranked third in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. It is our mission within the Department and Faculty to educate and train PhD students.

Research

Academics in the Department are engaged in research that uses a range of nutritional and biochemical techniques to investigate problems relating to human health and safety. We do research in a number of key areas including diet and cardiovascular disease, the link between nutrition and diabetes, nutrition and human metabolism including osteoporosis risk, vitamin D, diet and sleep/chronobiology, the role of iron and selenium in human health, polyphenals and health. We use an ‘-omic’ approach to nutrition research.

Research environment

The Department of Nutrition and Metabolism has access to the Faculty core technology programme, to support and fund equipment-intensive research technologies and to promote their use in multidisciplinary research. It encompasses functional genomics (microarray printing, genomics, transcriptomics), bioinformatics (data mining, systems biology, pathway modelling, fluxomics), proteomics, metabolomics and imaging (laser scanning confocal, fluorescence, fluorescence inverted and FRET microscopy, flow cytometry, fluorescence-activated cell sorting, in situ hybridisation). In addition, biomedica  research is supported by NMR facilities and animal facilities, including dedicated suites for transgenic work. The Faculty also has all of the standard analytical equipment you would expect in a biomedical faculty to support the subject disciplines.

Contact us

For general enquiries

0800 980 3200 or +44 (0)1483 681 681

For admissions enquiries

+44 (0)1483 689 730