An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck. As a PhD student in biology, you will become part of a rich research environment at Birkbeck and University College London. We are also part of a multidisciplinary centre for world-class research, the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (ISMB), which seeks to integrate techniques from the chemical and physical sciences to provide insight into the molecular basis of biological processes. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), in a joint submission with UCL, Biological Sciences at Birkbeck were ranked 11th in the UK, with a research environment supporting world-leading and internationally excellent research. Our academic staff have many years of experience in teaching both part-time and full-time research students and offer internationally recognised expertise in the following key areas of research: Biology (organismal) Biophysics Cell biology Chemical biology Computational biology Microbiology Structural biology