Postgraduate research

At the ANU College of Systems & Society, you will join a dynamic and pioneering research environment where you can pursue your interests alongside some of the world’s brightest and most innovative researchers. You’ll get an opportunity to collaborate with an extensive network of academic, government, and industry partners in Australia and worldwide, and gain the skills to enable change in today’s complex world.

Research at the College affords opportunities to undertake study in several research areas – each offering dynamic and diverse research opportunities producing internationally significant outcomes.

In recent years our graduate research students have produced award-winning PhD theses, enterprises and game-changing research publications. Our graduate students are collaborating with world class academics, making distinguished contributions in the race to find clean energy solutions and curb the destructive impacts of climate change. Academics supported by PhD candidates set a new world record for supercomputing and a multidisciplinary team of researchers released a groundbreaking phylogenic software that has helped track the evolution of COVID-19 variants and led directly to the development of vaccines.

We offer two postgraduate Higher Degree by Research (HDR) programs:

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): A 4-year full-time program of research to produce a thesis that makes a significant contribution to the field.
• Master of Philosophy (MPhil): A 2-year full-time program of research to produce a thesis.

Both degrees are advanced research-focused degrees that produce high-quality original research under the supervision of world-class academics and vibrant intellectual leaders.

Come and join our research community!

Explore your research options

Research is conducted across the academic units of the College.

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