At the University of York Environment and Geography department we supervise a wide range of PhDs in the natural, economic and social sciences that address many of the current, pressing environmental issues of the day.
For more information about our Supervisors and the current PhD opportunities available, please click here.
You can check 'our staff' research expertise and see if your research interests align with theirs. Once you’ve identified a potential supervisor, please contact them before applying to discuss your application and potential research area.
We offer the following PhD programmes:
PhD/MPhil
The PhD is a higher degree awarded for a thesis presenting original research that makes a publishable contribution to knowledge or understanding. A student will be working on their own research project, working closely with their academic supervisor and with the support of other postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and staff in their research group.
MPhil/PhD in Human Geography and Environment
The research in this programme is concentrated in the following key areas:
- Energy geographies including: international development; public and stakeholder attitudes towards supply, demand, and energy system change; environmental and social justice issues
- Perceptions of environmental and socio-technical risk issues
- Environmental, economic and social costs of enhanced transport systems
- Sustainable agri-food systems, including understanding current or changed behaviours that may affect the sustainability of consumption and production systems in the future
- Interaction of social, economic and political processes across urban contexts
MPhil/PhD in Environmental Geography
Research in this programme is focused on:
- Tropical ecosystem response to environmental change
- Reconstructing Quaternary environments and sea levels
- Managing consequences of climate change
- Glaciology and characterising glacial terrain
- Ecosystem modelling
- Soil systems and biogeochemical cycles
- Environmental change and sustainable societies
MPhil/PhD in Environmental Science
Research in this programme is focused on:
- Prediction of water quality from catchment characteristics
- Pollution effects upon soil/plant/water ecosystems
- Evaluation of critical loads and levels of pollutants
- Modelling of atmospheric chemistry processes
- Biogeochemical cycling and sustainability
- Indoor and outdoor exposure to air pollution
- Environmental impacts of volcanoes
- Pathways and impacts of agricultural pollutants
MPhil/PhD in Environmental Economics and Environmental Management
The MPhil and PhD programmes in Environmental Economics and Environmental Management offer interdisciplinary research across economic and ecological sciences, concentrated in the following key areas:
- Economics of the environment
- Ecology and environmental management, with emphasis on marine systems, tropical and temperate forest systems, and agro-ecosystems
- The nature and impacts of environmental pollution
- Sustainable use of terrestrial, marine and freshwater resources
- Economic growth and environmental health outcomes
- Environmental health, migration and socio-economic change
Why us?
- Our research is ranked joint second in the UK for impact, according to the Times Higher Education’s ranking of the latest REF results (2021)
- Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), a leading global environmental policy institute, has one of its largest centres embedded within our Department
- Benefit from SEI's strong links to global policymakers
- We collaborate with a broad range of private and public sector organisations, including DEFRA, Forestry Commission, Natural England, Overseas Development Institute, Willis Global Insurance Broker
- Athena SWAN Bronze Award
We offer
- £12.5m purpose-built facility that houses labs, lecture theatres, seminar rooms and learning spaces
- weekly seminars, where academic and industry speakers talk about key and policy-relevant areas
- first-rate teaching and research opportunities tackling tough questions across natural and social sciences
- collaborative, friendly ethos and internationally-recognised research.
We have strong links with world-class research centres based at York, including:
- Stockholm Environment Institute - York
- York Environmental Sustainability Institute
- York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems
- CIRCLE (Centre for the Integration of Research, Conservation and Learning)
- Centre for Human Paleoecology and Evolutionary Origins
Complete an application
At the University of York Environment and Geography department we supervise a wide range of PhDs in the natural, economic and social sciences that address many of the current, pressing environmental issues of the day.
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