Actuarial Science

Entry requirements

We will consider all applicants with 2:2 or above, or equivalent international qualifications. For some courses, there may be additional requirements which can be found on our website.

Months of entry

January, April, October

Course content

Our PhD Actuarial Science is a research degree within our School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science. We have staff members available to act as supervisors across a number of areas such as: survival analysis, forensic economics, risk management, Islamic finance and takaful, asset-liability management for pension funds, predictability of financial time series, and performance evaluation of funds. You are also invited to contact our School to discuss other potential research areas.

Our staff are strongly committed to research and teaching. They have published several well-regarded text books and are world leaders in their individual specialisms, with their papers appearing in learned journals such as: Journal of the Operational Research Society, The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, ASTIN Bulletin, North American Actuarial Journal, and Journal of Banking & Finance.

Our School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science is genuinely innovative and student-focused. Our research groups are working on a broad range of collaborative areas tackling real-world issues. Here are a few examples:

• Our data scientists carefully consider how not to lie, and how not to get lied to with data. Interpreting data correctly is especially important because much of our data science research is applied directly or indirectly to social policies, including health, care and education.
• We do practical research with financial data (for example, assessing the risk of collapse of the UK's banking system) as well as theoretical research in financial instruments such as insurance policies or asset portfolios.
• We also research how physical processes develop in time and space. Applications of this range from modelling epilepsy to modelling electronic cables.
• Our optimisation experts work out how to do the same job with less resource, or how to do more with the same resource.
• Our pure maths group are currently working on two new funded projects entitled “The Calabi problem for smooth Fano threefolds” and “Stability of Brunn-Minkowski inequalities and Minkowski type problems for nonlinear capacity”.
• We also do research into mathematical education and use exciting technologies such as electroencephalography or eye tracking to measure exactly what a learner is feeling. Our research aims to encourage the implementation of ‘the four Cs' of modern education, which are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Information for international students

Entry requirements - You can find international entry requirements for most countries on our webpage www.essex.ac.uk/international. If your country is not listed, please contact Postgraduate Admissions at pgadmit@essex.ac.uk.

Fees and funding

There are a wide range of funding options for postgraduate study, including scholarships, bursaries and alumni discounts. You can check your eligibility at https://www.essex.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/fees-and-funding.