A Surrey Education

Whether you’re pursuing further specialisation in your field or looking for a change of direction, our stimulating postgraduate programmes will challenge your intellect while you’re here, and our world-recognised qualifications will help you take your career to the next level once you have left.

Taught programmes 

We offer over 130 advanced programmes, designed to enhance your expert knowledge and extend your professional skills and competence.

Many of our programmes have flexible entry requirements with recognition given to professional qualifications and work experience.

All our programmes have major project elements and aim to develop both theoretical and practical skills.

Research study

We think it is important to provide support and guidance to research students at every stage of their work planning, research, writing-up and examination.

Whether working on your own or as part of a research team, you will have a personal supervisor to provide guidance in developing relevant lines of enquiry and to ensure that your programme progresses at the right pace in the right direction.

We offer four Practitioner Doctorate programmes: EngD, PsychD, DBA and DClinPrac.

PhD programmes are also available on a collaborative basis. Your research may be undertaken on your employer’s premises and you will be registered for a Surrey research degree. This offers a practical and inexpensive solution for those who find it hard to attend full-time.

Continuing professional education

We provide vocational lifelong learning for scientists, engineers, managers, health care workers and other professionals who are already in employment but looking to update and extend their knowledge and competence in their chosen fields, often as part of their continuing professional development (CPD).

Internationally Recognised Research

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) recognised our continuing strength as a world-class research-intensive institution.

Almost 90 per cent of our research activity was rated either ‘world class’ or ‘internationally recognised’, with four areas of research activity in the top ten and a total of nine areas ranked in the top twenty.

The activities of 425 researchers from across our four Faculties were submitted in fourteen subject areas. Results show that almost half of our assessed research staff work in areas that have been ranked in the top ten. Fifty-five per cent of our units of assessment were rated as ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world class’, with a further forty-four per cent ranked as ‘recognised either nationally or internationally’.

Focused and relevant

Our research is constantly pushing boundaries and bringing direct benefits to many spheres of life – helping industry to maintain its competitive edge and creating improvements in the areas of health, medicine, space science, the environment, communications, defence and social policy.

Our research strategy is based on a strong link between research and teaching, the concentration of research into critical mass, and centres of excellence operating in a managed research environment.

Innovative multidisciplinary themes

We are a strong advocate of multidisciplinary approaches, allowing researchers from different fields to work closely together on key research initiatives.

Eight University-wide networks have been formed to increase research collaboration both internally and externally: Crime and Security; Communications and Signal Processing; Energy; Health and Wellbeing; Nanotechnology; Advanced Materials; Space; and Water.

Our academic initiatives have helped us to establish pioneering, world-class laboratories and research centres that are attracting prestigious international visitors. These include: Advanced Technology Institute; Centre for Environmental Strategy; Digital World Research Centre; Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre; Health Care Workforce Research Centre; Surrey Sleep Research Centre; Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism; and Surrey Materials Institute.

The Surrey Research Park

The Surrey Research Park is renowned as a centre of excellence in the creation, support and growth of high-technology companies. It is widely regarded as the best of its kind in the country and is owned and managed by the University.

The Research Park houses over 100 research based companies, ranging from newly established concerns to major multinationals, of which some have close contacts with the University.

The Park houses a business pre-incubator for entrepreneurs as well as offering business incubation in its Surrey Technology Centre. In turn this has spun out several companies into larger premises on the Park in the last few years. There are also strong international enterprise links with similar parks around the world.