均分要求75%
Group 2 二类大学
grade requirement
均分要求80%
软科中国大学排名2022(总榜)或软科中国大学排名2023(总榜)排名前100的大学
非‘985工程’的其他 院校
以及以下两所大学:
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 中国科学院大学
University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 中国社会科学院大学
Group 3 三类大学
grade requirement
均分要求85%
软科中国大学排名2022(总榜)或 软科中国大学排名2023(总榜)101-200位的大学
School of Computer Science – all MSc programmes 计算机学院硕士课程入学要求
Group 1 一类大学 Grade requirement | 院校 |
Group 2 二类大学 grade requirement | 院校 |
Group 3 三类大学 grade requirement |
College of Social Sciences – courses listed below 社会科学 学院部分硕士课程入学要求 MA Education (including all pathways) MSc TESOL Education MSc Public Management MA Global Public Policy MA Social Policy MA Sociology Department of Political Science and International Studies 全部硕士课程 International Development Department 全部硕士课程
Group 1 一类大学 Grade requirement | 院校 |
Group 2 二类大学 grade requirement | 院校 |
Group 3 三类大学 grade requirement |
All other programmes (including MBA) 所有其他 硕士课程(包括 MBA)入学要求
Group 1 一类大学 | 院校 |
Group 2 二类大学 grade requirement | 院校 |
Group 3 三类大学 | |
Group 4 四类大学 来自四类大学的申请人均分要求最低85%,并同时具有出色学术背景,优异的专业成绩,以及(或)相关的工作经验,将酌情考虑。 |
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Please note:
Holders of the Licenciado/Professional Title from a recognised Colombian university will be considered for our Postgraduate Diploma and Masters degrees. Applicants for PhD degrees will normally have a Maestria or equivalent.
Holders of a good bachelor degree with honours (4 to 6 years) from a recognised university with a upper second class grade or higher will be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes. Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised university will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a good Bacclaureus (Bachelors) from a recognised Croatian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 4.0 out of 5.0, vrlo dobar ‘very good’, or a Masters degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a Bachelors degree(from the University of the West Indies or the University of Technology) may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. A Class II Upper Division degree is usually equivalent to a UK 2.1. For further details on particular institutions please refer to the list below. Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Masters degree or Mphil from the University of the West Indies.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised institution with a minimum overall grade of 6.5 out of 10, or a GPA of 3 out of 4, and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a good Bakalár from a recognised Czech Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 1.5, B, velmi dobre ‘very good’ (post-2004) or 2, velmi dobre ‘good’ (pre-2004), or a good post-2002 Magistr (Masters), will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised institution with a minimum overall grade of 7-10 out of 12 (or 8 out of 13) or higher for 2:1 equivalence and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters/ Magisterkonfereus/Magister Artium degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of the Licenciado or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Ecuadorian university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Grades of 70% or higher can be considered as UK 2.1 equivalent. Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Magister/Masterado or equivalent qualification, but holders of the Licenciado with excellent grades can be considered.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a GPA of 3.0/4.0 or 75% from a recognised institution. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a good Bakalaurusekraad from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 4/5 or B, or a good one- or two-year Magistrikraad from a recognised university, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students who hold a Masters degree with very good grades (grade B, 3.5/4 GPA or 85%) will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.
Holders of a good Kandidaatti / Kandidat (old system), a professional title such as Ekonomi, Diplomi-insinööri, Arkkitehti, Lisensiaatti (in Medicine, Dentistry and Vetinary Medicine), or a Maisteri / Magister (new system), Lisensiaatti / Licenciat, Oikeustieteen Kandidaatti / Juris Kandidat (new system) or Proviisori / Provisor from a recognised Finnish Higher Education institution, with a minimum overall grade of 2/3 or 4/5, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters/Maîtrise with a minimum overall grade of 13 out of 20, or a Magistère / Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies / Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Specialisées / Mastère Specialis, from a recognised French university or Grande École to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a Magister Artium, a Diplom or an Erstes Staatsexamen from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 2.5, or a good two-year Lizentiat / Aufbaustudium / Zweites Staatsexamen or a Masters degree from a recognised university, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0 Students who have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good four-year Ptychio (Bachelor degree) with a minimum overall grade of 6.5 out of 10, from a recognised Greek university (AEI), and will usually be required to have completed a good Metaptychiako Diploma Eidikefsis (Masters degree) from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
4-year Licenciado is deemed equivalent to a UK bachelors degree. A score of 75 or higher from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC) can be considered comparable to a UK 2.1, 60 is comparable to a UK 2.2. Private universities have a higher pass mark, so 80 or higher should be considered comparable to a UK 2.1, 70 is comparable to a UK 2.2
The Hong Kong Bachelor degree is considered comparable to British Bachelor degree standard. Students with bachelor degrees awarded by universities in Hong Kong may be considered for entry to one of our postgraduate degree programmes.
Students with Masters degrees may be considered for PhD study.
Holders of a good Alapfokozat / Alapképzés or Egyetemi Oklevel from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 3.5, or a good Mesterfokozat (Masters degree) or Egyetemi Doktor (university doctorate), will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with a 60% or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of the 4 year Sarjana (S1) from a recognised Indonesian institution will be considered for postgraduate study. Entry requirements vary with a minimum requirement of a GPA of 2.8.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a score of 14/20 or 70% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution, with 100 out of 110 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Students who hold the Maitrise, Diplome d'Etude Approfondies, Diplome d'Etude Superieures or Diplome d'Etude Superieures Specialisees will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees (14-15/20 or Bien from a well ranked institution is considered comparable to a UK 2.1, while a score of 12-13/20 or Assez Bien is considered comparable to a UK 2.2).
Students with a Bachelor degree from a recognised university in Japan will be considered for entry to a postgraduate Masters degree provided they achieve a sufficiently high overall score in their first (Bachelor) degree. A GPA of 3.0/4.0 or a B average from a good Japanese university is usually considered equivalent to a UK 2:1.
Students with a Masters degree from a recognised university in Japan will be considered for PhD study. A high overall grade will be necessary to be considered.
Students who have completed their Specialist Diploma Мамаң дипломы/Диплом специалиста) or "Magistr" (Магистр дипломы/Диплом магистра) degree (completed after 1991) from a recognised higher education institution, with a minimum GPA of 2.67/4.00 for courses requiring a UK lower second and 3.00/4.00 for courses requiring a UK upper second class degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate Masters degrees and, occasionally, directly for PhD degrees. Holders of a Bachelor "Bakalavr" degree (Бакалавр дипломы/Диплом бакалавра) from a recognised higher education institution, with a minimum GPA of 2.67/4.00 for courses requiring a UK lower second and 3.00/4.00 for courses requiring a UK upper second class degree, may also be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes.
Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/50
Holders of a good Postgraduate Diploma (professional programme) from a recognised university or institution of Higher Education, with a minimum overall grade of 7.5 out of 10, or a post-2000 Magistrs, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a score of 16/20 or 80% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised university in Libya will be considered for postgraduate study. Holders of a Bachelors degree will normally be expected to have achieved score of 70% for 2:1 equivalency or 65% for 2:2 equivalency. Alternatively students will require a minimum of 3.0/4.0 or BB to be considered.
Holders of a good pre-2001 Magistras from a recognised university with a minimum overall grade of 8 out of 10, or a good post-2001 Magistras, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes
Holders of a good Bachelors degree from a recognised Luxembourgish Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 16 out of 20, or a Diplôme d'Études Supérieures Spécialisées (comparable to a UK PGDip) or Masters degree from a recognised Luxembourgish Higher Education institution will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students who hold a Masters degree will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees (70-74% or A or Marginal Distinction from a well ranked institution is considered comparable to a UK 2.1, while a score of 60-69% or B or Bare Distinction/Credit is considered comparable to a UK 2.2).
Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised Malaysian institution (usually achieved with the equivalent of a second class upper or a grade point average minimum of 3.0) will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.
Holders of a good Bachelors degree from the University of Malta with a minimum grade of 2:1 (Hons), and/or a Masters degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students who hold a Bachelor degree (Honours) from a recognised institution (including the University of Mauritius) will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2:1).
Students who hold the Licenciado/Professional Titulo from a recognised Mexican university with a promedio of at least 8 will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.
Students who have completed a Maestria from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree, licence or Maîtrise and a Masters degree, with a score of 14/20 or 70% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Students with a good four year honours degree from a recognised university will be considered for postgraduate study at the University of Birmingham. PhD applications will be considered on an individual basis.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with 60-74% or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a good Doctoraal from a recognised Dutch university with a minimum overall grade of 7 out of 10, and/or a good Masters degree, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students who hold a Bachelor degree (minimum 4 years and/or level 400) from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) with a minimum GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised institution with a minimum GPA of B/Very Good or 1.6-2.5 for a 2.1 equivalency, and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters, Mastergrad, Magister. Artium, Sivilingeniør, Candidatus realium or Candidatus philologiae degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with a CGPA of 3.0/4 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised university in the Palestinian Territories will be considered for postgraduate study. Holders of Bachelors degree will normally be expected to have achieved a GPA of 3/4 or 80% for 2:1 equivalency or a GPA of 2.5/4 or 70% for 2:2 equivalency.
Holders of the Título de Licenciado /Título de (4-6 years) or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Paraguayan university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Grades of 4/5 or higher can be considered as UK 2.1 equivalent. The Título Intermedio is a 2-3 year degree and is equivalent to a HNC, it is not suitable for postgraduate entry but holders of this award could be considered for second year undergraduate entry or pre-Masters. Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Título de Maestría / Magister or equivalent qualification, but holders of the Título/Grado de Licenciado/a with excellent grades can be considered.
Holders of the Licenciado, with at least 13/20 may be considered as UK 2.1 equivalent. The Grado de Bachiller is equivalent to an ordinary degree, so grades of 15+/20 are required. Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Título de Maestría or equivalent qualification.
Holders of a good pre-2001 Magister from a recognised Polish university with a minimum overall grade of 4 out of 5, dobry ‘good’, and/or a good Swiadectwo Ukonczenia Studiów Podyplomowych (Certificate of Postgraduate Study) or post-2001 Magister from a recognised Polish university with a minimum overall grade of 4.5/4+ out of 5, dobry plus 'better than good', will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a good Licenciado from a recognised university, or a Diploma de Estudos Superiores Especializados (DESE) from a recognised Polytechnic Institution, with a minimum overall grade of 16 out of 20, and/or a good Mestrado / Mestre (Masters) from a recognised university, will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree from a recognised Romanian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 8 out of 10, and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree/Diploma de Master/Diploma de Studii Academice Postuniversitare (Postgraduate Diploma - Academic Studies) or Diploma de Studii Postuniversitare de Specializare (Postgraduate Diploma - Specialised Studies) to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a good Диплом Специалиста (Specialist Diploma) or Диплом Магистра (Magistr) degree from recognised universities in Russia (minimum GPA of 4.0) will be considered for entry to taught postgraduate programmes/PhD study.
Students who hold a 4-year Bachelor degree with at least 16/20 or 70% will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.
Students who hold a Maitrise, Diplome d'Etude Approfondies,Diplome d'Etude Superieures or Diplome d'Etude Superieures Specialisees will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. A score of 14-15/20 or Bien from a well ranked institution is considered comparable to a UK 2.1, while a score of 12-13/20 or Assez Bien is considered comparable to a UK 2.2
Students who hold a Bachelor (Honours) degree from a recognised institution with a minimum GPA of 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/5.0 (or a score of 60-69% or B+) from a well ranked institution will be considered for most our Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees with a 2:1 requirement.
Students holding a good Bachelors Honours degree will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.
Holders of a good three-year Bakalár or pre-2002 Magister from a recognised Slovakian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 1.5, B, Vel’mi dobrý ‘very good’, and/or a good Inžinier or a post-2002 Magister from a recognised Slovakian Higher Education institution will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a good Diploma o pridobljeni univerzitetni izobrazbi (Bachelors degree), Diplomant (Professionally oriented first degree), Univerzitetni diplomant (Academically oriented first degree) or Visoko Obrazovanja (until 1999) from a recognised Slovenian Higher Education institution with a minimum overall grade of 8.0 out of 10, and/or a good Diploma specializacija (Postgraduate Diploma) or Magister (Masters) will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students who hold a Bachelor Honours degree (also known as Baccalaureus Honores / Baccalaureus Cum Honoribus) from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most Masters programmes will require a second class upper (70%) or a distinction (75%).
Holders of a Masters degree will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a Bachelor degree from a recognised South Korean institution (usually with the equivalent of a second class upper or a grade point average 3.0/4.0 or 3.2/4.5) will be considered for Masters programmes.
Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study on an individual basis.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with 7 out of 10 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and will usually be required to have completed a Masters degree, with 60-74% or a CGPA 3.30/4.0 or higher for 2:1 equivalency from a recognised institution to be considered for entry. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a good Kandidatexamen (Bachelors degree) or Yrkesexamen (Professional Bachelors degree) from a recognised Swedish Higher Education institution with the majority of subjects with a grade of VG (Val godkänd), and/or a good Magisterexamen (Masters degree), International Masters degree or Licentiatexamen (comparable to a UK Mphil), will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a good "PostGraduate Certificate" or "PostGraduate Diploma" or a Masters degree from a recognised Swiss higher education institution (with a minimum GPA of 5/6 or 8/10 or 2/5 (gut-bien-bene/good) for a 2.1 equivalence) may be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, with a GPA of 3.0/4.0, 3.5/5 or 75% from a recognised institution to be considered. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
Holders of a good Bachelor degree (from 75% to 85% depending upon the university in Taiwan) from a recognised institution will be considered for postgraduate Masters study. Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.
Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most taught Masters programmes require a minimum of an upper second class degree (2.1) Students who have completed a Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study.
Holders of a good Masters degree from a recognised institution will be considered for entry to our postgraduate research programmes.
Holders of a good Masters degree or Mphil from a recognised university will be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes.
Students with a Bachelors degree from the following universities may be considered for entry to postgraduate programmes:
Students from all other institutions with a Bachelors and a Masters degree or relevant work experience may be considered for postgraduate programmes.
Grading Schemes
1-5 where 1 is the highest 2.1 = 1.75 2.2 = 2.25
Out of 4.0 where 4 is the highest 2.1 = 3.0 2.2 = 2.5
Letter grades and percentages 2.1 = B / 3.00 / 83% 2.2 = C+ / 2.5 / 77%
Holders of a postdoctoral qualification from a recognised institution will be considered for PhD study. Students may be considered for PhD study if they have a Masters from one of the above listed universities.
Holders of a Lisans Diplomasi with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0/4.0 from a recognised university will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level.
Holders of a Yuksek Diplomasi from a recognised university will be considered for PhD study.
Students who hold a Bachelor degree from a recognised institution will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees. Most Masters programmes will require a second class upper (2.1) or GPA of 3.5/5.0
Applicants for postgraduate research programmes should hold a good Bachelors degree / Диплом бакалавра (Dyplom Bakalavra), Диплом спеціаліста (Specialist Diploma) or a Dyplom Magistra from a recognised Ukrainian higher education institution with a minimum GPA of 4.0/5.0, 3.5/4, 8/12 or 80% or higher for 2:1 equivalence and will usually be required to have completed a good Masters degree to be considered for entry to postgraduate research programmes. Applicants with lower grades than this may be considered on an individual basis.
The University will consider students who hold an Honours degree from a recognised institution in the USA with a GPA of:
Please note that some subjects which are studied at postgraduate level in the USA, eg. Medicine and Law, are traditionally studied at undergraduate level in the UK.
Holders of the Magistr Diplomi (Master's degree) or Diplomi (Specialist Diploma), awarded by prestigious universities, who have attained high grades in their studies will be considered for postgraduate study. Holders of the Fanlari Nomzodi (Candidate of Science), where appropriate, will be considered for PhD study.
Holders of the Licenciatura/Título or an equivalent professional title from a recognised Venezuelan university may be considered for entry to a postgraduate degree programme. Scales of 1-5, 1-10 and 1-20 are used, an overall score of 70% or equivalent can be considered equivalent to a UK 2.1. Applicants for PhD level study will preferably hold a Maestria or equivalent qualification
Holders of a Bachelors degree from a recognised Vietnamese institution (usually achieved with the equivalent of a second class upper or a grade point average minimum GPA of 7.0 and above) will be considered for postgraduate study at Diploma or Masters level. Holders of a Masters degree (thac si) will be considered for entry to PhD programmes.
Students who hold a Masters degree with a minimum GPA of 3.5/5.0 or a mark of 2.0/2.5 (A) will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.
Students who hold a good Bachelor Honours degree will be considered for Postgraduate Diplomas and Masters degrees.
You can satisfy our English language requirements in two ways:
Research within the School of Government is aligned to one of three departments and Institutes:
Dr Columba Achilleos-Sarll Feminist and post/decolonial theory; the Women, Peace and Security agenda; civil society and advocacy; visual global politics.
Dr David Bailey Protest, critical political economy and contemporary capitalism
Dr Stephen Bates British politics; Parliamentary Studies (in comparative perspective or focused on the UK Parliament).
Dr Tendayi Bloom Noncitizenship; Statelessness; Migration governance.
Dr Verena K. Brändle Digital democracy; social media and politics; European politics; border and migration studies; political communication
Dr Sarah Bufkin Racism and racialization; Black Atlantic political thought; Critical Theory; Cultural Studies.
Professor Peter Burnham Restructuring of the state in the global political economy; State theory and radical theories of IPE; Marx and contemporary Marxism; Economic policy and capitalist crisis.
Dr Mwita Chacha Regional integration; International cooperation; Politics of coups d’état; Public opinion.
Dr Licia Cianetti Democracy and institutional change; democratic regression; inclusion and exclusion from policymaking processes; cities and local democracy.
Dr Laurence Cooley Politics of deeply divided societies (especially Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina); post-conflict power-sharing; politics of the census and identity categorisation.
Professor David Cutts Political and electoral behaviour; Party campaigning turnout; Civic engagement; Populist parties; Social media and politics.
Dr May Darwich International Relations Theory and the Middle East; Foreign policies of Middle Eastern states; Identity politics in the Middle East; Security policies in the Middle East.
Professor David Dunn US foreign and security policy; Strategic and security studies, and diplomacy and statecraft.
Dr Rita Floyd Ethics of emergency politics, theories of security (especially securitization theory), the English school and environmental security.
Dr Guiditta Fontana Peace processes and war-to-peace transitions. The design of peace accords, Powersharing and Reform of cultural and educational institutions in conflict-affected societies. Multi-method research designs. Politics of Lebanon, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia.
Dr Emma Foster Environmental politics; gender/sexuality and international relations; gender/sexuality and international relations.
Dr Charlotte Galpin European and national identities; European public sphere and media; Euroscepticism, EU citizenship and social movements; The role of Germany or Britain in Europe; Brexit; Gender and feminist approaches to these topics.
Dr Julie Gilson Japanese foreign policy; East Asian regionalism and institutions; Asia-Europe and Japan-Europe relations; Civil society in Asia; Climate change and environmentalism in Asia.
Dr Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente South-South relations; Global China; the political economy of development, especially in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean; critical political economy; political geography.
Dr Tim Haughton Contemporary politics of Central and Eastern Europe; Political campaigning; Party politics; Electoral politics.
Dr Laura Jenkins Feminist political theory; Contemporary political theory and British politics.
Dr Deema Kaneff Resources and Social Change; Postsocialist transformations and global capitalism; Property relations; Markets and moralities; Transnational migration, Social exclusion and inequalities. (Europe, Eastern Europe, Bulgaria and Ukraine)
Dr Peter Kerr British politics; State theory and theories of social and political change; UK party politics and party modernisation; Political leadership and governing strategies in the UK; Citizenship and political participation and political sociology.
Dr George Kyris International conflict, conflict management and resolution; International organisations, especially the European Union; State recognition; Statehood and sovereignty; Secession; unrecognised/ de facto states.
Professor René Lindstädt American Politics; Political Institutions; Accountability; Representation; Legislative politics and institutions; Elections; Political methodology
Dr Huw Macartney International or Comparative Political Economy; Banking and financial market governance; Globalisation, and historical materialism.
Dr Cerwyn Moore Political violence; international relations theory; Post-Soviet and post-communist security; Interpretive approaches to global politics and Chechnya.
Dr Richard North Any area of contemporary political philosophy, but particularly on justice and liberal and democratic political philosophy.
Dr Julian Panke European Union Politics; European Neighbourhood Policy; German foreign policy and Eastern European foreign policies (Poland, Slovakia).
Professor Patrick Porter The interaction of power and ideas in the making of foreign and defence policy in the U.S. and U.K, and in shaping their conflicts, classical realism, strategic thought and great power diplomacy.
Dr Adam Quinn US ‘grand strategy’; American national identity; American foreign and security policy; Ideological contest in American politics (contemporary and historical).
Dr Robert Ralston International Security; Civil-Military Relations; Grand Strategy.
Dr Richard Shorten Political theory, ideology, and rhetoric; fascism, Marxism and totalitarianism; reactionaries and conservatives; the political thought of Hannah Arendt, Albert Camus and George Orwell; intellectual politics of the Cold War.
Dr Asaf Siniver International mediation and conflict resolution; The politics, diplomacy and history of the Arab-Israeli conflict; The Israeli-Palestinian peace process; Contemporary US foreign policy and Foreign Policy Analysis.
Dr Nicola Smith Gender and sexuality; Feminist political economy; Queer theory; Biopolitics; Body politics; Sex Work; Obesity; Austerity.
Dr Graham Timmins Areas related to the external relations and foreign policy role of the European Union with specific reference to EU-Russia and German-Russian relations.
Dr Tsering Topgyal Chinese foreign and security policy; Tibet and China’s Nationality Policy; Asia-Pacific security and politics; US-China relations; Sino-Indian relations and Security studies.
Dr Sevasti-Eleni Vezirgiannidou International Environmental Politics; Climate change politics; Environment and trade negotiations; Environmental Regime effectiveness and compliance and The trade-environment debate.
Dr Marco Vieira Rising powers and global order; South-South political cooperation/identity/institutions, South American/Latin American politics; Brazilian foreign policy and International relations theory.
Dr Yi Wang Memory politics; Nationalism and national identity; Contemporary China; International relations of East Asia; Political communication
Dr Robert Watt Military History, power and networks, Small Wars/Insurgencies; Native American History & Politics.
Professor Mark Webber NATO; transatlantic relations; European security; American, Russian and British foreign policy; Theories and practices of security
Dr Mark Wenman Continental philosophy; Contemporary political theory; The philosophy of the social sciences; The history of political thought.
Professor Nicholas Wheeler Trust-building between adversaries, especially nuclear armed states; Nuclear weapons and proliferation.
Professor Kataryna Wolczuk Politics of Russia and post-Soviet countries; EU’s Eastern policy, Russia’s policy towards the post-Soviet states; Regional integration in the post-Soviet space; Nationalism and national identities (across Europe and Eurasia).
Professor Stefan Wolff - Ethnic conflict, civil war, post-conflict state-building; Geopolitics and great-power rivalry; Central Asia, South Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, Middle East & North Africa.
Dr Christalla Yakinthou Conflict transformation, particularly post-settlement; Transitional justice both in theory and practice, and transitions in the MENA region; The relationship between constitutional design and transitional justice; Power sharing, Cypriot, Lebanese, and Tunisian politics and conflicts and the right to truth in international law and practice, and issues around enforced disappearance and missing people during conflict.
Dr Sotirios Zartaloudis European Union politics and policies; Migration in Europe; European politics; Discourse
Dr Sameen A. Mohsin Ali Bureaucratic politics; politics of development, donor engagement, and public sector reform; public health, especially with regard to vaccination; politics of South Asia (especially Pakistan)
Dr Philip Amis Urbanisation; Urban policy; Poverty and housing.
Not currently accepting new PhD supervision applications
Dr Danielle Beswick UK development policy, including parliamentary scrutiny and public engagement in this; UK Africa relations; The UK Conservative Party and development; Politics, identity and security in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Rwanda; Knowledge exchange between universities and legislatures.
Dr Brock Bersaglio The political ecology of biodiversity conservation, wild meat (including food sovereignty), and zoonotic disease in eastern/southern Africa; anti-, post- and settler colonial development studies
Dr Adrian Campbell Public and local government reform, especially in transitional states.
Professor Nic Cheeseman Elections and democratization; The formation of a social contract in new democracies; Power-sharing and the politics of inclusion; Populism and strategies of political mobilization; African political thought.
Dr David Cobley Disability-inclusive approaches to development, especially in the areas of poverty reduction, livelihood development, inclusive education and disaster risk reduction.
Dr Niheer Dasandi Politics of international development and foreign aid; development and human rights; politics of climate change and health; foreign policy and development
Dr Jonathan Fisher Authoritarianism and authoritarian rule; (in)security and conflict; international politics of aid and peacekeeping; particular interest in sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor David Hudson Politics of leadership and coalitions; public opinion, survey analysis, and experiments; migration decision making; network analysis.
Professor Paul Jackson Conflict and post-conflict reconstruction; security sector reform and international intervention; combatants, politics and social reintegration; peacebuilding; economic development.
Dr Chris Lyon Politics of development; political theory; democracy, participation, decentralisation; social justice; development ethics
Professor Heather Marquette The politics of development and foreign policy; Corruption, kleptocracy and organised crime; Anti-corruption/counter-organised crime strategies and interventions
Dr Claire McLoughlin State legitimacy; The politics of public service delivery; The role of ideas in development.
Dr Emeka Njoku Critical security studies; Terrorism and counter-terrorism; Nonprofit organisations; conflict-related gender/sexual violence; State-civil society relations; peacebuilding.
Professor Fiona Nunan Renewable natural resource governance, management and livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries, especially fisheries and coastal ecosystems and community-based or collaborative governance.
Dr Martin Ottmann Political economy of civil war and development, including peace processes and negotiated settlements; Power-sharing, resource redistribution, elections, and political trust after war. PhD applications relying on advanced statistical research methods, mixed-methods designs, and modern methods of causal inference are particularly welcome.
Dr Emily Scott Humanitarianism, health, and migration; international organisation (IOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs); state-society relations, particularly in the Middle East; conflict and security; localization and the international politics of aid.
Dr Merisa Thompson Feminist political economy; food and agrarian studies; the politics of gender and development; histories of colonialism, particularly the Caribbean.
Dr Kailing Xie Contemporary Chinese society, Gender and reproductive politics, the politics of nation-building; Civil Society; governance beyond the state; collective memory and emotions; Chinese diaspora;feminist epistemologies and methodologies.
Dr Koen Bartels Social innovation; Democratic innovation; Public encounters; Urban governance; Action research; Interpretive policy analysis; Communication; Practice theory; Relational public policy and administration.
Dr Karin Bottom The role of small parties; Comparative politics; Policy analysis; Elections and quantitative methodologies.
Dr May Chu Risk regulation; Collaborative governance; Food safety and sustainability
Dr Abena Dadze-Arthur Transfer and brokering of knowledge across cultural and institutional boundaries. Decolonizing, transforming, and indigenising approaches to public management and governance. The scientific study of subjectivity (Q Methodology)
Dr Stephen Jeffares Projects that draw on social media data to understand change or controversies in public policy.
Dr Timea Nochta Networks in governance and policy; Complexity; Smart cities, digitalisation and e-government; Climate change and net zero; Network analysis; Mixed methods
Dr Louise Reardon Multi-level governance; Policy networks; Agenda setting; Policy change; Policy implementation; Transport policy; Wellbeing and quality of life; Smart cities.
Dr Philip Whiteman Policy implementation studies; Central and local government relations; Regulation of local government; Local authority corporate management scrutiny; Public sector performance, procurement and efficiency; Public consultation and participation; Organisation dynamics.
You will meet your supervisor approximately fortnightly (monthly for part-time students) over the course of your study. Supervisors are experienced in managing the research process and are chosen to complement your area of interest. You will discuss your research with a panel every six months (part-time: every 12 months). The panel is chaired by an experienced researcher from the department, and includes your supervisor and another member of staff. It provides an important opportunity to present progress on your research and to have a wider discussion about your work.
Your supervisor will read and comment on drafts of your thesis before it is finally submitted. An external and an internal examiner (who will not be your supervisor) will then examine it, and will normally meet with you for a viva. They will judge whether your thesis demonstrates:
MPhil students must show original work of merit that is worthy of publication. The requirement for PhDs is that the work is an original contribution to knowledge that is worthy of publication.
Departments from across the School of Government are all based within the Muirhead Tower on the University of Birmingham campus. Muirhead Tower offers state-of-the-art teaching and research study facilities including free wifi throughout the building and dedicated study areas for postgraduate research students.
The space has been designed to create modern, attractive spaces for teaching and research accommodating 150 academic offices, 230 "hubs" for post graduate research students, teaching rooms for up to 100 people and a 200 seat lecture theatre.
In addition to the academic knowledge gained through their course, postgraduates from the Department of Public Administration and Policy develop transferable skills that are useful in many occupations. These include familiarity with research methods; the ability to manage large and diverse quantities of information; the ability to organise information in a logical and coherent manner; judging and evaluating complex information; and making reasoned arguments, both orally and in written work.
Graduates are attracted to careers in both public and private sectors. These include local government, policing, health services, transport, legal services, prison services and housing. Some of these careers require further professional training, and/or building a portfolio of relevant work experience. Many PhD graduates also successfully gain academic research and teaching posts.
The College of Social Sciences, to which the Department of Public Administration and Policy belongs, has specially designated careers advisors and careers consultants who can provide guidance for doctoral researchers on career paths, CVs, training opportunities, application and interviews. The University’s central Careers’ Service also runs workshops and offers personally tailored advice and guidance including 1-1 careers advice, 1-1 CV advice. The Career’s Service also runs CV writing workshops especially for postgraduates in the College of Social Sciences, giving advice on how to compile CVs for both employment and for academic roles.
The University also has dedicated careers advisors for International students who run workshops and networking opportunities with potential employers. These are especially popular with International postgraduate researchers.
Written by Taru Medha
From school to university, education in the UK is divided into, and defined by, levels. These levels are set as a standard which means the nature and volume of study at a certain level will be the same everywhere. England, Wales and Northern Ireland follow the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) and Scotland follows the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF) .
There are eight total levels (numbered 1-8) defined in the RQF and 12 total levels (numbered 1-12) defined in the SCQF. For this guide, we’ll be focussing on higher education levels (Level 4 and above) only. Higher education is defined as study undertaken after completing school, typically taking place in universities and colleges.
Here’s everything you need to know about what the different higher education levels are, what qualifications fall under each level, and how the Scottish levels compare to the rest of the UK.
What are the different higher education levels.
Higher education levels are numbered 4-8 and cover everything between Certificates of Higher Education (CertHE) to a PhD. Before we move on, there is one thing we need to clarify. The level of education is simply a classification for different qualifications, they determine the difficulty, depth and outcome of study.
Let’s see what qualifications fall under each higher education level.
Level 4 qualifications are the first step into higher education and the first level after secondary education (Levels 1-3). They often act as a bridge between school and university. Some examples of Level 4 qualifications are:
Level 5 qualifications set you up for higher university degrees, giving you knowledge of a subject that goes beyond school and secondary education. Some examples of Level 5 qualifications are:
Level 6 qualifications are earned at the degree level. The most common qualification earned at Level 6 is a Bachelors degree. It is the first step for those looking to pursue a Masters degree . Some examples of Level 6 qualifications are:
A Level 7 qualification is equivalent to a Masters degree . If you’re looking to build in-depth knowledge of a subject, a Level 7 degree is the way to go. It is also the penultimate qualification level (for outside of Scotland), becoming a common stepping stone for those wanting to pursue a PhD . Some examples of Level 7 qualifications are:
The highest level of education (outside of Scotland), a Level 8 qualification, is equivalent to a PhD and other doctoral degrees . Once completed, you’ll have become a fully qualified doctor (although not medically, unless that’s been your degree of choice). Some examples of Level 8 qualifications are:
Like the RQF in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the SCQF is the name of the structure of qualifications in Scotland. It’s similar to the RQF and recognises the same qualifications but the SCQF is made up of 12 levels.
Here’s how the SCQF levels compare to the ones used in the rest of the UK.
RQF Level | SCQF Level | Qualification |
---|---|---|
Level 4 | Level 7 | Certificates of Higher Education |
Level 5 | Level 8 | Diplomas of Higher Education Higher National Diplomas |
Level 6 | Level 9 | Bachelors degree Graduate Diplomas Graduate Certificates |
Level 10 | Bachelors degree with Honours | |
Level 7 | Level 11 | Masters degree PG Cert PG Dip |
Level 8 | Level 12 | PhD and other doctoral degrees |
The levels of education are hierarchical which means the volume and complexity of study increases with each level. So, you’re also likely to move from one level to the next. For example, you’re likely to move from a Bachelors to a Masters to a PhD. However, there are exceptions to this rule as it is possible to jump from a Bachelors to a PhD .
There is no rule on studying at a lower level than, or the same level as, your last qualification. So, you should be able to study another PhD even if you’ve already completed one. However, you’ll need to consider the costs (you’ll not be able to get another PhD loan if you already have a PhD) and any visa restrictions if you’re an international student. Remember, a second similar degree is a big commitment so make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.
You’ll often find these education levels mentioned in course entry requirements and job requirements, so it’s important to understand how they work. They are also a good indicator for how an international qualification matches to ones in the UK. However, check with your university first about how your international qualification translates to the UK system before committing to anything.
Now that you know what these education levels are and hopefully have an idea about what you’re aiming for, find your perfect Level 8 qualification on FindAPhD.com .
Ready to start browsing some current PhD opportunities ?
The seven UK Research Councils provide government studentships for PhD research in different subject areas. Our simple guide explains how this funding works, what you can get and how to apply successfully.
You may be able to get a PhD loan of up to £27,892 for a UK doctorate. Our guide explains eligibility, applications and repayments.
Our guide explains the best ways to fund international PhD study in the UK, with information on all the main scholarships available to you.
Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) or Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) provide UK Research Council funded PhD studentships to postgraduate students
Looking for the best universities for PhDs in Agriculture in the UK? Compare ranking tables from top sources here, along with their methodologies.
The Turing Scheme recently replaced the Erasmus programme, but is it any different? Let’s examine the Turing Scheme vs Erasmus debate in detail.
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BMI indicates body mass index; SES, socioeconomic status.
a Variables smoking status, SES, drinking pattern, former drinker bias only, occasional drinker bias, median age, and gender were removed.
b Variables race, diet, exercise, BMI, country, follow-up year, publication year, and unhealthy people exclusion were removed.
eAppendix. Methodology of Meta-analysis on All-Cause Mortality and Alcohol Consumption
eReferences
eFigure 1. Flowchart of Systematic Search Process for Studies of Alcohol Consumption and Risk of All-Cause Mortality
eTable 1. Newly Included 20 Studies (194 Risk Estimates) of All-Cause Mortality and Consumption in 2015 to 2022
eFigure 2. Funnel Plot of Log-Relative Risk (In(RR)) of All-Cause Mortality Due to Alcohol Consumption Against Inverse of Standard Error of In(RR)
eFigure 3. Relative Risk (95% CI) of All-Cause Mortality Due to Any Alcohol Consumption Without Any Adjustment for Characteristics of New Studies Published between 2015 and 2022
eFigure 4. Unadjusted, Partially Adjusted, and Fully Adjusted Relative Risk (RR) of All-Cause Mortality for Drinkers (vs Nondrinkers), 1980 to 2022
eTable 2. Statistical Analysis of Unadjusted Mean Relative Risk (RR) of All-Cause Mortality for Different Categories of Drinkers for Testing Publication Bias and Heterogeneity of RR Estimates From Included Studies
eTable 3. Mean Relative Risk (RR) Estimates of All-Cause Mortality Due to Alcohol Consumption up to 2022 for Subgroups (Cohorts Recruited 50 Years of Age or Younger and Followed up to 60 Years of Age)
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Zhao J , Stockwell T , Naimi T , Churchill S , Clay J , Sherk A. Association Between Daily Alcohol Intake and Risk of All-Cause Mortality : A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses . JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e236185. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6185
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Question What is the association between mean daily alcohol intake and all-cause mortality?
Findings This systematic review and meta-analysis of 107 cohort studies involving more than 4.8 million participants found no significant reductions in risk of all-cause mortality for drinkers who drank less than 25 g of ethanol per day (about 2 Canadian standard drinks compared with lifetime nondrinkers) after adjustment for key study characteristics such as median age and sex of study cohorts. There was a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality among female drinkers who drank 25 or more grams per day and among male drinkers who drank 45 or more grams per day.
Meaning Low-volume alcohol drinking was not associated with protection against death from all causes.
Importance A previous meta-analysis of the association between alcohol use and all-cause mortality found no statistically significant reductions in mortality risk at low levels of consumption compared with lifetime nondrinkers. However, the risk estimates may have been affected by the number and quality of studies then available, especially those for women and younger cohorts.
Objective To investigate the association between alcohol use and all-cause mortality, and how sources of bias may change results.
Data Sources A systematic search of PubMed and Web of Science was performed to identify studies published between January 1980 and July 2021.
Study Selection Cohort studies were identified by systematic review to facilitate comparisons of studies with and without some degree of controls for biases affecting distinctions between abstainers and drinkers. The review identified 107 studies of alcohol use and all-cause mortality published from 1980 to July 2021.
Data Extraction and Synthesis Mixed linear regression models were used to model relative risks, first pooled for all studies and then stratified by cohort median age (<56 vs ≥56 years) and sex (male vs female). Data were analyzed from September 2021 to August 2022.
Main Outcomes and Measures Relative risk estimates for the association between mean daily alcohol intake and all-cause mortality.
Results There were 724 risk estimates of all-cause mortality due to alcohol intake from the 107 cohort studies (4 838 825 participants and 425 564 deaths available) for the analysis. In models adjusting for potential confounding effects of sampling variation, former drinker bias, and other prespecified study-level quality criteria, the meta-analysis of all 107 included studies found no significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality among occasional (>0 to <1.3 g of ethanol per day; relative risk [RR], 0.96; 95% CI, 0.86-1.06; P = .41) or low-volume drinkers (1.3-24.0 g per day; RR, 0.93; P = .07) compared with lifetime nondrinkers. In the fully adjusted model, there was a nonsignificantly increased risk of all-cause mortality among drinkers who drank 25 to 44 g per day (RR, 1.05; P = .28) and significantly increased risk for drinkers who drank 45 to 64 and 65 or more grams per day (RR, 1.19 and 1.35; P < .001). There were significantly larger risks of mortality among female drinkers compared with female lifetime nondrinkers (RR, 1.22; P = .03).
Conclusions and Relevance In this updated systematic review and meta-analysis, daily low or moderate alcohol intake was not significantly associated with all-cause mortality risk, while increased risk was evident at higher consumption levels, starting at lower levels for women than men.
The proposition that low-dose alcohol use protects against all-cause mortality in general populations continues to be controversial. 1 Observational studies tend to show that people classified as “moderate drinkers” have longer life expectancy and are less likely to die from heart disease than those classified as abstainers. 2 Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of this literature 3 confirm J-shaped risk curves (protective associations at low doses with increasing risk at higher doses). However, mounting evidence suggests these associations might be due to systematic biases that affect many studies. For example, light and moderate drinkers are systematically healthier than current abstainers on a range of health indicators unlikely to be associated with alcohol use eg, dental hygiene, exercise routines, diet, weight, income 4 ; lifetime abstainers may be systematically biased toward poorer health 5 ; studies fail to control for biases in the abstainer reference group, in particular failing to remove “sick quitters” or former drinkers, many of whom cut down or stop for health reasons 2 ; and most studies have nonrepresentative samples leading to an overrepresentation of older White men. Adjustment of cohort samples to make them more representative has been shown to eliminate apparent protective associations. 6 Mendelian randomization studies that control for the confounding effects of sociodemographic and environmental factors find no evidence of cardioprotection. 7
We published 2 previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses that investigated these hypotheses. The first of these focused on all-cause mortality, 8 finding negligible reductions in mortality risk with low-volume alcohol use when study-level controls were introduced for potential bias and confounding, such as the widespread practice of misclassifying former drinkers and/or current occasional drinkers as abstainers (ie, not restricting reference groups to lifetime abstainers). 8 Our alcohol and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality meta-analysis of 45 cohort studies 9 found that CHD mortality risk differed widely by age ranges and sex of study populations. In particular, young cohorts followed up to old age did not show significant cardio-protection for low-volume use. Cardio-protection was only apparent among older cohorts that are more exposed to lifetime selection biases (ie, increasing numbers of “sick-quitters” in the abstainer reference groups and the disproportionate elimination of drinkers from the study sample who had died or were unwell).
The present study updates our earlier systematic review and meta-analysis for all-cause mortality and alcohol use, 8 including studies published up to July 2021 (ie, 6.5 years of additional publications). The study also investigated the risk of all-cause mortality for alcohol consumption according to (1) median ages of the study populations (younger than 56 years or 56 years and older), replicating the methods of Zhao et al 9 ; (2) the sex distribution of the study populations, and (3) studies of cohorts recruited before a median age of 51 years of age and followed up in health records until a median age of at least 60 years (ie, with stricter rules to further minimize lifetime selection biases). Because younger cohorts followed up to an age at which they may experience heart disease are less likely to be affected by lifetime selection biases, 9 we hypothesized that such studies would be less likely to show reduced mortality risks for low-volume drinkers. Finally, we reran the analyses using occasional drinkers (<1 drink per week) as the reference, for whom physiological health benefits are unlikely. Occasional drinkers are a more appropriate reference group, given evidence demonstrating that lifetime abstainers may be biased toward ill health. 10
The present study updates the systematic reviews and meta-analyses described above 8 by including studies published up to July 2021 to investigate whether the risk differed for subgroups. The study protocol was preregistered on the Open Science Framework. 11 Inclusion criteria, search strategy, study selection, data extraction, and statistical analytical methods of the study are summarized in later sections (see eAppendix in Supplement 1 for more details).
The systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses ( PRISMA ) reporting guideline. 12 The review sought cohort studies of all-cause mortality and alcohol consumption. We identified all potentially relevant articles published up to July 31, 2021, regardless of language, by searching PubMed and Web of Science, through reference list cross-checking of previous meta-analyses (eFigure 1 in Supplement 1 ). There were 87 studies identified by Stockwell et al. 8 After inclusion of 20 new studies meeting inclusion criteria, there were a total of 107 cohort studies (eTable 1 in Supplement 1 ). 13 - 32
Three coders (J. Z., F. A., and J. C.) reviewed all eligible studies to extract and code data independently from all studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Data extracted included (1) outcome, all-cause mortality; (2) measures of alcohol consumption; (3) study characteristics, including cohort ages at recruitment and follow-up; (4) types of misclassification error of alcohol consumers and abstainers; (5) controlled variables in individual studies. Alcoholic drinks were converted into grams per day according to country-specific definitions if not otherwise defined. 33 , 34
We also assessed publication bias, heterogeneity, and confounding of covariates that might potentially affect the association of interest using several statistical approaches. 35 - 41 Relative risk (RR), including hazard ratios or rate ratios, were converted to natural log-transformed formats to deal with skewness. Publication bias was assessed through visual inspection of the funnel plot of log-RR of all-cause mortality due to alcohol consumption against the inverse standard error of log-RR 42 and Egger’s linear regression method. 36 We also plotted forest graphs of log-RR of all-cause mortality for any level of drinking to assess heterogeneity among studies. 42 The between-study heterogeneity of RRs were assessed using Cochran Q 37 and the I 2 statistic. 38 If heterogeneity was detected, mixed-effects models were used to obtain the summarized RR estimates. Mixed-effects regression analyses were performed in which drinking groups and control variables were treated as fixed-effects with a random study effect because of significant heterogeneity. 43
All analyses were weighted by the inverse of the estimated variance of the natural log relative risk. Variance was estimated from reported standard errors, confidence intervals, or number of deaths. The weights for each individual study were created using the inverse variance weight scheme and used in mixed regression analysis to get maximum precision for the main results of the meta-analysis. 42 In comparison with lifetime abstainers, the study estimated the mean RR of all-cause mortality for former drinkers (ie, now completely abstaining), current occasional (<9.1 g per week), low-volume (1.3-24.0 g per day), medium-volume (25.0-44.0 g per day), high-volume (45.0-64.0 g) and highest-volume drinkers (≥65.0 grams per day). The analyses adjusted for the potential confounding effects of study characteristics including the median age and sex distribution of study samples, drinker biases, country where a study was conducted, follow-up years and presence or absence of confounders. Analyses were also repeated using occasional drinkers as the reference group. We used t tests to calculate P values, and significance was set at .05. All statistical analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute) and the SAS MIXED procedure was used to model the log-transformed RR. 44 Data were analyzed from September 2021 to August 2022.
There were 724 estimates of the risk relationship between level of alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality from 107 unique studies 13 - 32 , 45 - 131 , including 4 838 825 participants and 425 564 deaths available for the analysis. Table 1 describes the sample characteristics of the metadata. Of 39 studies 13 , 15 , 18 , 21 , 23 - 26 , 29 , 31 , 45 - 47 , 49 , 50 , 52 - 54 , 57 - 59 , 62 , 64 , 70 , 80 , 81 , 85 , 87 , 91 , 94 , 96 , 100 , 104 , 107 , 118 , 124 , 125 , 127 , 130 reporting RR estimates for men and women separately, 33 14 , 17 , 48 , 51 , 61 , 63 , 66 , 68 , 69 , 72 , 76 , 79 , 83 , 84 , 86 , 88 , 90 , 92 , 93 , 97 , 98 , 101 , 103 , 105 , 109 - 111 , 113 - 115 , 119 , 120 , 128 were for males only, 8 16 , 65 , 73 , 99 , 102 , 108 , 112 , 123 for females only, and 30 13 , 19 - 22 , 26 - 30 , 32 , 55 , 56 , 67 , 71 , 74 , 75 , 77 , 78 , 82 , 84 , 89 , 95 , 106 , 116 , 117 , 121 , 122 , 126 , 129 for both sexes. Twenty-one studies 13 , 17 , 19 , 21 , 22 , 26 , 27 , 45 - 58 (220 risk estimates) were free from abstainer bias (ie, had a reference group of strictly defined lifetime abstainers). There were 50 studies 14 - 16 , 18 , 20 , 23 - 25 , 29 , 59 - 99 (265 risk estimates) with both former and occasional drinker bias; 28 studies 28 , 30 - 32 , 100 - 122 , 130 (177 risk estimates) with only former drinker bias; and 8 studies 123 - 129 , 131 (62 risk estimates) with only occasional drinker bias.
Unadjusted mean RR estimates for most study subgroups categorized by methods/sample characteristics showed markedly or significantly higher RRs for alcohol consumers as a group vs abstainers. Exceptions were for studies with less than 10 years of follow-up and those with some form of abstainer bias ( Table 1 ). Bivariable analyses showed that mortality risks for alcohol consumers varied considerably according to other study characteristics, such as quality of the alcohol consumption measure, whether unhealthy individuals were excluded at baseline, and whether socioeconomic status was controlled for ( Table 1 ).
No evidence of publication bias was detected either by inspection of symmetry in the funnel plot of log-RR estimates and their inverse standard errors (eFigure 2 in Supplement 1 ) or by Egger linear regression analysis (eTable 2 in Supplement 1 , all P > .05 for each study group). Significant heterogeneity was observed across studies for all drinking categories confirmed by both the Q statistic ( Q 723 = 5314.80; P < .001) and I 2 estimates (all >85.87%). (See eFigure 3 in Supplement 1 for forest plot of unadjusted risk estimates of mortality risks for the 20 newly identified studies).
Pooled unadjusted estimates (724 observations) showed significantly higher risk for former drinkers (RR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.11-1.33; P = .001) and significantly lower risk for low-volume drinkers (RR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.81-0.88; P = .001) compared with abstainers as defined in the included studies ( Table 2 ; eFigure 4 in Supplement 1 ). In the fully adjusted model, mortality RR estimates increased for all drinking categories, becoming nonsignificant for low-volume drinkers (RR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.85-1.01; P = .07), occasional drinkers (>0 to <1.3 g of ethanol per day; RR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.86-1.06; P = .41), and drinkers who drank 25 to 44 g per day (RR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.96-1.14; P = .28). There was a significantly increased risk among drinkers who drank 45 to 64 g per day (RR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.07-1.32; P < .001) and 65 or more grams (RR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.23-1.47; P < .001). The Figure shows the changes in RR estimates for low-volume drinkers when removing each covariate from the fully adjusted model. In most cases, removing study-level covariates tended to yield lower risk estimates from alcohol use.
Table 2 presents the RR estimates when occasional drinkers were the reference group. In fully adjusted models, higher though nonsignificant mortality risks were observed for both abstainers and medium-volume drinkers (RR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.94-1.16; P = .44 and RR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.96-1.25; P = .19, respectively). There were significantly elevated risks for both high and higher volume drinkers (RR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.07-1.44; P = .004 and RR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.23-1.61; . P = 001, respectively).
As hypothesized, there was a significant interaction between cohort age and mortality risk ( P = .02; F 601 = 2.93) and so RR estimates for drinkers were estimated in analyses stratified by median age of the study populations at enrollment ( Table 3 ). In unadjusted and partially adjusted analyses, older cohorts displayed larger reductions in mortality risk associated with low-volume consumption than younger cohorts. However, in fully adjusted analyses with multiple covariates included for study characteristics, these differences disappeared. Younger cohorts also displayed greater mortality risks than older cohorts at higher consumption levels. Among studies in which participants were recruited at age 50 years or younger and followed up to age 60 years (ie, there was likely reduced risk of lifetime selection bias) higher RR estimates were observed for all drinking groups vs lifetime abstainers. These differences were significant in all drinking groups except low-volume drinkers (eTable 3 in Supplement 1 ).
Across all levels of alcohol consumption, female drinkers had a higher RR of all-cause mortality than males ( P for interaction = .001). As can be seen in Table 4 , all female drinkers had a significantly increased mortality risk compared with female lifetime nondrinkers (RR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.02-1.46; P = .03). Compared with lifetime abstainers, there was significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality among male drinkers who drank 45 to 64 g per day (RR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.03-1.28; P = .01) and drank 65 or more (RR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.23-1.47; P < .001), and among female drinkers who drank 25 to 44 g per day (RR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.08-1.36; P < .01), 45 to 64 g (RR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.11-1.63; P < .01) and 65 or more grams (RR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.44-1.80; P = .001).
In fully adjusted, prespecified models that accounted for effects of sampling, between-study variation, and potential confounding from former drinker bias and other study-level covariates, our meta-analysis of 107 studies found (1) no significant protective associations of occasional or low-volume drinking (moderate drinking) with all-cause mortality; and (2) an increased risk of all-cause mortality for drinkers who drank 25 g or more and a significantly increased risk when drinking 45 g or more per day.
Several meta-analytic strategies were used to explore the role of abstainer reference group biases caused by drinker misclassification errors and also the potential confounding effects of other study-level quality covariates in studies. 2 Drinker misclassification errors were common. Of 107 studies identified, 86 included former drinkers and/or occasional drinkers in the abstainer reference group, and only 21 were free of both these abstainer biases. The importance of controlling for former drinker bias/misclassification is highlighted once more in our results which are consistent with prior studies showing that former drinkers have significantly elevated mortality risks compared with lifetime abstainers.
In addition to presenting our fully adjusted models, a strength of the study was the examination of the differences in relative risks according to unadjusted and partially adjusted models, including the effect of removing individual covariates from the fully adjusted model. We found evidence that abstainer biases and other study characteristics changed the shape of the risk relationship between mortality and rising alcohol consumption, and that most study-level controls increased the observed risks from alcohol, or attenuated protective associations at low levels of consumption such that they were no longer significant. The reduced RR estimates for occasional or moderate drinkers observed without adjustment may be due to the misclassification of former and occasional drinkers into the reference group, a possibility which is more likely to have occurred in studies of older cohorts which use current abstainers as the reference group. This study also demonstrates the degree to which observed associations between consumption and mortality are highly dependent on the modeling strategy used and the degree to which efforts are made to minimize confounding and other threats to validity.
It also examined risk estimates when using occasional drinkers rather than lifetime abstainers as the reference group. The occasional drinker reference group avoids the issue of former drinker misclassification that can affect the abstainer reference group, and may reduce confounding to the extent that occasional drinkers are more like low-volume drinkers than are lifetime abstainers. 2 , 8 , 132 In the unadjusted and partially adjusted analyses, using occasional drinkers as the reference group resulted in nonsignificant protective associations and lower point estimates for low-volume drinkers compared with significant protective associations and higher point estimates when using lifetime nondrinkers as the reference group. In the fully adjusted models, there were nonsignificant protective associations for low-volume drinkers whether using lifetime abstainers or occasional drinkers as the reference group, though this was only a RR of 0.97 for the latter.
Across all studies, there were few differences in risk for studies when stratified by median age of enrollment above or below age 56 years in the fully adjusted analyses. However, in the subset of studies who enrolled participants aged 50 years or younger who were followed for at least 10 years, occasional drinkers and medium-volume drinkers had significantly increased risk of mortality and substantially higher risk estimates for high- and higher-volume consumption compared with results from all studies. This is consistent with our previous meta-analysis for CHD, 9 in which younger cohorts followed up to older age did not show a significantly beneficial association of low-volume consumption, while older cohorts, with more opportunity for lifetime selection bias, showed marked, significant protective associations.
Our study also found sex differences in the risk of all-cause mortality. A larger risk of all-cause mortality for women than men was observed when drinking 25 or more grams per day, including a significant increase in risk for medium-level consumption for women that was not observed for men. However, mortality risk for mean consumption up to 25 g per day were very similar for both sexes.
A number of limitations need to be acknowledged. A major limitation involves imperfect measurement of alcohol consumption in most included studies, and the fact that consumption in many studies was assessed at only 1 point in time. Self-reported alcohol consumption is underreported in most epidemiological studies 133 , 134 and even the classification of drinkers as lifetime abstainers can be unreliable, with several studies in developed countries finding that the majority of self-reported lifetime abstainers are in fact former drinkers. 135 , 136 If this is the case, the risks of various levels of alcohol consumption relative to presumed lifetime abstainers are underestimates. Merely removing former drinkers from analyses may bias studies in favor of drinkers, since former drinkers may be unhealthy, and should rightly be reallocated to drinking groups according to their history. However, this has only been explored in very few studies. Our study found that mortality risk differed significantly by cohort age and sex. It might be that the risk is also higher for other subgroups, such as people living with HIV, 137 a possibility future research should investigate.
The number of available studies in some stratified analyses was small, so there may be limited power to control for potential study level confounders. However, the required number of estimates per variable for linear regression can be much smaller than in logistic regression, and a minimum of at least 2 estimates per variable is recommended for linear regression analysis, 138 suggesting the sample sizes were adequate in all models presented. It has been demonstrated that a pattern of binge (ie, heavy episodic) drinking removes the appearance of reduced health risks even when mean daily volume is low. 139 Too few studies adequately controlled for this variable to investigate its association with different outcomes across studies. Additionally, our findings only apply to the net effect of alcohol at different doses on all-cause mortality, and different risk associations likely apply for specific disease categories. The biases identified here likely apply to estimates of risk for alcohol and all diseases. It is likely that correcting for these biases will raise risk estimates for many types of outcome compared with most existing estimates.
This updated meta-analysis did not find significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality associated with low-volume alcohol consumption after adjusting for potential confounding effects of influential study characteristics. Future longitudinal studies in this field should attempt to minimize lifetime selection biases by not including former and occasional drinkers in the reference group, and by using younger cohorts (ie, age distributions that are more representative of drinkers in the general population) at baseline.
Accepted for Publication: February 17, 2023.
Published: March 31, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6185
Correction: This article was corrected on May 9, 2023, to fix errors in the Figure and Supplement.
Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License . © 2023 Zhao J et al. JAMA Network Open .
Corresponding Author: Jinhui Zhao, PhD, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8Y 2E4, Canada ( [email protected] ).
Author Contributions: Drs Zhao and Stockwell had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Concept and design: Zhao, Stockwell, Naimi, Churchill, Sherk.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Zhao, Stockwell, Naimi, Clay.
Drafting of the manuscript: Zhao, Stockwell, Clay.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.
Statistical analysis: Zhao, Churchill.
Obtained funding: Zhao, Stockwell, Sherk.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Zhao, Stockwell, Naimi.
Supervision: Zhao, Stockwell, Naimi.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Stockwell reported receiving personal fees from Ontario Public Servants Employees Union for expert witness testimony and personal fees from Alko outside the submitted work. Dr Sherk reported receiving grants from Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.
Funding/Support: This study was partly funded by the CCSA as a subcontract for a Health Canada grant to develop guidance for Canadians on alcohol and health.
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: Health Canada had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. CCSA staff conducted a preliminary search to identify potentially relevant articles but did not participate in decisions about inclusion/exclusion of studies, coding, analysis, interpretation of results or approving the final manuscript.
Data Sharing Statement: See Supplement 2 .
Additional Contributions: We gratefully acknowledge contributions by Christine Levesque, PhD (CCSA), and Nitika Sanger, PhD (CCSA), who conducted a preliminary literature search for potentially relevant articles. We also acknowledge the leadership of Drs Catherine Paradis, PhD (CCSA), and Peter Butt, MD (University of Saskatchewan), who cochaired the process of developing Canada’s new guidance on alcohol and health, a larger project which contributed some funds for the work undertaken for this study. We are grateful to Fariha Alam, MPH (Canadian Institute for Substance Use and Research), for her help coding the studies used in this study. None of them received any compensation beyond their normal salaries for this work.
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PhD by thesis. This is the most common means of getting a Doctorate. Over the three or four years of research at university, your PhD supervisor will support you as you aim to produce a thesis based on your research proposal. A thesis is typically 60,000-90,000 words in length - although this can vary between institutions.
If you're looking to study at a university in the United Kingdom, you will find a multitude of higher education opportunities, providing diverse academic programmes and vibrant city experiences.Universities in the UK are well known in the world for their top-quality education. Critical thinking, creative methods of teaching, and quality-control merge successfully in British higher education.
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PhD Study in the UK - Key Details Universities: 164 Oldest University: University of Oxford (1096) International Students: 550,000 PhD Length: 3-4 years Representative Fees: £4-5,000 (domestic rate) Academic Year: September to June UK universities. There are over 150 universities in the UK.
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As well as building the foundations for an academic career, PhD study will help you to develop excellent research skills. By studying for a PhD, you can become an expert in your field while getting to pursue your lifelong passion. Discover more about choosing your PhD supervisor, writing a research proposal, passing your viva exam, and get some ...
A Cambridge PhD is intellectually demanding and you will need to have a high level of attainment and motivation to pursue this programme of advanced study and research. In most faculties a candidate is expected to have completed one year of postgraduate study, normally on a research preparation masters course, prior to starting a PhD.
A PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is the most common type of doctoral degree and the highest level of academic qualification you can achieve. It normally takes between three and four years of full-time work to complete. It is also possible to undertake a PhD part time, over five to six years. The main activity of a PhD is to carry out an original ...
A small number of our students study part-time. This must, however, be discussed with your potential supervisor, as whether this is possible will depend upon the nature of the research project. As a part-time student you would be required to spend 50% of your time on your PhD and you are expected to be in the University 50% of your time.
Presentation. How much does a PhD cost? Fees vary widely between courses and institutions, but are commonly between £3,000 and £6,000 per year for UK students. International students often pay more. Many degrees are partly or fully funded, and lots of students receive scholarships and bursaries.
Apply to Sussex. You apply directly to Sussex using our postgraduate application system. You can apply for up to three postgraduate courses. If you are applying for more than one degree, you must submit a research proposal/statement specific to each area of study you apply for. degree certificates and transcripts.
The maximum registration for a PhD programme is four years with full-time study, or eight years with part-time study. Assessment. All PhD students are initially registered for a Master of Philosophy (MPhil), and the PhD registration is confirmed after the successful completion of an upgrade assessment (at the end of year 1 for full-time ...
The term PhD or Doctorate of Philosophy is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase 'philosophiae doctor'. A PhD degree typically involves students independently conducting original and significant research in a specific field or subject, before producing a publication-worthy thesis. While some Doctorates include taught components, PhD students are ...
University of Cambridge. QC Ranking: #3 Top PhD Course Offered: PhD in Biological Sciences Eligibility & Admission Requirements: First-class honours degree from a recognized UK university or from an internationally known institution. A Master's with distinction and relevant work experience. Average Tuition Fees: £31,515.
At Sussex, our usual entry requirements for UK and international students are: at least an upper second-class (2:1) undergraduate honours degree a Masters degree if you are applying for research degrees in the arts or social sciences.
The United Kingdom has a world-famous higher education system and a large range of degree programmes, making it a very popular destination to study in. So, it's no surprise that British universities are some of the highest ranking in the world. But how do you choose the best university to study your PhD at?
Reasons to do a PhD or research degree. 1. Passion for research. If you simply love learning and have a passion for discovering new things then it's a good sign a research degree is for you. You'll pick a topic you're interested in and have the freedom to dive deep into the heart of a problem. Draw on the years of research in your field, forge ...
PhD by distance learning allows you to study at a time and place that suits you and, with a part-time option available, you'll have the flexibility to gain an advanced degree alongside work and other commitments. Through completing a PhD, you will become an expert in a specialist area and gain high-quality research training.
On the PhD by Distance programme, you will benefit from: the opportunity to study on either a part-time (4-6 years duration) or full-time basis (3-4 years duration) supervision from one or more leading University of Reading academics, working at the forefront of their field. access to a range of high-quality training, delivered on campus or ...
New Route PhD. Introduced in 2001, the New Route PhD is a four-year programme that combines taught elements, including professional and transferable skills, with the student's research. There are now hundreds of doctoral students studying a variety of subjects at a consortium of universities across the UK. Career prospects for PhD Students
5. Embrace change - don't get bogged down in the details. Felix Shaw - one of our bioinformatics researchers at EI - put it best when he said, " it felt like I was running into brick walls all the way through [my PhD]… you'd run into a brick wall, surmount it, only to run straight into another. It's true.
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The study also investigated the risk of all-cause mortality for alcohol consumption according to (1) median ages of the study populations (younger than 56 years or 56 years and older), replicating the methods of Zhao et al 9; (2) the sex distribution of the study populations, and (3) studies of cohorts recruited before a median age of 51 years ...