The School of Population Health offers a wide range of subject areas:

To begin to enrol for a PhD you first need to complete an on-line application(AfA)

We accept candidates who have:

The equivalent of a Masters degree with at least Second Class First Division Honours

1. Demonstrated an ability to pursue Doctoral level research: usually by completing a significant research project such as a thesis.
2. Shown evidence of proficiency in English at the level required for postgraduate study (if your first language is not English).

If you are unsure about whether your preliminary qualifications meet our standard then fill in the application and our Faculty Student Centre staff (fmhs@auckland.ac.nz) will evaluate them for you. Note also that if you don’t have a supervisor, you should fill in as much of the application as possible together with a brief thesis proposal or summary of your research interests: we will try to find a supervisor for you.

The application asks for:

1. Preliminary thesis proposal or summary of research interests
2. Supervisor, co-supervisor, and/or advisory team
3. Two voluntary provisional goals which you intend to achieve by the end of your first doctoral year. They must be specifically related to your research. The SoPH strongly recommends that doctoral students enrol in the Theoretical Concepts of Health course (POPHLTH 758) as one of these. The course runs in the first semester, so an undertaking to enrol in it when next possible is accepted.
4. Letter from the Main Supervisor detailing the quality of the supervisory environment. Basically a summary of the experience and roles of the supervisory team.
5. Two reference letters if you have completed your previous qualification with another university. The letters should preferably come from your previous supervisors.

Once the application is complete and a supervisor is engaged:

The supervisor must complete the electronic ‘sign off’:

Contacts for PhD possibilities within each section of the School of Population Health, please click this LINK

You can get more informtion on doctoral registration process by clicking the below link:

Guide to doctoral registration process

• The SOPH Director of Postgraduate Research will distribute the preliminary proposal to the external reviewer, requesting feedback within 5 working days.

• On the basis of feedback from the external reviewer, the SOPH PhD Co-ordinator lets the supervisor/student know what, if any, changes are required.

• The student resubmits the proposal (and/or other supporting documents) after consideration of the requested changes.

• Updated proposal is uploaded on to the application and sent to HoD for sign-off via AFA.

• After HoD sign-off, Faculty Student Admin to facilitate sign-off by Associate Dean.

• The application is sent to the Board of Graduate Studies for final approval.