PhD opportunities

We welcome enquiries from prospective students who would like to conduct a PhD in the area of healthy ageing.

You can find PhD projects, as well as information on funding and self-funding at the University, below:

• Search for a project
• Find funded programmes
• See all PhD programmes
• Postgraduate research funding

Several of our PhD students have funded studentships from the NIHR, Medical Research Council, international governments and charities.

Current PhD students

Bibhusha Karki: Co-development of a digital activity programme, Keep On Keep Up (KOKU), for older South Asians (2022-2025, Dunhill Medical Trust, NIHR ARC-GM).

Chloe French: Developing a digital platform to encourage activity, healthy eating and hydration to promote healthy ageing in older people. (2021-2025, MRC iCASE-funded).

Courtney Nabb: Investigating the incidence of falls and relationship to motor ability in autistic adults (2022-2028).

Danielle Harris: Addressing the effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown deconditioning: Developing an intervention to increase physical activity for older adults from socioeconomically deprived groups (2022-2025, Dunhill Medical Trust, NIHR ARC-GM, NIHR Older People and Frailty/Healthy Ageing PRU).

Helena Bilsborough: Exploring factors influencing volunteer uptake in peer-volunteering active ageing interventions within Bangladeshi and Chinese communities (2021-2024, ARC-GM).

Katharine Fisher: Charles Bonnet syndrome and falls (2020-2025, Thomas Pocklington Trust-funded).

Katherine Blumer: The phenomenology of improvisation in community music settings with people living with dementia (2023-2029).

Lauren Martin: Supporting older care home residents to maintain a sense of purpose in life (2023-2029).

Lily Mott: Developing an intervention to reduce and interrupt sedentary behaviour in older employees who work from home.

Lishan Huang: Developing a Chinese version of the lifestyle integrated functional exercise programme (C-LiFE) among Chinese older adults in the UK (2022-2026).

Mohammad Zougar: Feasibility study of MIRA Exergames for male older adults residing in care homes in Saudi Arabia (2019-2024, funded by Saudi Ministry of Education).

Rita Newton: Everyday use of the garden at home by people living with dementia: a multi-site ethnographic study (2019-2026, Economic and Social Research Council).

Nourah Basalam: Cultural acceptability of digital pain self-management and reporting tools for managing chronic pain among people with a Saudi Arabian background (2024-2027, Saudi Ministry of Health).

Sally Hoodless: Acceptability of teleconferencing-assisted implementation of FaME as an intervention for community-dwelling older men (AT-AIM (FaME) Study) (2022-2025, Dunhill Medical Trust, NIHR ARC-GM, NIHR Older People and Frailty/Healthy Ageing PRU).

Schenelle Dlima: Frailty progression and maintaining independence to age in place: can routine data help? (2022-2025, Dunhill Medical Trust, NIHR ARC-GM, NIHR Older People and Frailty/Healthy Ageing PRU).

Shuruq Alotibi: Co-designing and testing an online digital exercise programme with older people living in Saudi Arabia (2023-2027, funded by Saudi Ministry of Education).

Syeda Taqya Amna Arslan: Examining machine learning in a digital physical activity intervention to predict and prevent falls in older adults: a mixed methods feasibility study (2021-2025, MRC iCASE-funded).

Tawanda Mutandiri: How do you encourage older adults living in care homes to walk again? A constructivist grounded theory study on the fear of falling (2023-2027).

Ya Shi: Preventing sarcopenia among older adults: website-based health education interventions for preventing sarcopenia in community-dwelling older people (2021-2024, Chinese Scholarship Council).

Yang Yang: Addressing inactivity amongst older people from the UK’s Chinese ethnic minority (2022-2025, Dunhill Medical Trust, NIHR ARC-GM, NIHR Older People and Frailty/Healthy Ageing PRU).

Yimin Tang: A digital tool for Chinese older people at risk of fall and malnutrition (2021-2024).

Yvonne Mckenzie: Pilot study to test the feasibility of dietary intervention for the treatment of bile acid diarrhoea in adults (2021-2024).