The degree is awarded on successful completion of a thesis based on original research carried out over a period of between three and four years, depending on the subject area, under the guidance of your supervisor. Most of the first year is usually spent deepening your knowledge by attending courses and seminars and by reading books and papers. Students belonging to the Centre for Particle Theory will normally follow CPT lecture courses in their first year. Applicants will be allocated two supervisors, for the majority of people this will be decided upon offer, however for the Centre for Particle Theory group the supervisory team will be assigned after the lecture courses have got underway, by mutual agreement between staff and students. Research in the Department of Mathematical Sciences is organised into a number of groups interacting with each other and other departments. Each group maintains its own web pages.