Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

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Overview

PhD students in the Department of Computer Science may focus their research in the following areas:

Artificial Intelligence: computer vision, decision theory/game theory, knowledge representation and reasoning, intelligent user interfaces, machine learning, natural language understanding and generation, robotics and haptics.
Computer Graphics: animation, imaging, modeling, rendering, visualization.
Data Management and Mining: business intelligence, data integration, genomic analysis, text mining, web databases.
Formal Verification and Analysis of Systems: analog, digital and hybrid systems, VLSI, protocols, software.
Human Centered Technologies: human computer interaction (HCI), visual, haptic and multimodal interfaces, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), visual analytics.
Networks, Systems, and Security: high performance computing/parallel processing, networking, operating systems and virtualization, security.
Scientific Computing: numerical methods and software, differential equations, linear algebra, optimization.
Software Engineering and Programming Languages: development tools, foundations of computation, middleware, programming languages, software engineering.
Theory: algorithm design and analysis (including empirical), algorithmic game theory, discrete optimization, graph theory, computational geometry

For specific program requirements, please refer to the departmental program website

$40,000

Minimum funding per year^*

Average years to completion

What makes the program unique?

The UBC Department of Computer Science has many contacts in the computing industry. A strong rapport between the industry and research communities is beneficial to both, especially in cases where the department focuses its research to developing real-world applications.

I love Vancouver! It's the greatest city in the world. I love the integration of nature into the city; it has all of the mountains, forests, and oceans. In addition, the city is a melting pot of cultures, and that's definitely reflected at UBC. It feels like there's a place for everyone at UBC.

Michael Yin

Quick Facts

Faculty Faculty of Science

Academic Unit Department of Computer Science

Specialization Computer Science

Mode of delivery In person at UBC Vancouver

Program Components Dissertation

Tuition (First Year) Domestic: 5,738.52 | International: 10,081.65

Median Funding 50% of students receive $44,526 or more funding in each of the first four years, before tuition and fees

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

Fees	Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat	International
Application Fee	$118.50	$168.25
Tuition *
Installments per year	3	3
Tuition per installment	$1,912.84	$3,360.55
Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%)	$5,738.52	$10,081.65
Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (for eligible individuals)		$3,200.00 (-)
Other Fees and Costs
Student Fees (yearly)	$1,169.35 (approx.)
Costs of living	Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies.

* Regular, full-time tuition. For on-leave, extension, continuing or part time (if applicable) fees see UBC Calendar.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the UBC Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Financial Support

Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.

Program Funding Packages

All full-time PhD students will receive a funding package of $46,236 per year for international students and $41,653 per year for domestic students during the first four years of their PhD program. In addition, the department provides guaranteed departmental support of $34,654 per year in the fifth year of the program. For programs extending beyond these periods, students and supervisors should discuss the availability of continued funding.

The funding package may consist of a combination of internal and external awards, teaching-related employment, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. This support is contingent upon full-time registration as a UBC graduate student, satisfactory performance in assigned teaching and research assistantship duties, and maintaining good academic standing with satisfactory progress toward degree completion. CS students are expected to apply for any fellowships or scholarships for which they are eligible.

Please note that the above funding amounts are subject to annual tuition and stipend adjustments.

Funding Statistics

Please note that effective September 2026, UBC’s guaranteed funding for full-time PhD students in years 1-4 was raised significantly, to a minimum of $40,000 per year. These historical statistics do not account for this change, i.e., the funding landscape for incoming students is not necessarily comparable to the historical values.

Based on the criteria outlined below, 85 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research, academic assistantships or internal or external awards with a mean of $45,238 and a median of $44,526.

This results in a net balance (any funding provided to the student minus tuition and fees) mean of $35,875 and median of $34,543.

40 students received Teaching Assistantships. Median TA funding based on 40 students was $7,710.
81 students received Research Assistantships. Median RA funding based on 81 students was $25,270.
20 students received Academic Assistantships. Median AA funding based on 20 students was $1,044.
84 students received internal awards. Median internal award funding based on 84 students was $8,025.
6 students received external awards. Median external award funding based on 6 students was $26,680.

Study Period: Sep 2024 to Aug 2025 - funding for full-time PhD students enrolled in three terms per academic year in this program across years 1-4, the period covered by UBC's Minimum Funding Guarantee. Mean and median values might mask variability in sources and amounts of funding received by individual students. Beyond year 4, funding packages become even more individualized.
Review methodology

Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union.

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans.

All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.

UBC has working agreements with MPower Financing - an organization providing international students with no-cosigner, no-collateral education loans to study in Canada - and Windmill Microlending - an organization providing loans to skilled immigrants.

Foreign government scholarships

Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.

Working while studying

The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.

International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 24 hours a week during academic sessions.

A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement.

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.

Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.

Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.

Cost Estimator

Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.

ENROLMENT DATA

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021
Applications	313	318	281	265	375
Offers	47	25	31	40	41
New Registrations	27	15	14	16	21
Total Enrolment	157	139	129	124	116

Completion Rates and Times

This program has a graduation rate of 68% based on 52 students admitted between 2012 - 2015. Based on 5 graduations between 2021 - 2024 the minimum time to completion is 6.7 years and the maximum time is 12 years with an average of 8.8 years of study. All calculations exclude leave times.

Disclaimer

Admissions data refer to all UBC Vancouver applications, offers, new registrants for each registration year, May to April, e.g. data for 2022 refers to programs starting in 2022 Summer and 2022 Winter session, i.e. May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023. Data on total enrolment reflects enrolment in Winter Session Term 1 and are based on snapshots taken on November 1 of each registration year. Program completion data are only provided for datasets comprised of more than 4 individuals. Graduation rates exclude students who transfer out of their programs. Rates and times of completion depend on a number of variables (e.g. curriculum requirements, student funding), some of which may have changed in recent years for some programs.

Doctoral Exams Upcoming

Doctoral Citations

A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.

Year	Citation
2025	Dr. Cameron developed machine learning methods to automatically improve algorithms and synthesize entirely new ones tailored to specific applications, enabling better solutions for optimizing 5G networks and power grids. He laid groundwork for richer algorithm design by building a unified model that broadly understands such computational problems.
2025	Dr. Goyal studied data-efficient learning in the area of computer vision. He developed methods which lowers annotation cost for tasks like detecting and localizing objects and actions in both images and videos. His research shows how data can be used effectively to build computational agents that understand visual content of various forms.
2025	Dr. Reda developed methods to teach virtual characters to move realistically in physics-based simulations using reinforcement learning. By addressing challenges in exploration, data limitations, and environment design, his work enables robust, adaptable controllers for applications in character animation, humanoid robotics, and virtual reality.
2025	Dr. Tanprasert is a human-computer interaction researcher. Her dissertation focuses on designing personas of AI-driven agents to increase learners’ engagement in online learning environments. Her findings provide a foundational framework for designing agents to meet the user’s social and emotional needs in the educational domain and beyond.
2025	Dr. Lavington developed algorithms for training AI systems in simulated environments by leveraging privileged information available during simulation. His methods enabled faster and safer policy learning for complex tasks like autonomous driving and locomotion, advancing the path from simulation to real-world deployment.
2024	Dr. Sanches Portella studied how to predict the future and keep secrets, mathematically speaking. He developed new online prediction algorithms and novel results on the limits of privacy-preserving data analysis. His findings may lead to more efficient optimization procedures and stronger cost-benefit analyses for private statistical estimation.
2024	Dr. Bradley examined the extraneous work software developers perform to coordinate their tools. He investigated how information already present within tools can act as a task context to ease developers' tool coordination effort. Future tools can use this task context to proactively assist developers complete their tasks more productively.
2024	Dr. Harvey developed machine learning models which generate and edit images and video. His work had a particular focus on enabling the same model to be used for many different editing tasks. Potential applications include editing films and developing controllers for robots.
2024	Dr. Tanzila has significantly advanced machine learning by developing multimodal neural networks that can understand images and videos at a high level, even with limited data. Her research focuses on teaching machine learning models to perceive the world through multiple senses, similar to how humans do. She has also contributed to multimodal generative models to address data ambiguity.
2024	Dr. Bucci developed interfaces to create meaningful interactions between computers and people using a variety of sensors and artificial intelligence approaches. Through multiple projects, he detected emotions through brainwave and touch-based data, and designed an interactive meaning-based document organization system for qualitative research of millions of documents.

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Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

Overview

What makes the program unique?

Quick Facts

Admission Information & Requirements

1) Check Eligibility

Minimum Academic Requirements

English Language Test

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

Other Test Scores

Prior degree, course and other requirements

2) Meet Deadlines

3) Prepare Application

Transcripts

Letters of reference

Statement of Interest

Supervision

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

Citizenship Verification

4) Apply Online

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

Financial Support

Program Funding Packages

Funding Statistics

Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Foreign government scholarships

Working while studying

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Cost Estimator

Career Outcomes

Sample Employers in Higher Education

Sample Employers Outside Higher Education

Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education

PhD Career Outcome Survey

Disclaimer

Career Options

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

ENROLMENT DATA

Completion Rates and Times

Disclaimer

Doctoral Exams Upcoming

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 - 09:30 - 246, ICICS, 2366 Main Mall

Monday, July 20, 2026 - 14:00 - X836, ICICS, 2366 Main Mall

Research Supervisors

Supervision

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

Advice and insights from UBC Faculty on reaching out to supervisors

Sample Thesis Submissions

Doctoral Citations

Related Programs

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Same Academic Unit

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