Departmental Assessment

An Expression of Interest Form (EOI) is used by the University to pre-assess your eligibility for doctoral study. It can assist us to identify potential supervisors who may be available to supervise your research in your chosen field of study. You are invited to first complete an Expression of Interest form.

Send the following supporting information with your EOI:

1. IELTS, TOEFL and TWE test scores if you have sat such tests within the last two years
2. Transcripts of your highest tertiary qualification, curriculum vitae and/or resume
3. Statement of Research Intent - An outline of your intended topic and areas of interest for doctoral study (minimum 250 words). Succinctly answer the following questions in your Statement:
        i. Introduction/Background - Briefly summarise current research in your area of interest
        ii. Aims and objectives of the Research - What question(s) or problem is your research seeking to answer? Why do you think this project is worth doing?
       iii. Research Design - Which data are required? What major methods or procedures will be used to collect and analyse the data? Which ethics approval(s)/permissions will be required?
4. Written academic references (if available). If you are successful and your qualifying degree is not from The University of Auckland, you will be required to submit these references before your registration can be confirmed.

If you are applying for doctoral study and require help to complete and/or submit your online Expression of Interest (EOI) form, you can email EOI: eoihelp@auckland.ac.nz

If you are an international student, before your Expression of Interest can be examined by the Department of Computer Science, it will be assessed by the International Office.

The Department will acknowledge your application and you will then be invited to complete your pre-admission at the department level.

1. Decide upon, and clarify as much as possible, your area of research interest or potential research topic.

2. Identify and contact a potential (main) supervisor to discuss your proposed research. If the University accepts your application, you will have a main supervisor, plus a co-supervisor and/or an advisory committee or adviser(s). Our academic staff and their profiles are available on the staff research interests page.

3. Prepare the following additional pre-admission documentation in the specified format:

• Research Proposal (PDF) – This must first be submitted to and approved by your proposed supervisor.
• Two letters of recommendation (JPEG or PDF) - A typical letter of recommendation would answer the following questions:
  • in what capacity have you known the candidate?
  • for how long (period of time)?
  • is the candidate top 2% or 5%, or 10% among her/his peers?
  • on a scale 1-5, 1 = poor, 5 = top, rate the candidate’s creativity and academic writing skills
  • what are the weaknesses of the candidate?
  • add any information useful for assessing the candidate
• List of publications, if any (PDF) - Full publication details with (conference/journal name, publisher, editors, vol. page numbers) along with an indication from a corroborating source such as The DBLP Computer Science Bibliography or Google Scholar.
• CV/resume (PDF)
• Electronic version of a publication, or a chapter of your MSc thesis or the complete thesis, translated into English if necessary (PDF)
• Agreed main supervisor, external funding source (if available), HEC status and ID number (if relevant) (Text)

4. Archive all documents into a single .zip archive (your name must be part of the file name).

5. Email the PhD coordinator with your name and EOI in the subject line along with the archive file as an attachment.

Each pre-admission PhD application has to be endorsed by the potential supervisor who acknowledges that:

• the candidate satisfies the minimum requirements for PhD admission for The University of Auckland as specified in the admission requirements
• the candidate research proposal meets the University's academic and scientific standard and is feasible to be completed.

The Department’s PhD Committee will attempt to acknowledge receipt of your pre-admission materials within one week and to send your proposed supervisor the assessment within three weeks. Your proposed supervisor will discuss the outcome of the Committee’s decision with you.

1. Complete the University of Auckland doctoral application process.

2. Find a supervisor from the Computer Science Department. The following may give you some idea of who to contact:

• Staff research interests
• Postgraduate research topics
• Completed graduate theses

3. Email a PDF of your research proposal to the prospective supervisor.

4. Prepare PDFs of the following documentation:

• Your research proposal
• The name of your proposed supervisor, your ID number, any external funding source, HEC status
• Two letters of recommendation which include the following information:
  • in what capacity have you known the candidate?
  • for what period of time?
  • is the candidate top 2% or 5%, or 10% among her/his peers?
  • on a scale 1-5, 1 = poor, 5 = top, rate the candidate’s creativity and academic writing skills
  • what are the weaknesses of the candidate?
  • add any information useful for assessing the candidate
• List of publications
  •   Full publication details with (conference/journal name, publisher, editors, vol. page numbers) along with an indication from a corroborating source such as The DBLP Computer Science Bibliography or Google Scholar.
• CV/resume
• Electronic version of a publication, or a chapter of your MSc thesis or the complete thesis, translated into English if necessary

 5. Compress the above documentation a single .zip archive and email it to the PhD Coordinator.

• Put your name and "EOI" in the subject line of the email.

6. Your documents will be acknowledged and assessed by the Department's PhD Committee in consultation with your proposed supervisor.

7. Your proposed supervisor will discuss the decision of the PhD Committee with you.

8. The Head of the PhD Committee  will complete and sign off on the EOI, which is then referred to the Associate Dean (Postgraduate) of the Faculty for endorsement before being referred to the School of Graduate Studies.

For further steps, follow the doctoral application process.

For further information, contact the PhD Coordinator.