This course aims to develop the skills required to submit an excellent PhD thesis in either 3 or 4 years, depending upon the duration of their funding. Furthermore, our goal is to equip students for highly successful careers in their chosen profession, whether this is academia, clinical practice or industry. Our students design and conduct experiments, analyse results and learn to communicate those findings both in writing and orally. There is no ‘standard’ model for an excellent PhD, but they always result from the combined expertise of our supervisors and the dedicated enthusiasm of our doctoral students. A PhD at the CBU is achieved by supervised research and is under the jurisdiction of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Biology. The provision of supervision and teaching is overseen by the Graduate School of Life Sciences. Within the CBU, the internal Graduate Committee is responsible for all aspects of the running of the degrees. A suitable project falling within the interests of the supervisor, and sustainable within the limits imposed by the facilities available at the CBU, is agreed by both student and supervisor, and endorsed by the Graduate Committee. Each graduate student has a primary Supervisor, who will supervise the main body of their research, and an Advisor who acts as a supplementary source of advice and support. We also have two pastoral tutors who offer personal support and counselling throughout a student’s time at the Unit. And we always encourage students and their supervisors to seek additional support where this will benefit the science, for example in the form of additional advisors from other departments. The course offers a variety of theoretical and skills based training to support our wide range of topics and streams of research. A personalised training programme will be agreed for each incoming student in the first few weeks of the degree period. This will cover an agreed timetable of attendance at the various seminars, the research project planned, and the formal review points throughout the degree.