DPT: Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing (PhD with Integrated Study)

Jump to: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6

Year 1 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

This programme is restricted to students registered with the CDT in Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing (PhD with Integrated Study) .

The course choice needs to be agreed with the CDT and the Supervisor.

Students need to take exactly 180 credits across the whole programme. Up to 30 credits of these can be at levels 9 or 10, the rest have to be at level 11.

In Year 1 students are expected to take 50 credits of compulsory courses (2 Compulsory courses and at least one AI Ethics course).

They should also plan for their years 1, 2 and 3 across which they will need to:
- Take between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist courses (covering at least 2 specialist areas)
- Take between 10 and 40 credits of courses on the theme of AI Ethics
- Not exceed 90 credits per year.

Compulsory courses

Researching Responsible and Trustworthy Natural Language Processing

Applied Interdisciplinary Project

Course options

Coloniality of Data (fusion on-site)

Algorithmic Bias, Fairness and Justice (fusion on-site)

Translational Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics (fusion on-site)

Environmental Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (fusion on-site)

Case Studies in AI Ethics (CSAI)

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

AND

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Computational Cognitive Science

Automatic Speech Recognition

Accelerated Natural Language Processing

Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition

Machine Learning Practical

Probabilistic Modelling and Reasoning

Natural Language Understanding, Generation, and Machine Translation

Knowledge Graphs

Speech Synthesis

Origins and Evolution of Language

Simulating Language

Speech Processing

Online Experiments for Language Scientists

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Design with Data

Data Science for Design

Human-Computer Interaction (Level 11)

Case Studies in Design Informatics 1

Usable Security and Privacy

Data Visualisation

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Datafication, Accountability and Democracy (fusion on-site)

Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in a Digital Age (fusion on-site)

The legal challenges of information technologies

Human-Computer Interaction and Governance

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Histories and Futures of Technology

dLab(2): Design for Technical Change

Design Thinking (1): History and Theory

Design Thinking (2): Practice

Applied Co-creation (fusion on-site)

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Innovation-driven Entrepreneurship-Data Science, Technology and Innovation

Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation

CodeBase: Playbooks for Building Startups (fusion on-site)

AND

Year 2 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

This programme is restricted to students registered with the CDT in Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing (PhD with Integrated Study) .

The course choice needs to be agreed with the CDT and the Supervisor.

Students need to take exactly 180 credits across the whole programme. Up to 30 credits of these can be at levels 9 or 10, the rest have to be at level 11.

In Year 2 students are expected to take 70 credits of compulsory courses.

They should also plan for their years 1, 2 and 3 across which they will need to:
- Take between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist courses (covering at least 2 specialist areas)
- Take between 10 and 40 credits of courses on the theme of AI Ethics
- Not exceed 90 credits per year.

Compulsory courses

Individual Exploratory Project

Case Studies in Responsible Natural Language Processing

Course options

Coloniality of Data (fusion on-site)

Algorithmic Bias, Fairness and Justice (fusion on-site)

Translational Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics (fusion on-site)

Environmental Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (fusion on-site)

Case Studies in AI Ethics (CSAI)

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

AND

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Computational Cognitive Science

Automatic Speech Recognition

Accelerated Natural Language Processing

Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition

Machine Learning Practical

Probabilistic Modelling and Reasoning

Natural Language Understanding, Generation, and Machine Translation

Knowledge Graphs

Speech Synthesis

Origins and Evolution of Language

Simulating Language

Speech Processing

Online Experiments for Language Scientists

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Design with Data

Data Science for Design

Human-Computer Interaction (Level 11)

Case Studies in Design Informatics 1

Usable Security and Privacy

Data Visualisation

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Datafication, Accountability and Democracy (fusion on-site)

Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in a Digital Age (fusion on-site)

The legal challenges of information technologies

Human-Computer Interaction and Governance

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Histories and Futures of Technology

dLab(2): Design for Technical Change

Design Thinking (1): History and Theory

Design Thinking (2): Practice

Applied Co-creation (fusion on-site)

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Innovation-driven Entrepreneurship-Data Science, Technology and Innovation

Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation

CodeBase: Playbooks for Building Startups (fusion on-site)

AND

Year 3 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

This programme is restricted to students registered with the CDT in Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing (PhD with Integrated Study) .

The course choice needs to be agreed with the CDT and the Supervisor.

Students need to take exactly 180 credits across the whole programme. Up to 30 credits of these can be at levels 9 or 10, the rest have to be at level 11.

In Year 3 students are expected to have taken all their compulsory courses and to only have AI Ethics and Specialist course credits to take in order to meet the programme requirements.

They should also plan for their years 1, 2 and 3 across which they will need to:
- Take between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist courses (covering at least 2 specialist areas)
- Take between 10 and 40 credits of courses on the theme of AI Ethics
- Not exceed 90 credits per year.

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

Course options

Coloniality of Data (fusion on-site)

Algorithmic Bias, Fairness and Justice (fusion on-site)

Translational Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics (fusion on-site)

Environmental Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (fusion on-site)

Case Studies in AI Ethics (CSAI)

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

AND

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Computational Cognitive Science

Automatic Speech Recognition

Accelerated Natural Language Processing

Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition

Machine Learning Practical

Probabilistic Modelling and Reasoning

Natural Language Understanding, Generation, and Machine Translation

Knowledge Graphs

Speech Synthesis

Origins and Evolution of Language

Simulating Language

Speech Processing

Online Experiments for Language Scientists

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Design with Data

Data Science for Design

Human-Computer Interaction (Level 11)

Case Studies in Design Informatics 1

Usable Security and Privacy

Data Visualisation

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Datafication, Accountability and Democracy (fusion on-site)

Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in a Digital Age (fusion on-site)

The legal challenges of information technologies

Human-Computer Interaction and Governance

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Histories and Futures of Technology

dLab(2): Design for Technical Change

Design Thinking (1): History and Theory

Design Thinking (2): Practice

Applied Co-creation (fusion on-site)

Between 20 and 50 credits of Specialist Courses, covering at least two specialist areas must be taken across years 1, 2 and 3.

Innovation-driven Entrepreneurship-Data Science, Technology and Innovation

Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation

CodeBase: Playbooks for Building Startups (fusion on-site)

Year 4 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

This programme is restricted to students registered with the CDT in Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing (PhD with Integrated Study).

There are no taught courses in years 4-6 of this programme.

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

Year 5 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

Year 6 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

General Disclaimer

THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2025/2026

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

Degree Programme Table: Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing (PhD with Integrated Study) - 6 Years (Part-time) (PRPHDNATLP2P)

Year 1 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Compulsory courses

Course options

AI Ethics Courses

Area 1 - Responsible and Explainable NLP Data and Models

Area 2 - Designing for Human-AI partnership

Area 3 - Governance and Accountability

Area 4 - Co-Creation and NLP futures

Area 5 - Entrepreneurship

Level 9, 10 and 11 courses in Schedules A to Q, T, W and Y

Year 2 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Compulsory courses

Course options

AI Ethics Courses

Area 1 - Responsible and Explainable NLP Data and Models

Area 2 - Designing for Human-AI partnership

Area 3 - Governance and Accountability

Area 4 - Co-Creation and NLP futures

Area 5 - Entrepreneurship

Level 9, 10 and 11 courses in Schedules A to Q, T, W and Y

Year 3 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Course options

AI Ethics Courses

Area 1 - Responsible and Explainable NLP Data and Models

Area 2 - Designing for Human-AI partnership

Area 3 - Governance and Accountability

Area 4 - Co-Creation and NLP futures

Area 5 - Entrepreneurship

Year 4 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Year 5 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Year 6 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September