The Doctoral Program in Decision, Risk and Financial Sciences is a 5-year program of coursework and research. Students are initially enrolled in our two-year specialist coursework masters, the Master of Commerce (Decision, Risk and Financial Sciences) (CRICOS: 092761G). Students who meet all hurdle and progression requirements for this rigorous 200-point masters are then automatically admitted into the research phase of the program, the 3-year Doctor of Philosophy (Business and Economics).

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The Doctor of Philosophy degree is awarded on the basis of a thesis of approximately 80,000–100,000 words, in which candidates report on an independent, sustained and academically supervised research project investigating a specialised topic.

RESEARCH Specialisations

Doctoral supervision is available within the four key areas of our research:

• Individual decision-making: Experimental investigation of the neurobiology of decision-making and learning (decision neuroscience), with a focus on decisions in the presence of risk (e.g., extreme events) and complexity (e.g., combinatorial problems); human-robot interaction in financial decision-making (e.g., robo-advisors).
• Group decision-making: Experimental investigation of decision-making and learning in small groups.
• Financial markets: Experimental investigation of decision-making in financial markets (experimental finance), e.g.: emerging intelligence through markets; dark markets; algorithmic trading; human-robot interaction in markets; combinatorial double-sided markets.
• Software development: online double-sided markets platforms; app development with interactive games/tools needed to overcome cognitive biases.

Our graduate researchers publish their research in leading peer-reviewed academic journals, and receive generous Faculty and University funding to support their research training, laboratory experiment costs, resources and professional development.