Scholarships and funding
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There are two main routes to getting PhD funding. Both of these routes normally pay fees and a maintenance stipend. However, some students may only be eligible for partial fees, or a fees-only award. Check the eligibility criteria of each scheme carefully.
1. Competition funding
This is where you apply for funding for your own PhD project, in competition with other PhD offer-holders. You need to demonstrate that your project is better (based on the competition criteria) than theirs.
- You will need to have an offer letter before you can apply for competition funding. See how to apply to find out how to get an offer letter. We strongly recommend that you have contacted and made an application for a place to study with the Department by the end of December.
- Competition scholarships are based largely on the quality of your research proposal. You should discuss the most appropriate scholarship for you with your potential supervisors and the Directors of the PhD programme once you have an offer of study.
- The main scholarships competition in the University opens in November. Decisions are made and communicated to applicants between the end of February to the end of April, depending on the scheme.
2. Project funding
This is where you apply to work on a specific project which already has funding attached. You need to demonstrate that you are better qualified to complete the project than other applicants.
- Funded projects can be announced at any time of the year. We will give details here when these are available.
- You can sign up for alerts at jobs.ac.uk.
- You will not usually be asked to write a complete research proposal, but you may be asked to write a short personal statement, or provide a description of how you would approach the project.