Funding Sources to do a PHD

The University of Bristol and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law are delighted to be able to offer a number of Postgraduate Research Scholarships to candidates demonstrating exceptional research potential. Scholarships are available for up to four years (full-time) or eight years (part-time), subject to satisfactory annual progress.

Some of the funding available to applicants of postgraduate research programmes in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law include:

• Bristol Postgraduate Research Scholarships
• Bristol Postgraduate Research Scholarships for candidates of Black and mixed Black heritage, who are UK domiciled with Home fee status
• Fully Faculty-funded inter-/ cross-disciplinary PhD Scholarships
• Cotutelle Scholarship with Macquarie University, Australia
• Strategic Research Scholarship in collaboration with the University of Cape Town, South Africa
• The Sasakawa Japanese Studies Postgraduate (PhD) Studentship
• ESRC Scholarships (SWDTP pathways only)
• Business School Bursaries

For other possible sources of funding, please visit the Student Finances webpages. 

Details on how to apply for these funding opportunities, and information on eligibility and amount of funding, can be found at the bottom of this page.

How to apply, eligibility and funding

Application process

In order to apply for any of these scholarships, you must first submit an application to the University of Bristol and the PhD programme offered by a School of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law that you wish to study. In the funding section of the form, please select any of the following boxes that apply to your application: ‘University of Bristol scholarship’ (for Bristol Postgraduate Research Scholarships), ‘UK Research Council’ (for ESRC/SWDTP scholarships), or ‘other’ and specify the award. This will highlight to our Admissions teams that you wish to be considered for specific scholarships.

Should you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the application process, please contact your School Admissions team who will be able to discuss these with you.

To identify potential supervisors, please visit the Faculty's 'People' page and filter by the School you are interested in applying to.

Applicants for the Bristol Postgraduate Research Scholarships for candidates of Black and mixed Black heritage, who are UK domiciled with Home fee status, alongside their application, should also complete this online form.

Candidates for all scholarships will be selected on the basis of the specific criteria detailed in the Postgraduate Research Scholarships shortlisting criteria (Office document, 20kB).

(for selection criteria of the SWDTP scholarships, please refer to the SWDTP website):

Schools will shortlist candidates and make nominations to the Faculty. If you have already applied or hold a programme offer, please get back in touch with your School, via their Admissions team, to indicate your interest for a scholarship.

Unless otherwise stated, and to be considered for a scholarship, the research proposal has a strict 1,000 word limit (inclusive of everything except references/citations). This includes all the written text, quotes, in-line citations, section headers, captions, the contents of tables and any foot-/endnotes. Each figure/graphic should be counted as equivalent to 200 words. Tables should be counted as the number of words they contain. We regret that we cannot consider applications for funding where the research proposal is found to be overlength.

Eligibility

The University of Bristol aims to attract, recruit and retain students with different experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives because diversity – of people and ideas – remains integral to our success. Candidates demonstrating excellence from low-income backgrounds and non-Russell group universities, as well as Black, Asian, minority ethnic, Trans, non-binary, and disabled candidates, are strongly encouraged to apply.

Candidates are eligible for a scholarship if they:

• Meet our standard admissions requirements for the PhD course they are applying to - please refer to the individual prospectus page for entry requirements;
• Demonstrate exceptional potential for doctoral study;
• Received an offer of study, which must be accepted before or at the same time as receiving any offer of scholarship.

For the Bristol Postgraduate Research Scholarships for candidates of Black and mixed Black heritage, who are UK domiciled with Home fee status only:

Candidates are eligible for this scholarship if they are a UK national with Home fee status who self-identify as having one of the following categories of ethnicity: Black African, Black Caribbean, Black Other, Mixed – White and Black Caribbean, Mixed – White and Black African, Other mixed background (to include Black African, Black Caribbean or Black Other. You will need to submit your PhD application and also complete this online form.

Please note that candidates who have been awarded alternative full awards (e.g. SWDTP or joint UoB-CSC) are not eligible for the University of Bristol or the fully Faculty-funded inter-/ cross-disciplinary PhD scholarships.

Funding

Unless otherwise stated, full-time PhD Scholarships will include tuition fees and a maintenance grant (stipend) in line with UKRI fee. The stipend rates for 2024-25 are at least £18,622 for four years (full-time) or eight years pro rata (part-time), depending on satisfactory progress. Each student will also have £2,000 per annum to be spent on associated research costs.

Please note: Funding is available only to new students commencing their PhD research in September 2024. Unfortunately, we cannot consider applications from current students already enrolled on a PhD course, or from MPhil students wishing to upgrade to PhD.