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How to Find PhD Scholarships and Grants

Financing your PhD studies can be challenging, but it's essential to your academic journey. Scholarships and grants can ease this burden, although finding and securing them may seem daunting. 

Navigating your financial prospects can present a challenge, but scholarships and grants are there as available resources. In this blog, we will explain the opportunities to fund your PhD. We’ll also provide practical advice to help you find the right funding options for your PhD. Our guidance aims to give you a strong foundation for success.

Finding Doctoral Scholarships and Grants

Finding funding for graduate studies can be stressful, but scholarships and grants are available if you know where to look. 

• University Funding: Universities often offer scholarships and research grants to PhD students. For instance, the SMU provides various funding options for doctoral students through the Moody School for Graduate and Advanced Studies.
• Professional Associations: Depending on your field of study, grants are often available from professional associations. Have a look at your specific discipline’s association website or reach out to them directly.
• Government and Non-Government Organizations: Both government and non-government organizations offer grants to encourage research in various fields. Explore resources like Grant.gov and The National Science Foundation.
• Industry Partners: Companies often work with universities to fund research in their industry, supporting specific projects or areas of study.
• International Scholarships: International students can find PhD scholarships in the USA, like Fulbright and DAAD .

Essential Scholarship Application Tips

• Start Early: Keep in mind that securing funding takes time, so don’t wait to start your search. The application deadline is often way before the program application deadline.
• Be Thorough and Organized: Keeping track of deadlines, application components and other details can be overwhelming. Create a system that helps you keep everything organized and in one place.
• Tailor Your Applications: Tailor each application to the specific sponsor to maximize its appeal. Remember to show why you’re a perfect fit for their funding.
• Leverage Your Network: Don't hesitate to use your academic network. Professors, colleagues, and alumni can be valuable resources for scholarship and grant opportunities.

Grants and Scholarships for PhD Students vs. Other Forms of Aid

Initially, most students think of scholarships as a lifeline for PhD funding , but it's surprisingly uncommon for students to fund their PhD with scholarships alone. Can you get a scholarship for a PhD? Absolutely. But scholarships for doctoral students can be quite competitive.

In reality, most PhD students utilize a variety of funding sources. PhD programs commonly offer doctoral assistantships and fellowships, which are typically more widely available. Some students even explore additional routes like postgraduate loans, employer support, crowdfunding, and research council grants.

Knowing the ins and outs of each type of funding can help you make a decision that best suits your academic and financial needs. 

Scholarships

Scholarships, financial awards you don't need to repay, often reward merit or specific factors like demographics or career aspirations.

• Doesn't require repayment
• No obligation to perform services

Potential drawbacks:

• High competition
• May need exceptional qualifications

Grants operate much like scholarships in that they do not need to be repaid. They are frequently awarded based on need, although some may also take into consideration academic merit or field of study.

Benefits: 

• Doesn’t require repayment
• Can offset a significant amount of educational expenses

Potential drawbacks: 

• Competition can be fierce
• May have to meet eligibility criteria or conditions

Assistantships & Fellowships

Assistantships and fellowships are also common ways to pay for a PhD.  Assistantships involve providing services to the university by undertaking teaching or research roles, usually in exchange for a stipend and tuition waiver. Fellowships, like scholarships, are merit-based and don't require repayment or work in return. Fellowships usually offer generous resources and are specific to the student's field of study.

• Provide hands-on experience in teaching or research (assistantship)
• Accompanied by generous funding and resources (fellowship)
• Fellowships often provide greater freedom for research compared to assistantships
• Time commitment can impact personal studies (mainly assistantships)
• High competition may require exceptional qualifications or research proposals

While fellowships, assistantships, grants and scholarships for PhD programs aim to reduce the financial burden, they’re understandably different in their commitments, benefits, and application process. 

Discover PhD Funding at SMU

Finding and securing the right funding for your PhD is crucial in shaping a stress-free and productive doctoral journey. Remember, scholarships and grants, while beneficial, are just pieces of a wider resource puzzle that may include assistantships or fellowships. 

These funding options are aimed to ease your financial commitments, so explore opportunities for each, align them with your academic goals, and pave your way towards a rewarding PhD experience .

For more helpful resources or information about SMU's Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, contact us — we're here to help you on your academic journey!

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• Find Your Perfect PhD
• Finding a PhD

Find Your PhD, Fast Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest. Search Now

• When looking for PhD research projects, a great place to start is with our comprehensive and up-to-date database .
• Speak with lecturers within your area of interest about potential PhD opportunities they may have.
• Attend Postgraduate Events . Whilst there, speak to current PhD students and career advisors to get an awareness of what PhD projects are on offer.
• Visit the postgraduate section of university websites and the PhD Research Council section of the GOV.UK website

Finding A PhD

Searching for PhD research projects can sometimes feel like daunting process. Often, it’s difficult to know where to find a PhD position or where to even start.

To make this searching process as easy as possible for you, we’ve curated a collection of the best places to search for PhD projects. By using our recommended collection, you should hopefully gain a greater insight into where your interests lie and which programme is best suited for you.

Our Comprehensive and Up-To-Date Directory

We can’t create a list of great resources and not include ourselves! At DiscoverPhDs, our primary aim is to connect great students to great PhD projects. To enable this, we provide a comprehensive database of PhD projects offered from universities all across the UK.

We regularly add to our database to ensure you’re getting the latest opportunities and the most relevant information and programme details. On top of this, we’ve created our database to be as easy to use as possible; all our PhD listings provide a direct ‘apply’ link or contact email address of the lead supervisor. This enables you to:

• Request further information about any aspect of the position,
• Enquire about the specific applications process,
• Connect directly with the supervisor

Universities Websites

Search on the website of the universities you are interested in as some many only be listing PhD research projects internally or may link you to other opportunities such as Professional Doctorate Programmes. As examples, have a look at the research pages of The University of Cambridge , Cardiff University , University of Leicester , Sheffield University and The University of Glasgow .

Your Current Supervisor

If you’re currently undertaking a research project or dissertation as part of your undergraduate or master’s degree, it would be a good idea to speak to your current supervisor. Not only would you have already built a good rapport with them, but having worked with you they will have a good idea on what PhD positions would utilise your strengths or best interest you. In fact, a noticeable percentage of past and current PhD students came into their PhD programme because of being recommended by their undergraduate supervisor. Your supervisor will be well-connected – make sure you take advantage of these opportunities.

Tip: Don’t just limit your discussion to your own personal supervisor. All supervisors are within their field of work because they have a natural passion for research and teaching. As such, most supervisors will be more than happy to help any student who wishes to follow in their footsteps and make their own impact.

Postgraduate Events

Nearly all universities hold regular Postgraduate Fairs and Open Days. As part of these events, current postgraduate students may be on hand to share their experiences of their projects and university. This is a fantastic opportunity to not only find out what PhDs the university is offering but to find out more about their facilities, research labs and library collection, etc. Given that you will be heavily relying on these resources during your PhD, it’s important that you know what’s provided by each university. Hearing student stories about what PhD life is really like, what to expect from supervisors and some of the challenges that current students have encountered can be really useful in your decision making process.

Besides the above, career advisers may also be available at these events. Speaking to them will help you understand what you can do with a PhD, whether a PhD is right for you, what degree class you’re expected to hold and how best to prepare for research projects. Seeing as they would have helped many PhD candidates through the decision-making process before, they will provide you with some invaluable insight that you would otherwise be oblivious to.

To help bring all Postgraduate Fairs and Open Days offered across all universities together, we’ve created a helpful Postgraduate Events page which we highly recommend you check out.

Research Councils

Research councils are nationally funded agencies which offer sponsored PhD research projects (also known as a PhD studentship). Different research councils cover different areas of research, these include:

• The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC),
• The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council ( BBSRC ),
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC),
• The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ( EPSRC ),
• Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC ).

The GOV.UK website has a full list of nationally-funded research councils available online. You can find further details on these councils on the GOV.UK website.

Although our database includes PhD programmes offered by these research councils, it would be a good idea to regularly browse the website of the ones you are particularly interested in case they list some internal only. These councils play an important role in supporting and encouraging doctoral researchers and they regularly hold calls for applications for PhD funding. If you or your potential supervisor have a PhD project proposal defined but need funding, then applying to these calls may become a key first milestone in your postgraduate research journey.

For example, the EPSRC offers a Doctoral Training Partnership programme in which a research student is given funding to pursue postgraduate study with a research question that aligns with the Councils core engineering and physical sciences themes. These awards often have eligibility criteria linked to them, impacting which postgraduate research students can apply; an international student, for example, may not be able to apply to a certain UK based scholarship scheme but there are several other options that can still help you fund your doctoral research; this may involve taking out a postgraduate loan (or more specifically a postgraduate doctoral loan).

To make this searching process as easy as possible for you, we’ve curated a collection of the best places to search for a PhD. By using our recommended collection, you should hopefully gain a greater insight into where your interests lie and which programme is best suited for you.

Further Resources

As you continue your search of PhD research projects, be sure to check our our PhD advice articles, including how to prepare for your PhD application, and interviews with current and past doctoral students. Many of the people we’ve interviewed have completed degrees within a STEM discipline; they offer a wide range of advice on their individual approaches to applied research and independent study, as well as sharing some the impact their work has had. Many have continued the research of their projects within academia after finishing, whilst some have developed successful careers in industry and business sectors.

It’s worth noting that when you apply to undertake doctoral study, you may first be registered as an MPhil researcher, depending on the specific doctoral programme you apply for, officially become a full PhD student after passing an upgrade viva. At the upgrade stage, some students do decide to graduate with an MPhil research degree rather than pursuing further PhD study however this is less common.

We hope the above list will help you find the perfect PhD position and earn your doctoral degree.

If you have any recommendations besides these resources, please let us know at [email protected] so we can look to add it.

If you’re ready to start your search for your PhD, start now with our  PhD database .

Browse PhDs Now

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PhD Funding and Benefit Packages

Charles river campus.

Boston University’s PhD programs on the Charles River Campus subscribe to a full funding model. This system guarantees all PhD students in good standing five years of stipend support, 100% tuition scholarship, and a health insurance credit. This approach reflects BU’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of researchers across the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and engineering. Stipend level minimums vary by PhD program, but for the 2024-25 academic year, minimums will range from $27,318 for 8 months to $40,977 for 12 months. Students receive health insurance (the SHIP basic plan) through Aetna Student Health. Full tuition and student services fees are also covered for PhD students on the Charles River campus.

Medical Campus

PhD students in Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS) at Boston University’s School of Medicine and the School of Public Health (SPH) also enjoy a full-funding model. GMS and SPH PhD students receive a full tuition scholarship, are exempt from paying student fees, receive health insurance coverage as part of their support, and are entitled to an annual stipend. For more specific information, please visit the PhD funding sections of GMS and SPH .

PhD Stipend Extensions for Students Impacted by the COVID Pandemic

Boston University believes it is crucial to ensure that current PhD students who have had their progress impeded by the pandemic are able to complete their degrees. While individual PhD programs and the schools/colleges in which they are housed are the primary source of academic and financial support for PhD students, in rare circumstances, programs and schools/colleges may not have adequate resources to support all students whose progress has been hindered by the pandemic. For this reason, the Office of the Provost has established a fund to support PhD stipend extensions necessitated by this circumstance. Learn more about this funding opportunity and how to apply .

Please note that this program will end after the 2023-2024 academic year, concluding in early spring 2024 for logistical and operational purposes.

PhD Funding by School/College

You can learn more about specific funding packages through the school or college to which you are applying or in which you are enrolled:

• Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
• Wheelock School of Education and Human Development
• College of Engineering
• College of Communication
• College of Fine Arts
• PhD Human Physiology
• PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences
• PhD in Speech, Language and Hearing Science
• Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences
• School of Medicine (Graduate Medical Sciences)
• PhD in Biostatistics
• PhD in Environmental Health
• PhD in Epidemiology
• PhD in Health Services Research
• School of Social Work
• School of Theology
• Questrom School of Business

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PhD Students in the Natural Sciences, Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Medical Sciences

Phd students in the humanities and social sciences programs of the faculty of arts and sciences, phd students in humanities and social sciences programs offered in partnership with other harvard schools, acceptance of financial support.

The Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) offers incoming PhD students full financial support—including tuition, health insurance fees, and basic living expenses—for a minimum of five years (typically the first four years of study and the completion year). This funding package includes a combination of tuition grants, stipends, traineeships, teaching fellowships, research assistantships, and other academic appointments.

Each student is provided a Notice of Financial Support at the time of admission and is assigned a financial aid officer who administers this funding and is available to assist with financial concerns. Each spring, continuing students supported by Harvard Griffin GSAS-administered funding sources are required to activate their funding for the upcoming academic year using the Student Aid Portal, an online financial aid management system.

A typical funding package* includes:

• grants toward tuition and the Harvard University Student Health Program  paid in full for years G1 through G4 and the dissertation completion year
• a combination of stipend, teaching fellowships, and/or research assistantships during years G1 through G4
• summer research support from Harvard Griffin GSAS or faculty grants following the first four academic years.
• subsidy payments to defray dental insurance and transportation costs.

*In some programs, the timing and structure of living expense support may vary from this pattern.

The initial Notice of Financial Support assumes continuous enrollment as a full-time resident student; students not enrolled are not eligible for Harvard Griffin GSAS financial aid programs. Students may find that their actual enrollment patterns necessitate adjustments to the timing of their funding. Students wishing to defer Harvard Griffin GSAS-administered funding indicate this in the Student Aid Portal during the annual financial aid acceptance process. The options for deferring financial support vary by type of aid; please refer to the applicable sections of the financial aid policy web pages for details. Students who are considering deferring financial support are strongly encouraged to contact their financial aid officer to review how such actions may impact their funding in future years.

While funding packages vary by program, PhD students in the sciences typically receive full funding until they complete their programs of study. Contact your department administrator or financial aid officer for details.

See more detailed information about funding for students in humanities and social sciences programs of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Humanities and Social Sciences Programs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

• Celtic Literatures and Languages
• Comparative Literature
• East Asian Languages and Civilizations
• Film and Visual Studies
• Germanic Languages and Literatures
• History of Art and Architecture
• Inner Asian and Altaic Studies
• Linguistics
• Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
• Romance Languages and Literatures
• Slavic Languages and Literatures
• South Asian Studies

Social Sciences

• African and African American Studies
• American Studies
• Anthropology
• History of Science
• Human Evolutionary Biology
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Social Policy

A number of humanities and social sciences PhD programs are offered in partnership with Harvard's professional schools. While funding packages vary by program, PhD students in these interfaculty programs generally receive at least four years of financial support for tuition, health fees, and living expenses; most programs provide dissertation completion fellowships as well. For more information, refer to your Notice of Financial Support or contact your financial aid officer .

Interfaculty Programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences

• Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning
• Business Administration
• Business Economics
• Health Policy
• Organizational Behavior
• Political Economy and Government
• Public Policy

Each student is provided a Notice of Financial Support at the time of admission and is assigned a financial aid officer who administers this funding and is available to assist with financial concerns. Students are required to formally accept their financial aid offers and acknowledge their understanding of financial aid policies. Students should also consult their academic programs to determine whether program-specific conditions apply.

Each spring, continuing students supported by Harvard Griffin GSAS-administered funding sources are required to activate their funding for the upcoming academic year using the Student Aid Portal, an online financial aid management system. Continued eligibility for financial aid is contingent upon an annual report by the faculty that the student is making  satisfactory progress toward the degree.

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Kellogg PhD funding and aid 

PhD program funding

All candidates accepted into the Kellogg Doctoral Program receive funding to help cover living and educational expenses for five years. In fact, 100% of our students are funded. You’ll also have access to experimental laboratories and high-end computational systems at Kellogg and Northwestern University. These resources are in addition to the funding our students receive to support their dissertation research.

Graduate funding

• Fellowship stipend
• Teaching and research assistantships
• Tuition scholarship
• Payment of the annual fee for single coverage in the Northwestern Student Health Insurance Plan as a full-time registered and funded graduate student

Research funding

Kellogg has vast research resources for our doctoral students and faculty and strives to be innovative and responsive to the research needs of our academic community. Kellogg provides PhD students with computer subsidies, conference travel funding, and opportunities to apply for additional funding to support their dissertation research.

Computer subsidy

Kellogg students are provided with a one-time only computer subsidy ($2,000) to purchase computer equipment for their PhD studies. Students purchase this equipment at their own discretion, and receipts are not required.

Conference travel funding

Kellogg students are provided with a total budget of $4,000 to cover the cost of their conference travel when presenting a paper (not just attending a conference) or during the academic job market. Students may also utilize a Conference Travel Grant through The Graduate School (TGS) to attend a conference.

Additional research funding

To support their dissertation research, Kellogg students may apply for additional research funding for data, software, subject and survey fees, research assistants, and other needs.

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STUDENT FUNDING

Tuition and fees for Kellogg PhD program are managed by The Graduate School (TGS) at Northwestern University. The majority of fees are covered by your graduate funding package.

Contact the Kellogg PhD admissions team for more information.

I Got Accepted to Grad School! Now, Where Can I Find Funding?

By ProFellow Founder Dr. Vicki Johnson

Around this time of year, I get lots of exciting emails and messages from readers who were accepted to graduate school – we love to celebrate this success! But often they reach out to us at ProFellow because they did not receive adequate scholarships, fellowships or tuition assistance from the university at acceptance. Readers will ask: “Where can I apply for funding or scholarships? The program begins in just a few months!” Sadly, this is a challenging question to answer because deadlines for most sources of external funding have already passed. Many graduate school applicants are unaware that the major funding awards and graduate fellowships offered by philanthropic organizations, government agencies and other external organizations have deadlines from September to January – at the same time (and sometimes sooner) than the graduate school application deadlines. So what now? I have a few suggestions to navigate the challenge of finding funding after you have been accepted to graduate school without a full funding offer. 

Ask Admissions if you are still being considered for funding

Sometimes, funding is not offered at acceptance, and Admissions is still deciding and awaiting messages from accepted applicants who need financial aid to determine how they will distribute their limited funding. Even if they have parsed out funding offers already, they may not yet know who is going to accept their offer, so there may be funding still available in the coming months. Therefore, the very first thing to do when you receive an acceptance letter with no information about funding assistance, or receive an inadequate funding offer, is to ask the Admissions contact if you are still being considered for funding. It is important at this stage to let them know you have a financial need, especially if you are unable to enroll without partial or full funding. Don’t be shy about asking these questions! It’s important to advocate for your needs with Admissions. 

If you did receive a funding award from a different university that is not your first choice, you should also share this information with the Admissions contact of your top choice program. It IS possible to negotiate for a funding offer or increased funding if the university has funding available. Read How to Negotiate Your Funding Offer for Graduate School: An Email Template to access my guidance on this step!

Ask Admissions about Graduate Assistantships

You should also ask Admissions about the availability of Graduate Assistantships that you could be eligible to apply for. Graduate Assistantships are part-time research and teaching jobs at the university that are exclusively for graduate students. Students with a Graduate Assistantship commit to working 10-20 hours per week during the academic year supporting the faculty in their research, teaching or administrative responsibilities. This part-time university position can provide you a stipend (aka salary), which in most U.S. universities ranges from $15,000 to $45,000 per year, as well as a full or partial tuition waiver as an employment benefit. Graduate Assistantships are a primary source of funding for graduate students, but not all universities have Assistantships. You’ll find Assistantships primarily offered to students in full-time, on-campus, research-based PhD and master’s programs, as well Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs. 

If you have been accepted to a professional graduate degree program, an online or part-time graduate program, or a certificate program, you may not be eligible for a Graduate Assistantship, or they simply may not be available at the university. There are always exceptions to this general rule, so be sure to ask ! 

Check out our interview with Jonathan Lin Davis on how he found Assistantships in his university outside his Department.

Find Master’s and Doctoral Fellowships in the ProFellow database

As mentioned above, many external fellowships and funding sources that could be applied to your first year of graduate school have deadlines that have likely already passed by the time you received your acceptance; however, it is still worthwhile to immediately review possible graduate fellowships that may still be accepting applications. At ProFellow, we have a massive free database of fellowship awards for graduate school, and you can filter these awards by master’s or doctoral fellowships, your discipline, and citizenship eligibility, as well as sort them by the application deadline!

Sign up to view our free ProFellow database listing more than 300 Master’s Fellowships and Doctoral Fellowships to fund graduate tuition and research.

When reviewing fellowship opportunities note that each award has a different goal and purpose. Some awards aim to support specific topics of research, others aim to provide funding to diverse candidates underrepresented in the discipline, and some exist to provide professional development for specific post-graduate career tracks. Be sure to review the mission of the fellowship program carefully so you can express alignment with the funding body’s mission and apply for awards that are a good fit for your background and academic goals. Fellowships typically require application components similar to those from your graduate school applications, such as a personal statement , academic CV , diversity statement , research proposal or creative portfolio . 

Defer grad school for one year 

I know you are excited to get started! But if you do not have a feasible plan to pay for your full tuition and expenses over the coming years, or a plan for paying down the student loan debt you will accrue, I recommend deferring your graduate school enrollment for one year. This will give you more time to secure funding and create a plan, because you don’t want to be at risk of being unable to pay your tuition after starting a graduate program. Entering a graduate program without full funding or tuition assistance from the university means that you could rack up a student loan bill of $75,000+ for a two-year master’s program to $250,000+ for a five-year doctoral program. These amounts will be much more once they include loan interest and other expenses, so this is not a decision you should take lightly. Also, once you take out student loans, there aren’t external fellowships to pay down student loans. Fellowship funding is always for future tuition and research. 

If you request a deferment, this step would give you more time to apply for external fellowships or to see if a Graduate Assistantship becomes available.

More importantly, I recommend you also use this time to apply to different graduate programs that are fully funded! You can find examples of these programs, as well as significant external fellowships, in our free Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards.   Fully funded PhD and funded Master’s programs are those that offer all or most students full funding at acceptance. I have always strongly recommended that applicants apply to fully funded programs so they can avoid the severe student debt that has created a financial crisis for current generations of students. Be sure to consider this option!

© 2023 Victoria Johnson all rights reserved.

Related Posts:

• Can I Still Find Graduate Funding for Fall 2024?
• Is It Ok To Buy A Recommendation Letter?
• Will I Face Age Discrimination When I Apply to Graduate School?
• What You Need to Know About Graduate School Fellowships and Scholarships
• How To Apply to Grad School: 5 Tips For Getting Started 

Dr. Vicki Johnson , Graduate Fellowships , Graduate School Application Tips , Master's Funding , PhD Funding

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The Savvy Scientist

Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

How To Get A Fully Funded PhD Scholarship

It may come as a surprise, but when you’re applying for a PhD the difficult part isn’t always getting offered a place at the university. I found this out the hard way!

Instead, securing the funding to support your research can often be the biggest barrier to starting a PhD. Securing a fully funded PhD scholarship can be a great means of funding your research because it offers you lots of academic freedom.

It took me several tries (see my applications timeline and PhD application failures ), but after a few years I was eventually able to secure a fully funded PhD scholarship at my first-choice university.

Now I want to help guide you through how to get a fully funded PhD scholarship for yourself.

Is it Hard to Get a Fully Funded PhD Scholarship?

There are a lot of different types of PhD funding. In fact I’ve written a full post about the PhD funding landscape which you can read here .

Any PhD funding is better than none, yet there is a hierarchy and scholarships sit at the top:

Scholarships and fellowships are typically the most prestigious types of PhD funding and usually come with the highest PhD stipends, therefore they can be tough to secure. As a side note if you’re interested in learning more about how much PhD students typically earn, check out my post here .

PhD scholarships and fellowships are pretty similar (and roughly interchangeable), so to keep things simple I’ll just refer to them both as scholarships going forward.

Project-specific funding comes about when a supervisor is awarded a grant by a funding body and uses this money to employ researchers and carry out the research as outlined in the grant application. If you go with this type of project there are usually restrictions on how much you can change the PhD topic.

Similarly to bursaries, PhD scholarships and fellowships are awarded to the individual student rather than a specific project grant. You therefore have far more academic freedom and scope to tailor a project to your own interests, without having to worry about whether it fits the theme of a certain grant.

Since scholarships are the most lucrative they are usually the most difficult type of PhD funding to get. Your CV and application will therefore need to be stronger than when applying for project-specific funding.

My Journey to Securing a PhD Scholarship

It took me several years to secure PhD funding:

Over this period I decided to work as a research assistant at a few different universities. Firstly this was so that I had a job and was earning money. Secondly, it was relevant experience which would help boost my chances of success when reapplying for a PhD.

It turned out that this work experience would be a big part of how I secured my PhD scholarship. Later in this post I’ll be mentioning papers I authored and prizes I played a part in winning and I want to make it clear that I didn’t do all of this as an undergraduate.

In fact, I did none of it as an undergraduate!

Outstanding undergraduate students may already have names of papers, patents, prizes or something else to show research prowess, but that wasn’t me.

If you’re struggling with securing PhD funding, getting a job as a research assistant in the meantime can be a great idea. Along with building up your research credentials it can also help you to understand whether you’d enjoy a career in research prior to committing to a PhD.

How I Got a PhD Scholarship at Imperial

When I was looking for PhD projects at Imperial I got in contact with a potential PhD supervisor who had advertised a PhD online and we discussed different funding routes.

Before applying for the scholarship I eventually got, there were a few other potential funding options on the table:

• Project-specific funding already in place. This is what initially got me chatting with the supervisor. I had previously learned my lesson that seeing a project advertised online doesn’t mean it is automatically funded!
• An in-progress grant application to a research council which would have funded my PhD. We did also eventually get this grant.
• The prestigious President’s PhD scholarships which funds 50 projects per year at Imperial. I did apply for this but was unsuccessful with the application and didn’t make the short list. This scholarship was more prestigious than the one I eventually won.

During these discussions I got told about the possibility of applying for another scholarship, which was the one I went on to get awarded. This highlights the value of having several applications on the go for different funding pots.

Had I not engaged directly with a supervisor who was within the university I would have never found out about the scholarship, since as far as I know it wasn’t ever advertised online.

Applying for the PhD Scholarship

The first I heard about the PhD scholarship was when I got told that the department was considering putting me forward for it. It turned out that the scholarship would fund one PhD across the entire university, and each department could only put forward one student to apply.

Just one PhD project across the whole university! Even just getting selected to represent the department would be tough.

This all sounded extremely intimidating to me. We’ll shortly come onto things you can do to boost your chances of success.

Here is what I had to provide for the application:

• A copy of the standard university online application: form, CV, personal statement, undergraduate transcript
• PhD scholarship proposal
• Two references
• A statement from the Supervisor / Head of department in support of the scholarship application

How Long Does it Take to Get a PhD Scholarship?

Here is the timeline to me securing my scholarship, from finding a PhD advert through to getting the all important scholarship offer.

• Mid December 2015 – I found an advert for a fully funded PhD project.
• 4th January 2016 – I emailed the potential supervisor with my CV and a cover letter attached, saying that I was interested in the project.
• 15th January – Response from the supervisor: “You have a very strong cv and I think you should apply for a PhD scholarship, have you considered this? Have a look at the details for the President’s scholarship. With a first class degree and several papers I would say you have a strong chance of winning one.”
• 18th January – First chat with supervisor on the phone. We discussed how I had already applied for a PhD in the past (got the place but no funding) with someone who turned out to be a close collaborator of his. We decided this person would be my second supervisor if we got funding.
• 25th January – Supervisor sent me a PhD scholarship project proposal that he and the co-supervisor wanted to propose to me. Yes, they basically wrote it for me. Yes I got lucky.
• 26th January – Received feedback on my personal statement from the supervisor, and got pushed to submit the online application.
• 9th February – First I heard about the scholarship . Since I had been in contact for a few weeks and they had my CV, the supervisor had been speaking about me to support staff. I got told that the department wanted to put me forward for the scholarship: I would be the department’s top choice. Eek!
• 12th February – Deadline to submit the scholarship application. Because I’d already been applying for other funding, this mostly just needed the statement of support from my supervisor and finalisation of the PhD proposal.
• 10th March – Unofficial email from supervisor saying we were successful
• 11th March – Official email notifying me that I’d be awarded the PhD scholarship :

I got the PhD scholarship and was elated! 🎉

From initially speaking to the potential supervisor to getting the scholarship took about 9 weeks. From finding out about the scholarship to getting it took just over 4 weeks.

I certainly don’t expect I was the smartest person to be put forward, even just from the department let alone the whole university. My application included my mediocre A level results (AABC) and not-so-committed marks in the first couple of years of my undergraduate degree.

Even so, I was successful. Let’s now dive into what you can do to get your own PhD scholarship.

How to Get Your Own Fully Funded PhD Scholarship

Step 1: identify available scholarships.

To find potential PhD scholarships I suggest looking on the university website and searching online for funding relevant to your domain. For instance Google has its own PhD fellowships .

The best thing you can do is start chatting with potential supervisors. They will know the funding landscape at that specific university very well and will have a good idea of the best routes for PhD funding.

Also, having a supervisor such as mine who was willing to help so much with the application is incredibly useful to boost your chances of success. It is also a very good indicator that they will be supportive throughout your PhD.

I remember when I was first cold emailing potential supervisors: most replied but some never even acknowledged my message: a good sign that maybe they wouldn’t be the best supervisors to work with…

With all PhD funding it is really important to check your eligibility. There are sometimes some limitations to be aware of, for instance:

• Nationality / Citizenship. Some funding is not available to overseas students. Thankfully this isn’t usually the case with scholarships since they aim to attract the best students.
• Background, including undergraduate marks. There are sometimes minimum requirements for the grade you achieved during your prior degree(s). Of course to get a scholarship you’re competing against other students so we’ll shortly come onto how to stand out.

Step 2: Put Together an Outstanding Application

The bits of your scholarship application you can control usually revolve around:

• Your CV – showcasing why you’re a good choice (see my full post on writing a CV here and examples of other researchers’ CVs here )
• Personal statement – your motivation for wanting to start a PhD
• PhD scholarship proposal – what you would like to spend the scholarship money on

I won’t go into depth now on the actual writing of the application, but let me know if you’d like a separate post about how to compose the personal statement and scholarship proposal.

Generally in order to put yourself in a good position make sure to:

• Give yourself as much time as possible
• Incorporate feedback from your potential PhD supervisor(s)
• Be ready to pester your referees to make sure they submit your references on time

Right, now let’s move onto what you can do to bolster your application in order to give yourself the best chances of winning a PhD scholarship.

How to Improve Your Chances of Securing a Fully Funded PhD Scholarship

Imagine you’re in the position of awarding PhD funding. How do you decide which candidate to pick?

A good starting point would be looking at how much research experience candidates have and what outcomes they achieved. If someone already has a track-record of conducting research it takes away some of the risks during a PhD and is reassuring for funders that they’ll probably do a good job during the PhD.

The more research experience you can evidence in your application, the far stronger you’ll make the PhD scholarship application.

Some of the main traits that the scholarship committee could be looking for in a PhD student include:

• Research competence
• Enthusiasm for research & outreach
• Academic potential and a thirst for knowledge
• Technical knowledge
• Interpersonal skills

Let’s look at what you can do to evidence each of the above.

Demonstrating Research Competence

1. undergraduate research projects.

Hopefully during your degree(s) you’ve had some research experience. Perhaps this is what got you thinking about starting a PhD.

Being able to use this experience to illustrate your interest, experience and competence in research is extremely beneficial in your funding application. Bonus points if you submitted your work to a journal or conference, as we’ll come onto in a moment.

Examples of undergrad projects could be:

• Individual projects e.g. final year project as part of your degree
• Group projects as part of your degree
• UROP outside of term time

Experience working on your own is great for demonstrating independence while group projects can be useful for showing that you can work in a team. Both are useful but being able to work on your own is definitely the more important of the two.

In your application be sure to focus on what you did, what was novel about it and any interesting experimental or analytical techniques you used: especially if they could be applied to the PhD.

Here is what I had on my CV when I applied for my PhD scholarship:

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECTS Fourth year project: Optimal design of orthoses for treatment of intermittent claudication Conducted motion analysis capture of human joints to test effectiveness of commercially- available orthoses with EMG technology and muscle activation data Analysed test results, concluding in recommending the most appropriate orthoses for individual participants Progressed validation of a physical artificial leg model and OpenSim software model Third year project: 3-D printing of multi-scale porous biocement scaffolds for ligament attachment Prototyped novel magnesium calcium phosphate biocement scaffolds to investigate 3-D printing parameters for optimum implant integration Analysed parts under SEM to verify multi-scale porosity and XRD for detecting phase changes and composition Conducted a statistical analysis of variance study in sample porosity using optical microscopy and deduced the optimum printing parameters to maximise porosity Wrote a technical report and presented results during an oral presentation and viva Part of my CV at the time I applied for the fully funded PhD scholarship

2. Peer-Reviewed Publications

It is often said that papers are the currency of academia. The advantage of having papers starts with your PhD application.

It’s important to say that you don’t need to have papers to get offered a PhD position. You might not need them to get offered funding via a bursary or CDT, unless it is very competitive. But having any papers published will greatly enhance your chance of being offered a PhD scholarship because it’s so much more competitive.

For more on papers see my publishing series here .

How Many Publications Did I Have When I Applied for My PhD Scholarship?

When I was awarded my PhD scholarship I had on my CV:

• 1 x accepted journal paper
• 3 x abstracts from conferences published in the supplementary sections of journals
• 1 x paper under review at a journal (and clearly described as such)

Of these, I was the first author of just one of the published abstracts.

Just being part of the team showed that I was participating in projects which helped the research community.

Publication Tips to Get a PhD Scholarship:

• If you’re interested in a PhD and are offered the chance to get involved with some research which could result in a publication, do it. It will massively help. Even if it doesn’t end up being published any extra research experience is helpful.
• With the rise of arXiv it is now more easy to share early work and protocols. Sure, it isn’t the same as getting something accepted to a peer-reviewed journal or conference but it if you don’t yet have a complete paper ready to go through peer review, you could use arXiv to demonstrate that you’re working on research outputs.
• Already got publications? Here is a direct quote from my PhD supervisor, a professor at Imperia l: “I would also add the quartile and impact factor of the journals (the people reviewing will be non expert in your field).  You can get the journal quartile rankings here  http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php . Anaesthesia and Journal of Colloid and Interface Science [where I had some of my stuff accepted] are both Q1 and Impact factors of 3.5 and 3.4 respectively which is excellent and should be highlighted.”

3. Attending & Presenting at Conferences

As well as journal articles, another way researchers share their work is by presenting work at conferences. They’re an important part of academia and you’ll undoubtedly attend conferences as a PhD student.

A low stakes way of boosting your prospects of securing a fully funded PhD scholarship are by attending conferences, workshops, symposiums or other meeting points for research. If you’re attending conferences prior to applying for a PhD it can show that you have more than a passing interest in research.

Attending a conference is good for many reasons:

• Learn about potential PhD topics
• Meet current PhD students and ask advice for getting started
• Network with potential PhD supervisors
• Add it to your CV / application and it is something relevant to discuss in a PhD interview

Bonus points if you’re going to a conference which is relevant to your PhD research area. If your CV is looking a little thin I’d suggest highlighting any and every conference you’ve attended. Even small scale research symposiums at a university can be a good way to show that you broadly know how research gets presented.

Going to conferences is great but even better is submitting research to one and ideally presenting it yourself. The cherry on the top is if you, or the person from your group presenting the work, win a prize:

It is particularly useful when accepted abstracts get published as proceedings in a journal. This means that:

• You get a publication out of it
• People not at the conference can see your work, either for PhD interviews or citing it

I wouldn’t worry too much about the prestige of a conference. Showing that you have any experience attending one is great.

I also wouldn’t worry about posters vs oral presentations. Again, experience with either is fantastic.

Conferences on my CV when applying for my PhD scholarship

When I applied for my scholarship funding I’d been to a few different conferences and had some work accepted.

I was very fortunate that when I was applying for a PhD my CV looked like this, with three prizes from conferences:

Burton, M., Heyman, J.,  Clark, J. , Owens, D. (2015) Ventilation problems in a shared airway: the effect of the compression of the endotracheal tube during tonsillectomy. Unpublished poster presentation at:  All-Wales Airway Group , 15 May 2015, Newport, Wales. [Poster presented by co-author and  awarded first prize ] Clark, J. , Short, A., Chawathe, M., Francis, J., Saxena, N., Bogod, D., Girotra V (2014) Development of a realistic epidural simulator – a translational research project.  Anaesthesia ; s4 69: 1-9. [Presented by co-author at AAGBI Annual Congress 2014 and  awarded first prize  in Original Research category] Hamlyn, V.G., Bruynseels, D.,  Clark, J. , Hall, J.E., Collis, R.E. (2014) Assessment and training on a new epidural simulator.  International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia  2014; S34 23: 44. [Presented by co-author at OAA Obstetric Anaesthesia 2014 and  awarded first prize  in Training poster category] My CV when applying the PhD scholarship I got awarded

It’s important to highlight that I didn’t present any of the work myself.

I was first author for one of them but since it was an anaesthetics conference we figured it would be better for an anaesthetist to present…

Always be truthful with who actually presented, especially if there was a prize involved. Even if you aren’t the presenter, it is easy to see how someone associated with prize-winning work sounds like a good bet to the scholarship committee.

4. Other Research Competence

This could be things such as:

• A year in industry or other work experience. Bonus points if is is a research-orientated environment. Don’t just think R&D for a pharmaceutical company, this could include computational modelling for a car company or analysis in a finance company.
• For data science / AI / ML people: entering Kaggle competitions . Bonus points for doing well.
• Volunteering on a citizen science project.

I didn’t have any of this stuff on my CV when applying for the scholarship.

Demonstrating Enthusiasm for Research & Outreach

Beyond typical research outputs, it can go in your favour if you can show your eagerness to communicate research to others.

• Setting up a research paper reading group at your university
• Starting a podcast and discussing new research or interviewing researchers
• Traditional outreach: exhibiting science to the public, probably through your undergrad university
• Creating YouTube videos
• Writing articles, for instance on LinkedIn or medium.com
• Starting a science website or blog
• Explaining research on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or anywhere else

All of these show:

• You are the type of individual to go above and beyond to help others to understand research. Funding bodies are starting to care more and more about public engagement.
• Communication skills.
• That you can probably do a decent job at distilling complicated topics into something which is easy to understand. This is a very useful skill.

The handy thing with a lot of these is that you don’t need access to a lab or even to still be affiliated with a university. You can do as much or a little of them as you want.

I’ve written a whole post about STEM volunteering opportunities which I suggest you check out for some ideas for how you could demonstrate enthusiasm for research and outreach:

STEM Volunteering Opportunities in the UK

Any amount is better than none, especially if your CV is otherwise looking a little thin.

What outreach did I have on my CV when applying for my scholarship?

All I had done was manage an academic department’s blog. I actually didn’t start the website you’re reading this on until I was already working towards my PhD.

However, if I had not already had my research assistant experience I certainly would have considered starting something earlier to boost my application.

Demonstrating Academic Potential

Moving on from research, the committee will broadly want to judge your academic potential. Are you a committed student? Can you do well when you apply yourself to a topic? Do you have certain experience which could stand out?

Useful things to have on your CV include:

• Decent grades. Having good grades in relevant modules/units to your potential PhD topic and in research projects throughout your degree help. An impressive overall percentage for the degree (eg 85%) is even better. Me? I just scraped a 1st with 70.5%, see more details in the blue box below.
• Dean’s list, for being one of the top students during your undergraduate degree
• Academic prizes for doing well in certain topics
• Exchange schemes to other universities. Regrettably you get bonus points if it is a big name university, not least because this suggests that it must have been competitive to secure.
• For programmers: sharing coding projects on GitHub, GitLab etc. Bonus points if they’re popular open source projects.

Do You Need Good Grades to Get a PhD Scholarship?

In order to have a competitive application for a fully funded PhD scholarship you will need to have a minimum of a 2.1 overall for your undergraduate degree. However, you certainly don’t need to be top of your class, or having outstanding grades all the way back to school.

My marks? GCSEs: 7A*s, 3As, 1B A-levels: AABC. Which wouldn’t be enough to get into Imperial as an undergrad! Undergrad degree: 1st class. But only just, with my final average at 70.5%. My transcript showed modules with 48% and 54%. Yes, really. The scholarship committee will have seen those grades if they looked closely.

As you can see, I didn’t have a blemish-free stellar track record. However, thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do about it!

Demonstrating Technical Knowledge

Distinct from academic potential is your technical knowledge.

What’s the difference?

• Academic potential is about how you can apply yourself to any topic and do well.
• Technical knowledge relates specifically to your chosen PhD field or topic.

Thankfully, being an expert in your field certainly isn’t a requirement when you’re starting a PhD. I’d go as far as to say that PhD supervisors and funding committees are much more keen to find someone with academic potential and a willingness to learn.

How much technical knowledge do you need?

You do generally need to have at least some knowledge of the field.

For instance, a friend of mine studied human physiology for undergrad and wanted to move into neuroscience for her PhD. Without any technical knowledge in this area she couldn’t convince the committee that she would be able to confidently complete the PhD so she got rejected. Don’t worry, she did go on to get a PhD but in something which she could demonstrate a little more technical know-how in.

If you want to do start a PhD project which falls within the broad category of your undergrad degree, you’re fine. For instance, want to do a project which would be defined as a chemical engineering project and you have a degree in chemical engineering? You’re fine. Usually there is a good amount of latitude too: in this example if you alternatively had a degree in a chemistry or another engineering sub discipline you may also be fine.

You do not need to specifically know lots about your PhD area of focus before you start. Of course, the more specific technical knowledge you can demonstrate certainly won’t hurt your chances, especially for a PhD scholarship.

The exception to all of this are CDTs where you get a year of training to bring non-specialists up to speed in a discipline different to their undergrad.

Demonstrating Interpersonal Skills

Sure, your PhD will involve a lot of lone working but you will also have to interact with other people. Therefore, demonstrating interpersonal skills is a great asset for PhD scholarship applications.

Interpersonal skills include:

• Team work . From basics such as being courteous and respectful to other lab users through to working well with others on joint projects, so things like delegating and splitting tasks up.
• Communication skills. Getting comfortable presenting to a broad audience and discussing ideas with others. In particular showing that you can deal with people from other disciplines and speaking a common language.
• Showing initiative and initiating collaborations . This can involve networking and a motivation to seek out people with complimentary skills to achieve more impactful research projects.

These could be demonstrated by undergraduate projects, work experience, volunteering or even things like sports. Basically try to add in examples of any time you’ve worked with other people.

Do You Need to Tick Every Box to Get a Fully Funded PhD Scholarship?

No, not necessarily. There are loads of ways to impress the committee. For instance, I hadn’t really done any outreach.

When I first sent my CV to my PhD supervisor he immediately highlighted two things which would stand out to the scholarship committee:

• Being named on publications in reputable journals
• Being associated with some prizes at conferences, even though I wasn’t the presenter

I would highly suggest that if you get the opportunity to work on research which could result in a publication, take the opportunity!! Publications are really a golden ticket to a PhD, so do as much as you can to get your name on them.

Don’t be disheartened if you don’t already have experience in lots of these areas, instead focus on ways to gain experience to bolster your CV and boost your chances. This could be either through taking a job temporarily as a researcher (like I did) or proactively doing things outside of work to show your suitability, such as submitting a review article or starting a reading group.

My Top Tips for Getting a PhD Scholarship

For those currently at university:

• Try to get involved with some research and if possible try to present that research somewhere. Saying that you’ve presented at a conference makes you sound like a fully fledged PhD student before you’ve even started. Even better would be to get your name on a paper accepted to a peer-reviewed journal.

For everyone:

• Work with a potential supervisor to perfect your application. Often for scholarships you’ll have to name a supervisor should you get the award. The supervisor should be a great resource for improving your application to give you the best chance of success. If the supervisor doesn’t seem interested in helping you, I’d suggest that they’re probably not someone you want to be working with for the next 3-4 years of your life during a PhD.
• If your CV is looking a little light, consider adding to it with some things you can do in your free time such as research communication: writing articles online, informational YouTube videos etc.

Summary: How To Get A Fully Funded PhD Scholarship

In your application and interview try to demonstrate:

Providing as much evidence as you can include for each of these topics will put you in the best possible position for securing a fully funded PhD scholarship.

If you’d like personalised help with your PhD application I am now starting to offer a small number of one-to-one sessions. Please contact me to find out more or click here to book a call.

Best of luck with your PhD funding applications. I hope this post has given you some pointers to increase your chances of securing a fully funded PhD scholarship. If you think I’ve missed anything, please do let me know.

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4 Comments on “How To Get A Fully Funded PhD Scholarship”

A holder of a Master of science education degree in wood science and technology I need help to get a full funded phd programme. Currently am teaching in one of the school in Zimbabwe. Also assist on what programme is do i embark on for PHD

Hi Qhubani thanks for your comment. It sounds like you’re on a great path and are picking up useful experience. I would suggest starting to reach out to potential PhD supervisors. They will be best placed people to give you specific advice about PhD programmes relevant to you. See my post about finding supervisors . Best wishes! Jeff

I am impressed with the message here and decided to work day and night to compensate for the time I have killed to get my master’s degree and develop myself multi-directionally. Even if I’m feeling near the deadline, I will do whatever is needed to reach my vision. Thank you so much and I would like to share and consult more in person.

Great to hear your commitment, Tigist. Best of luck on your academic journey.

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Funding and aid: Graduate funding and aid

At the graduate level, financial aid is largely decentralized, as available funds are managed directly by departments.

Funding is usually available from each individual department to support doctoral students for the duration of their time at MIT. Typically, at the time of admission, doctoral students receive offers of funding in the form of research and teaching appointments or fellowships, which cover the cost of full tuition and health insurance, and provide a salary or stipend. Funding for master-level students is more limited, and depends greatly on the program of study , so students may be required to seek their own sources of funding or utilize student loans .

Graduate funding may take the form of research, instructor, and teaching assistantships, fellowships, traineeships, scholarships, grants, and/or other forms of employment , such as working as a resident advisor in an undergraduate residence.

Please note: Applicants are considered for funding after they have been accepted into a graduate program. There is no separate application for financial aid prior to admission for any program of study.

Funding for students in need

MIT provides assistance to graduate students experiencing financial hardships , has established new ranges to stipends and changes to health insurance rates and plan benefits, and offers additional health and well-being support resources .

Hardship funds are tax-reportable income and may reduce eligibility for educational loans. If you want to explore how a fund of this type would impact you, please contact us to discuss your options.

Graduate Scholarships and Financial Aid

New York Institute of Technology offers federal grants, loans, and academic scholarships and grants to graduate students.

We review applications for admission to New York Tech automatically for the scholarships and financial aid listed below.

To help you determine your costs. Graduate Tuition Calculator.

Available Scholarships & Financial Aid

Discover the full range of scholarships, grants, loans, and financial aid assistance available to our graduate students.

Federal Financial Aid

Federal financial aid is available to U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents in the form of federal loans. Domestic graduate students who wish to apply for federal loans must fill out the  Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) .

• Unsubsidized Direct Stafford Loan:  Non-need-based, low-interest, fixed-rate loan available to undergraduate, graduate, or professional degree candidates registered for at least six credits in an academic program that leads to a degree. Repayment is deferred until six months after graduation, if you drop below half-time status, or take classes as a non-matriculated student. You may receive both subsidized and unsubsidized loans for the same enrollment period, but the total amount of these loans may not exceed the annual loan limit.
• Federal Graduate and Professional Student PLUS Loan:  With terms nearly identical to the Parent PLUS loan, the “Grad PLUS” is also a credit-based, federally guaranteed loan awarded to students themselves who are registered for at least six credits in graduate or professional degree programs. Similar to the Parent PLUS loan, a Graduate/Professional student must complete Graduate PLUS application, accessible on  studentaid.gov . A PLUS Loan applicant who has an adverse credit history may still be able to receive a loan by documenting existing extenuating circumstances or by obtaining an endorser who does not have an adverse credit history. An endorser is someone who agrees to repay the loan if the borrower fails to do so. Also, if a Graduate Student/Professional PLUS applicant is denied the PLUS loan, s/he must complete Credit Counseling on studentaid.gov. It will not reduce your eligibility for the Stafford Loan, but the amount of any Stafford loans you will affect the amount of your PLUS loan. The PLUS loan is limited to the cost of attendance minus other aid received, as certified by New York Tech.

The Federal College Work Study Program provides part-time employment to assist eligible enrolled students in paying for educational expenses. It is based on economic need. If you are not eligible for Federal College Work Study, you can also become a student aid. For more information, please contact  Student Employment.

New York Tech Scholarship Renewal Criteria

All graduate students must maintain a 3.3 cumulative GPA to renew their scholarship. Recipients of the New York Tech Graduate Alumni Award must maintain a 3.0 GPA to renew this award.

Graduate Scholarships

In order be eligible, you must:

• Complete the  FAFSA  each year you are enrolled at New York Tech (U.S. students only).
• Be a full-time student.
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• Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements at all times.

Scholarships and grants are renewable each semester, as long you meet the scholarship requirements. They are for tuition only, divided equally between fall and spring semesters. Institutional aid is credited to a student’s account after the end of the add/drop period. They are not applicable to summer session attendance.

Scholarships are determined by a variety of factors. The minimum academic requirements for each award are listed below. The charts are based on your year of entry and include the minimum GPA you need to maintain to renew your scholarship each year.

Graduate Assistantships

Graduate assistantships are offered to qualified students enrolled in our graduate degree programs providing partial or total tuition remission. Depending on your skills and experience and the needs of a specific program, graduate assistants may be asked to work as a Graduate Assistant (GA), Research Assistant (RA), or Teaching Assistant (TA).  Learn more .

Graduate Scholar Award (GSA): Up To $3,000 Per Year

This award recognizes the talents of entering graduate students who have demonstrated a high level of academic achievement. It consists of up to $3,000 per-year tuition-only credit for a maximum of three years (six semesters) of continuous full-time enrollment (nine credits). Proration may be available for applicants taking less than nine graduate level credits per semester, but you must register for at least three graduate level credits per semester for this proration. In addition, this scholarship applies only to fall and spring semesters and is not applicable to graduate courses that are offered at a discounted tuition rate.

Typically, students with the following criteria qualify:

• Complete the  FAFSA  (U.S. students only).
• Be accepted to a matriculated graduate degree program.
• Have earned a bachelor’s degree with a 3.3 CGPA. * Please note that scholarships are awarded based on your GPA at the time of application. If your final, official GPA is higher than when you applied, the Office of Admissions will reconsider scholarship awards up until the beginning of the semester.
• Bridge students are not eligible for scholarships during the time they are taking bridge coursework. They become eligible once matriculated into their degree program. To qualify for scholarships after matriculation, bridge students must have achieved a minimum CGPA of 3.3 for their bachelor’s degree and a CGPA of 3.3 for any bridge coursework.
• If your program requires a GRE, then you must have earned a high enough combined score on the verbal and quantitative sections as determined by your academic department.
• M.B.A. applicants must have a minimum GMAT score of 400.
• International students must have a minimum TOEFL score of 79, IELTS score of 6, PTE score of 53, or Duolingo score of 105.
• All students must be fully accepted without academic conditions.

Renewal Criteria

Awards are renewable each semester if you have a FAFSA on file, meet  Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)  criteria, and maintain a 3.3 cumulative GPA. This award applies to fall and spring semesters only.

New York Tech Graduate Alumni Award

This award is offered to students who hold a New York Institute of Technology bachelor’s or master’s degree only. The award is NOT applicable to students in dual degree programs with the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

To be considered, all students must complete an application each academic year. This award will be allotted on an annual basis for a maximum of three (3) years or six semesters depending on the student meeting all of the following criteria required each semester.

• Allotted $1,000 tuition-only credit for every three credits, up to $6,000 per year ($3,000 per semester)
• Student must complete their degree on the Long Island or New York City campus of New York Tech.
• This award is not applicable to students enrolled in the BS/DO, BS/DPT, BS/MSOT, or BS/MSPA joint-degree undergraduate/graduate programs.
• This award is not applicable to students with tuition remission or tuition exchange or for students who take classes at an already discounted tuition rate.
• This award is not applicable to students receiving a second bachelor’s degree at New York Tech.
• This application does not guarantee an award. This award is subject to fund availability.
• Complete the  FAFSA  and submit any requested  verification documents  (excluding International students)
• Must be fully matriculated in one of New York Tech’s graduate degree-granting programs in New York
• Must have a prior baccalaureate or master’s degree from New York Tech
• Cannot be enrolled in the BS/DO, BS/DPT, BS/MSOT, or BS/MSPA joint-degree undergraduate/graduate programs at New York Tech.
• Enrolled in at least three (3) credits
• Maintain  Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
• Maintain at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average
• Complete and submit a  New York Tech Graduate Alumni Award application  annually

Application Deadlines

• For Fall Admits:  July 15
• For Spring Admits:  December 15

Life Science Achievement Award: Up To $3,975 Per Year

This scholarship is awarded only to students who are matriculated in the B.S. in Life Sciences dual degree programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and physician assistant studies. This award is not applicable to students enrolled in the combined Life Sciences/Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree program. The award bridges the gap between your undergraduate phase and your graduate or professional phase.

This one-time scholarship provides up to $3,975 for the first year (including summer if applicable) of the professional phase of the combined BS/MS.OT, BS/MS.PA and BS/DPT programs for the completion of your undergraduate degree program. Full-time attendance is required.

• Complete the  FAFSA  (U.S. students only).
• Maintain a 3.3 cumulative GPA.
• Satisfactorily complete the classes you registered for in the previous semester.
• Be matriculated in the B.S. in Life Sciences dual degree programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and physician assistant studies.

Mayor’s Graduate Scholar Award

This award is for students who work for the Office of the Mayor of New York. It consists of $3,000 per year for up to three years or six semesters. This scholarship cannot be combined with the New York Tech Graduate Scholar Award. Students must have a bachelor’s degree and be admitted to a New York Tech graduate program.

• School of Education
• Doctoral study

How to apply for doctoral study

The School of Education will help you develop your studies towards doctoral level.

Recruitment for the 2024/25 academic year has closed. Our next entry point is 1 October 2025 .

If you submit an application with any other date, you will have your application deferred to an October 2025 start. We will begin processing applications in September 2024.

Apply online

All applications for our PhD programme should be made through our Postgraduate Online Application form .

Entry requirements

You will need a first degree which is equivalent to a UK classification of an upper second (2:1), or better, and a masters degree which is equivalent to a UK mark of 65% or above. Candidates with other qualifications will be considered on an individual basis.

English language requirements

For students whose first language is not English, we require an IELTS grade of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component, or equivalent.

English language requirements for research degrees

We also offer a bridge programme for international applicants , in partnership with the English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC), which aims to help selected applicants to gain the required academic skills to produce a successful application proposal, and familiarise themselves with what it means to do a doctorate in the UK Higher Education system.

Application tips

Your application

The School of Education encourages PhD applications which correspond to the research interests and expertise of staff - we can then offer high-quality supervision in your chosen field.

We welcome applications for PhD study on both a full-time (three year) or part-time (six year) basis.

Please review our  staff profiles and research specialisms  before applying. You can also explore our research themes and case studies .

If you are interested in applying to study at Sheffield and have an idea of who you would ideally like to work with, indicate this on the application form where it asks for a proposed supervisor.

You are welcome to contact staff directly to discuss your research ideas, though we recommend that you acquaint yourself first with their research work and demonstrate a good understanding of how your research project might align with their expertise.

Applicants are required to upload a Research Proposal and a Personal Statement   (as separate attachments). Please upload your Research Proposal in this section and add your Personal Statement in the 'course supporting documents' section.

Applications usually take between six and eight weeks to be considered, though at certain times of year, this timeframe may extend. If you do not hear from us within 10 weeks, please do feel free to get in touch .

While every effort is made to process applications as quickly as possible, we cannot guarantee that applications received after 31 July will be processed for entry for the next academic year.

The research proposal

This proposal should be about  1,000 to 3,000 words  in length (except where indicated otherwise on departmental web pages) and should incorporate the following information:

• A  word count  on the first page.
• A title that accurately describes your research focus.
• A description of your research aims and (where relevant) your research questions.
• A brief identification of the field in which your study would be located and of the contribution your research might make to that field.
• The methods of research proposed and a plan and timetable of work.

Research proposals should show a strong alignment with staff research interests in the school. Consult staff research profiles , and an explore an overview of research in the school .

The personal statement

You should submit a personal statement of  250 to 750 words  that supplements (rather than reiterates) your research proposal. It should:

• explain your interest in the topic you intend to study;
• describe previous research experience and scholarly activity (eg research training; conference attendance; academic/professional publications; etc)
• detail relevant professional experience;
• explain,  specifically , why you wish to study at Sheffield and the School of Education (eg areas of staff interest and expertise allied to your interests etc).

Document formats

We accept the following document formats:

• Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf)
• Microsoft Word Documents (.doc, .docx)
• Rich Text Document (.rtf), and Plain Text (.txt)

More advice and guidance on your application

After you apply

A selection of applicants will be invited to a short, relatively informal interview (usually online). If you are invited to interview, you will be asked to explain in a little more detail your research plans, and why you believe the School of Education would be well suited to the project you have in mind.

If you do not hear from us within 10 weeks, please do feel free to  get in touch .

While every effort will be made to process applications as quickly as possible, we cannot guarantee that applications received after 31 July will be processed for entry for the next academic year.

Scholarships

The University of Sheffield Faculty of Social Sciences has funding for a range of doctoral scholarships .

These include the White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership scholarships , Sheffield Methods Institute (SMI) studentships and central University scholarships.

Doctoral scholarships

Related information

Further guidance on applying for a PhD

Fees and funding for doctoral study

Search for PhD opportunities at Sheffield and be part of our world-leading research.

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Speaker 1: What if I told you that graduate school, undergraduate research, or travel for your dissertation could be funded? While some of you may be nodding your head because you know of or have applied to grants and fellowships before, there are still so many people still paying for their degrees and the research that supports it out of pocket. I however want to help you indicate, apply for, and improve your odds of securing grants and fellowships so you can be well on your way to contributing to your field, reduce the strain studying can place on your finances, and enjoy the opportunities that funded research has to offer. Hello everyone, welcome or welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Kaylin. I am a fourth year PhD candidate in history and African American studies. And while I am in a fully funded PhD program at Yale, I have secured over $20,000 worth of research grants in order to pursue archival research abroad. This has meant that I've been able to live in London and focus on my research rather than having to teach in order to support myself. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing all of my best tips for how it is to find and apply for research funding. And we're going to be breaking it into six different parts. First and foremost, we're going to talk about the general application requirements. This may differ depending on your field of study, but these are the primary statements and requirements that are often asked for with funding applications. Number two is actually how to find funding and where to look for it. Third, we're going to talk about how to write a research proposal for funding application and more specifically, how to make your research proposal stand out for a funding committee. Number four, we're going to be covering resumes and CV guidelines. This may differ depending on your field of study and may differ depending on the actual application, but we're going to be going over some of the things that you need to know and need to make sure are in your CV before you send. Fifth, we're going to be covering any additional statements that might come up. And then lastly, we're going to talk a little bit about letters of recommendation. I just want to say a quick thank you to the sponsor of today's video, which is Unriddle. This is an AI research tool for literature reviews for improving your research workflow. And I'll talk about them a little bit more later on in this video. But without further ado, it is time to go ahead and jump into section number one, which is general application requirements. Applications are going to ask for four primary things. First is a statement of some kind. Some call this a statement of intent, a research proposal, or a project description. This may vary. Secondly, they may ask you for an abstract. This is going to be an abbreviated version of your research proposal that hits on the main points of your project. The third is your CV. And then the fourth are letters of recommendation. There are applications that may ask for things like written samples, diversity statements, leadership statements, cover letters. And while this video will not be covering the specifics of how to actually approach these statements, I will be giving some further information in section six of the video. So be sure to stick around if you have a written sample, leadership statement, or anything of the like that you may have to produce for your applications, because I'll give you some helpful tips. Now it's time for section number two, which is where to find funding. As far as I'm aware, there are six major types of funding schemes available to graduate students or undergrads that are pursuing research. First, you have funding that is available through your central university. The second is funding made available by your department. Third is finding funding through private agencies on LinkedIn. The fourth is field-based associations. Think about your field of study and the annual conference that is usually held. So for example, as a historian of legal history, they've got the American Society of Legal Historians conference every year. And that conference or that organization is associated with a journal. And they also have funding for graduate study. They have fellowships for people writing their dissertations. They have travel grants so people can attend the conference. So it's important to check out your field-specific organizations because they likely have pockets of funds that are made available to graduate students. These organizations, unfortunately, rarely have opportunities for undergrads. But for undergrads, I do recommend looking at your own university and the department. Funding can be a little bit finicky depending on what stage you are in your education. And so make sure that you're reading the fine print because there are some applications that on the surface will look like something that anybody can apply for, but they may have tighter restrictions on whether you are a PhD candidate, what stage you are at with your dissertation, and things of that nature. So make sure that you're checking all of the requirements as you're going through these applications to make sure that it's something that you're actually eligible for. The fifth type of funding is from libraries and research institutions. So for example, the Library of Virginia or the Library of Maryland or the Library of Congress will have a pocket of funding for independent researchers or researchers from other institutions to come and do research. These are largely available at university libraries. So for example, looking at the Bodleian Library at Oxford or the British Library, these are really great sources for finding pockets of money. They don't usually have very long-term fellowships and they don't have huge pockets of money, but they do often have smaller grants that will allow you for a month to three months of research. And so make sure to look at libraries and research institutions. And lastly, you have your national or federal grants. And so this includes the NSF grant, so the National Science Foundation, the SSRC, the Social Science Research Council, AHA, the American Historical Association. These organizations that are discipline specific also have big pockets of money that usually come from a government agency. And there's also, for example, the National Endowment for the Humanities, for us that study the humanities. So make sure that you're looking widely for funding, because in my experience, a lot of these resources are hidden. And most of the time, the reason that people know about them is because they have an advisor or they have a friend who had applied for them or is aware of them. And as somebody who came into academia as a community college student and who didn't have a lot of experience knowing where to look for things, by comparison to my colleagues that have been applying for funding since they were in high school or in undergrad to do research projects, I just felt a little bit out of my depth. And so hopefully breaking it down into these different categories to help you begin your search will be helpful to you. Now we're moving on to part three, which is how to write a research proposal. Now this could be a video in and of itself, because this is the meat and potatoes of your funding application. And whether it is called a statement of intent, a project description, or a research proposal, these things essentially mean the same thing, which is that the committee is going to want you to outline the project you are looking for funding to support. This is going to include not only the intervention of the project, but also needs to discuss how it is that that project is being performed and how the funding will be used throughout the term. Every application has a different term length that has different recommendations for the project description or research proposal. And the lengths can vary from 500 words up to 3000 words. This is going to be a very general overview. Ideally, this should be a separate video. However, I know that many of you are looking to apply for funding this year. So I hope that this is helpful. Step one to actually writing your research proposal is establishing a solid hook in the first paragraph. Now this hook can look like a variety of things. And what I recommend is actually asking your colleagues, your advisor, or fellow students to share a copy of their research proposal with you. Now you're not trying to copy the way that they structure their hook verbatim. But what you're looking for is a couple of different ideas, you may be able to find some sources online. However, I do recommend asking from somebody in your field of study, because they will have a better representation of what those types of proposals may look like. And what you're trying to do with the hook is get that initial interest grip. You're trying to make it that way the committee wants to keep reading and learn more about your project. And this can be something as simple as a general description of your project. But I also recommend using this as a way to lead the committee to further questions themselves. For example, in a research proposal that I wrote last year, I actually started with one of my case studies. So I discussed a girl that was living in the home of a lawmaker in late early modern England. And I discussed how this particular individual I felt was indicative of the closeness between black women's reproductive labor and the legal institutions that sought to control them. My project is about matrilineal descent and the law of slavery in the early modern English Atlantic. And because I'm a historian, I really like telling stories and developing a hook based on my primary sources is one of the primary methods that I use in my writing. But I've also written proposals where I just start with a general statement of what the project is. So you can go in a variety of different directions, but I do recommend looking at some examples as you're going and developing your hook just that way you see what others are doing and how it is that they tend to structure things. The second thing that you want to do in the first paragraph of your research proposal is immediately after the hook, identify the gap. To make it simple, what you're trying to do is identify what nobody has done so far. And this can be incredibly challenging. But first and foremost, you want to figure out what has been said in your field of study. And to do this, we can use research tools like Unriddle to help us out. Now, Unriddle is an AI tool used to speed up your literature review and research workflow. Unlike other AI tools that are just based on search, Unriddle is really about comparing and contrasting all of the different pieces of literature that are out there in your field of study in order to identify similarities and gaps. To begin, you're going to go ahead and populate PDFs of your sources. So this should be secondary literature material. So this means scholarship, including articles, book chapters, and any pieces of literature that you are able to cite in your field of study, you're gonna go ahead and populate all of those and upload it to Unriddle. From there, you can actually communicate with Unriddle in order to ask questions of the document. It also provides summaries and can even identify core quotes that it thinks might be helpful for your research. By identifying different sections in the text that it believes are most relevant to your research, you're going to be able to begin the process of comparing and contrasting. And as you go through this process, one recommendation that I have is going ahead and writing any questions that you have as you go. Now, this is something that happens at the very beginning of when you're developing your research question. And although you should already be at this stage when you're writing your research proposal, it is something that's important to continue returning to. As you're going through the literature, what is left unsaid? And what do you believe needs further clarification or needs further study? And thirdly, Unriddle is great for helping you actually write your literature reviews. Whether it's when you're preparing to write a proposal, you're working on a literature review for a paper, or it is that you're just trying to take notes, I do recommend trying to go ahead and summarize the text for yourself. And Unriddle will actually finish your sentences for you. One quick disclaimer, however, is that you should never submit any work that has been AI generated to a research proposal or as your own for a research project. But if you're looking to take notes for yourself and identify a summary of the text to help you better understand, then I do highly recommend tools like Unriddle. Unriddle is your AI research assistant to help offer clarity, speed up the process, and help you easily identify potential gaps in the literature. If you're interested in checking it out for your own workflow, then I'm going to have all of the links in the description below. Thank you so much to their team for sponsoring this video. Now I want to go ahead and highlight some specific tips for identifying a gap. Here are two things that I want you to keep in mind when you are looking to identify a gap in your research proposal. First and foremost, you want to keep this short and sweet. You do not want to belabor the point and you ideally want to identify specific authors. Secondly, you want to identify what it is you agree and disagree with in the way that the field has answered the question that you are trying to answer with your research. For example, my research intervenes in two very different scholarly discourses, and so I wanted to identify why it was that my project had the capability of getting these two discussions to overlap and offer answers that might not have been possible based on the questions that were asked in these different studies. So rather than only thinking about research that has directly identified the question that you were seeking to answer, you want to think about all of the tangential research that's been done and who it is that you think that you are in conversation with. And then the second thing that you want to keep in mind with this proposal and with identifying that gap in the literature is being incredibly direct about what your contribution seeks to be. As researchers, we are tasked with ensuring that others are aware of how important our research is. It's how we get funding, it's how we get support, it's how we get supervisors interested, and it's how we land jobs in the future. So this is the place to really be direct and specific about what it is that you hope to achieve. Now we get to the second part of the research proposal, and this can be a variety of different lengths of body paragraphs. Now the body of your research proposal is really looking to identify the methods, the sources of evidence, and how it is that you're actually going to go about performing the study. And depending on length, this can really vary. For my research proposals, I often used between two and three body paragraphs to identify the three methodological interventions I was seeking to make and why it is that I thought that they needed to take place within this study. Because I'm using a variety of different types of sources, I needed to be able to identify why those different sources were relevant. Because of the different fellowships that I was applying for, I needed to highlight different aspects of those interventions. Because if I, for example, was applying for a legal history fellowship, then I would highlight the chapters within my dissertation that I would like funding to support, which was specifically aligned with the legal history components of my research. But I was also applying for funding from programs that were really focused on British studies. And so then I was highlighting the parish records or the literature that I was citing. So depending on the actual funding that you are applying for, you're going to want to cater these paragraphs to that particular application. Now after you've written the bulk of the research proposal, it's time for the concluding paragraph. And this is where you really get yourself to stand out beyond your research. Because what you're trying to do is identify to the committee why that funding will be put to good use. And so we're going to break this into four parts. First and foremost, you're going to talk about the benefit of the funding to your research. So this can be a general statement about why this particular opportunity is going to be beneficial to you. Because anybody can say, for example, that this will buy me more time for my dissertation, or this will buy me more time in the archives, or this will buy me more time in the lab. But they want to know exactly how that time and money is going to be used. And so be direct. Part two of the conclusion is your timeline. So identifying how much time it will take for you to do certain aspects of the project. Some programs are going to ask for this in more depth or even in a separate document, but a general timeline is recommended. The third is more specific opportunities granted by that funding. So for example, there's an application to a fellowship at Cambridge. And this is an exchange program with my university. And it allows you to work with professors at Cambridge, it allows you to use their library sources and not only is the funding useful for buying you time, but it also gives you opportunity to engage in a different scholarly community, it gives you the opportunity to engage with other professors who may get to sit on your committee. So identifying other things that that funding may allow you to do is going to be another part of this process. And then number four, you want to end your statement with a sentence or two about how this funding will support your overall journey as an academic and your future research. Now we're moving on to part four of this video. And this is the CV or resume guidelines for funding applications. Now a standard CV is intended to highlight all of your academic achievements. And this can range between one to five pages depending on the funding application. The standard that I was asked for was three. I ended up taking off a pretty significant portion of my professional experience, I only kept the last five years or so of my professional experience in my CV, and really focused on highlighting my professional academic achievements. And this starts with your education. So all the different institutions that you've attended and the degrees that you have obtained, but also highlight your advisor and the proposed title of your dissertation or the title of any theses or research projects that you worked on during those degrees. So for example, it'll say that I graduated from UCLA in 2019. Below that it'll have the name of my thesis advisor and then my honors thesis title. The next piece is your professional experience. You don't have to have this on your CV. And some advisors may even recommend that you take it off. But this is something that I decided to keep on because I think it's something that's really important about my background. The next piece is publications. You can also include publications that are in the works or under review at the moment. And then you're going to move on to conferences. And conferences can include any that you have attended, spoken at, or have applied to. So even if you just submitted an abstract, you can, for example, say applied. You can also list any that you rejected that you didn't end up attending. For example, any conferences that were canceled due to COVID, you can go ahead and add that information in parentheticals. After that is awards. So any awards that you've received, including scholarships, but also academic awards, merit awards, things of that nature. And then you're going to go ahead and highlight organizations. So any organizations that you're a part of, any committees that you've sat on, any nonprofits that you've gotten involved in, any kind of service work, essentially. And then you're going to go ahead and end your CV by talking about skills. So this is primarily hard skills, especially for a CV. So this includes coding languages, foreign languages, technical skills, or anything of that nature. If you're looking for a CV template, I'm going to have one linked in the description below. It is cut, paste, easy. And you can also use this for when you go to apply for job applications, because it is CSV approved. And if you would like to check it out, it's below. Now onto the fifth section of the video, which is additional statements. And this includes things like leadership statements, abstracts, written samples, you name it. There are so many different things that you may be asked for within your funding applications. And the thing to keep in mind here, you need to use this as an opportunity to share different aspects of your project and of your person. When you're asked for an abstract, this is where you can be really direct about what that intervention is, because you just don't have the space. It's usually like 250 words. So you're not really going to be able to talk about who you're in conversation with or what the methodology is. This is really for identifying the problem and your ideal solution. When it comes to leadership statements, on the other hand, you want to think about your most important service experience. And this can be sitting on a committee within your department, it can be something that you've done extracurricularly. I actually wrote my leadership statement about this YouTube channel. I talked about how it is that I started creating YouTube content in order to share my experience as a graduate student who came from community college and navigating academia. And I just felt like this was the experience that has been the most influential in my life and in my research and in my work as a PhD student. I wrote my statement about how it is that this opportunity to create content has led to greater impacts in my field and greater interest in my research. It can be a variety of different things for you, but you want to identify what your most important service has been and what type of impact that has had. Some applications are going to ask for a cover letter and it doesn't usually come up unless it's a private research institution or you're applying for postdocs later on. So I don't have a lot of experience with this myself, I've only ever had to write one. So if anybody else has information about writing cover letters for funding applications that they would like to share in the comments, please go ahead and do. And when I have more information about how to go ahead and write those in the future, then I'll make a separate video. Now we're going to move on to quickly talk about letters of recommendation. Now letters of recommendation should come from your advisor or the person who is closest to you. And if, for example, they are on sabbatical and they are unable to support you for your applications, you're going to want to go to your second closest committee member or a professor that you can trust and that knows you really well. Give them ideally a minimum of six weeks notice. Professors are, as I'm sure you already know, overburdened. So you want to make sure that you're very clear about your expectations and what it is that you're applying for and what those deadlines are. And don't be scared to follow up because if I've learned anything in my time working with tenured academics, it's that your letter of recommendation is not the top of their priority list. And so because it's the top of your priority list, you need to make sure that it gets done and make sure that it gets done on time. I wish it wasn't our responsibility to have to chase professors all the time for these things, but that's just how it goes. So go ahead and make sure that you have a conversation with them, you make them aware of all the deadlines and things that you're applying for, ask for recommendations on how do you approach the application, and then make sure to follow up in advance of the actual deadline just to make sure that they get it in on time. Congratulations, we have reached the end of the video and you have all the information that you need, hopefully, to get started on your applications for funding so you can fund your research. And I can't wait to see how it is that it ends up for you. Make sure that you are applying widely because funding can be really competitive. So don't put your eggs in one basket, definitely apply to a range of fellowships because there are so many of them and even if it's just $500 or a thousand, these add up. So definitely go ahead, have a standard format for your application, use that to restructure for future applications and good luck applying for funding. And before we take off, thank you so much again to Unriddle for sponsoring today's video. If you want to go ahead and check out their AI tools for your research, I'm going to have a link in the description below. And if this video was helpful for you, then please remember to give it a thumbs up and hit the subscribe button for future academic and academic lifestyle content. I hope that you enjoyed this one, best of luck with your applications, and I will see you all in the next video. Bye friends. Bye.

• A Simple Introduction to PhD Funding

Written by Mark Bennett

Funding for PhD study is a little more complicated than it is for other degrees. There are lots of different ways a student can be funded and your situation may also change during the 3-4 years (or more) it takes to complete a doctorate.

This short guide is here to introduce PhD funding as a whole, explaining how it works for different types of project and student. We've also outlined a good route to take for your funding search and suggested a few things to bear in mind.

Think of this page as your ' PhD funding 101 ' and remember that there's more detailed information about specific funding options elsewhere on FindAPhD.

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Who funds phds.

Let's start with the obvious question: who might actually help you pay for a PhD? All sorts of organisations provide funding and grants for doctoral research, but we can divide them into a few broad types:

• Government bodies often provide some of the most generous PhD studentships. Their goal is to support national research objectives and train people (like you) to carry them out. In the UK the biggest government funder is UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) but other countries all have similar organisations. Access to this kind of funding is limited and competitive.
• Student finance is sometimes available to help students who aren't able to receive a full studentship, but doesn't normally cover the full cost of a PhD. The UK offers a PhD loan of up to £28,673. Some banks and other private lenders also offer commercial loans for postgraduate study.
• Universities usually have funding of their own to offer potential PhD students. This might take the form of a small fee discount (often for alumni) or limited grant for living costs. Or it might be a full studentship funded out of the university's own research budget.
• Graduate teaching assistantships – Some university funding is provided in return for teaching, research assistantship or other work (this is quite common in Europe and North America ).
• Independent charities and trusts often fund PhD study that supports their wider goals (such as medical research, heritage preservation or increasing access to education). The support they offer varies hugely and isn't usually full funding (except when it is).
• Business and industry will occasionally support PhD students whose work has potential benefit for their commercial objectives. Sometimes this funding will be offered to current (or prospective) employees.

All of these other slightly different types of PhD funding ranging from loans that need to be repaid to full studentships , PhD funding grants and smaller scholarships (that don't).

It's sometimes possible to work alongside a PhD , but this is rarely a practical (or sensible) source of full funding, so we haven't listed it above.

The different types of funding situation

Now that you know where PhD funding comes from, let's think about how this looks from a student's point of view. We're generalising again, but there are roughly three types of funding situation :

• Fully-funded students are as lucky as that name suggests. They have a full studentship covering their PhD fees along with more or less all of their living costs and other expenses. They probably aren't drinking champagne every night, but they don't need to worry too much about the cost of their PhD.
• Partially-funded students are those that receive a partial scholarship or studentship (usually contributing to fees or living costs, but not both). They usually need to top up their funding with other grants and / or rely on some of their own savings / earnings.
• Self-funded students aren't receiving any substantial funding and are therefore paying for a PhD themselves using a combination of student loans (which must be repaid) savings or earnings.

Which group you fit into will depend on a lot of factors, but it won't necessarily be determined by your subject. It's true that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students tend to be fully funded (it's harder to self-fund in these fields) but not all fully funded students are doing STEM research.

You may also find that your situation changes during your PhD. It's possible to begin as a self-funded student and win partial (or even full) funding later on.

Already know what you're looking for?

We've put together a range of detailed PhD funding guides , covering studentships , scholarships , charitable grants and options for international students .

A PhD funding action plan

Knowing a bit more about how PhD funding works will help you make sense of a (potentially) confusing range of options. But where do you go from here?

The following is a very general route. It assumes that you're just starting out with your funding search (perhaps whilst working on your overall PhD application ). Chances are you're already some way along, in which case you can skip a few steps.

#1 Speak to your supervisor (if you can)

It's best not to contact a potential supervisor just to talk for funding, but if you're already in conversation with one it makes sense to get their advice on your search. They'll have a good idea what is and isn't worth focussing on and they may also know about specific funders or scholarships for your field.

#2 Start by searching for funded projects

Lots of PhD projects are actually advertised with funding attached . They're much more common in STEM, but that doesn't mean there aren't any in subjects like English , Philosophy or Sociology . Find one and your funding search gets a lot simpler.

#3 Look for separate studentships and PhD bursaries

You might be proposing your own PhD topic or considering applying for an advertised project without funding (or with funding you aren't eligible for). Either way, the next step is looking for a studentship or scholarship to 'attach' to your PhD.

The best place to look for one is probably your university . They'll have awards of their own but will also distribute government funding (such as UK Research Council studentships ) or larger charitable grants and bursaries.

#4 Explore opportunities with business, industry or external funders

In some fields this should really be step #1, but you'll know if so (or your supervisor will tell you). Otherwise, this option is worth a try if you've got this far without finding full funding.

Try to think of relevant companies or organisations that might take an interest in your research or its results. Common sense can guide you here: it's unlikely that an automotive manufacturer will pay for your PhD in eighteenth-century lyric poetry; equally, the Arts Council probably won't help you design a new electric car.

#5 Try to build a funding portfolio

By this point you've moved from looking for full funding to looking for partial funding (at least for now). There are still lots of options available to you though, in the form of smaller PhD funding grants and fee waivers.

Your university may be able to help here, either through a fee discount or a partial scholarship. Now is also the time to be approaching smaller charities and trusts (of which there are many).

#6 (Carefully) consider self-funding

It's perfectly possible to pay for a PhD yourself, particularly if you're in a field that lends itself to flexible working and lower research expenses (the Arts and Humanities are the classic example here, but there are others).

Self funding isn't easy though. PhD loans and part-time work can offset a lot of your fees and day-to-day expenses, but you'll never be able to completely ignore the financial side of things.

Our advice would be to discuss things with a prospective PhD supervisor and get their advice on the amount of time you'll have for work, as well as how realistic it might be to find more complete funding later in your project.

How do you apply for PhD funding?

Once you've identified potential PhD funding, the next step is to put in an effective application . Our guide explains how.

PhD funding – things to bear in mind

Hopefully by now you have a better idea how PhD funding works and where to get started with your search. We recommend you spend some time with our more detailed funding guides but here are a few general tips to keep in the back of your head as you set off:

• Funding situations and statuses change – and usually for the better! You might not win a full studentship in your first year, but many funders will consider applications from existing students.
• PhDs are long – and just because your funding situation can improve doesn't mean that it will. If you start out self-funding you should be able to finish your doctorate that way, even if you're hoping not to.
• Living costs and expenses are usually the biggest challenge – PhD fees are quite low (at least compared to other degrees) and might be as little as £4,000-5,000. There's more to the cost of a PhD than fees though. You've got to support yourself for several years of research (see above). This is actually where funding is most important.
• Part-time study makes things more manageable, not cheaper – going part-time will typically half your annual PhD fees and make it easier to work alongside your research. But it will also increase the length of your PhD and add additional maintenance expenses.
• (Most) funding can be combined – there are a couple of exceptions, but anything that isn't a full studentship can usually be topped up with other grants or loans. Basically, unless it says you can't, you probably can. This is the key to building a funding portfolio.
• Funding changes – the past few years have seen the introduction of PhD loans and the announcement of government studentships for international students – and that's just in the UK. When it comes to PhD funding it can literally pay to stay updated .

So there you have it: a quick and – hopefully – simple introduction to funding a PhD. Why not take a look at our detailed guides to different types of funding , or our advice on funding applications . You can also find student stories, news and advice on our blog .

Head over to our PhD course search to find your perfect PhD opportunity. You can filter by topic, keyword, location and funding.

Our postgrad newsletter shares courses, funding news, stories and advice

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Not sure how to fund your PhD? This guide answers some of the most common questions about PhD funding in the UK.

The seven UK Research Councils provide government studentships for PhD research in different subject areas. Our simple guide explains how this funding works, what you can get and how to apply successfully.

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Our guide explains the best ways to fund international PhD study in the UK, with information on all the main scholarships available to you.

A range of scholarships may be available to help you fund a PhD. Our guide explains the different types of award with tips for making a successful funding application.

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