The admissions cycle usually opens in October, and offers can be issued as soon as the evaluation process is complete. We ask that applicants indicate their funding intentions in section 9 of the application form, though we would also recommend that applicants and supervisors email us if there is a particular deadline to be aware of.

The admissions team will work to process applications within the timeframe of indicated funding competitions, where applicable. If you are reviewing an application, we ask that you complete your review within an appropriate timeframe in order to facilitate this.

All University of Manchester funding opportunities are available for September entry only. January entry is available only for PGRs who are externally funded or self-funding. The programme application deadline is 30 September.

The number of applications and scholarships available vary per cycle. However, funding is extremely competitive, and usually the number of awards available are far fewer than the number of applications.

This varies per the particular funding competition. Timeframes are available via the links on the Funding Page.

Offers may be deferred entry for one year only and two years at the maximum. This may only be granted with the approval of the supervisory team, as well as department and school reviewers. Deferral requests will not be considered in AMBS.

Appointment criteria for supervisors can be found in the Supervision Policy for Postgraduate Research Degrees.

If you choose to decline an application, please notify the HUMS DA Admissions Team, and copy in your DCO/Admissions Tutor/PGR Director. In the email, please give your reason for decline (for example, you may not have capacity to supervise a PhD, the research proposal may not be of sufficient quality, or the proposed topic of research may not fit with your expertise). The email does not need to be overly detailed, but giving your reason will help the admissions team to either recirculate the application if it is of a high enough standard, or provide feedback to the applicant if a reject decision is processed.

At minimum, the interview panel must consist of the proposed primary supervisor and an independent interviewer. Proposed co-supervisors may also join the interview panel, but the independent interviewer must be outside of the proposed supervisory team.

If the independent interviewer is subsequently listed on the supervisory team e.g. on the Offer proforma, the applicant may need to be re-interviewed with the DCO/Admissions Tutor/PGR Director for your Department. If this is the case, you will be informed of this by the admissions team.

No, independent interviewers do not need to have supervised a PhD to completion in order to join the interview panel. However, the independent interviewer should be able to assess whether the candidate is sufficiently prepared for PGR study and the viability of the proposal.

The Head of Department is able to take the supervisory capacity of the co-supervisor into account before approving or declining the request.

If an applicant has a supervisory team across separate Faculties, the application will follow the process of the Faculty in which the proposed primary supervisor is based.

Within the Humanities Doctoral Academy, the process is now largely consistent between schools, so a split-supervisory team should not impact this. The primary supervisor may be regarded as the final supervisory decision maker, though we expect that they will have discussed their final decision with the proposed supervisory team. Any co-supervisors outside of the Department of the main supervisor must receive permission from their Department Head to supervise the PGR.

The proposed main supervisor is responsible for completing and submitting the interview form. We expect that they will have discussed their final decision with the proposed supervisory team. Following the supervisory team’s decision to decline, the application proceeds to Departmental approval to confirm the decision. If the Departmental reviewer feels that the application is viable with an alternative supervisory team (whether in the same or a separate Department), they will inform the admissions team and the application will be recirculated to the alternative supervisory team.

Yes, applicants may apply for as many funding competitions as they feel are appropriate. We ask that all funding intentions are detailed in section 9 of the application form, so that we can include them on our candidate lists for review.

University of Manchester internal studentships contain a stipulation that the studentship will be rescinded should the candidate be successful in securing a studentship or substantial award deemed equivalent to a studentship from another funding body e.g. the UK research council, China Scholarship Council, or Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Studentship awardees should declare any confirmed offers of funding with the Doctoral Academy.

However, this should not dissuade applicants for applying for multiple funding competitions, as this increases their overall chances of being awarded funding.

Applicants holding PGR offers conditional on their Master’s degree results receive the following stipulation in their offer letters:

‘Please note that if you are currently undertaking Master’s level study and the result will not be available until after the start of the PGR programme, you should be aware that the University reserves the right to withdraw should you fail to complete your Master’s programme as detailed in your offer conditions.’

Ahead of the PhD programme start date, the DA admissions team will request a progression letter from the applicant’s current University, or the relevant UoM PGT Team to confirm that the applicant has completed all required elements of the Master’s programme, and that they are likely to graduate. Once the DA admissions team have received this progression letter, the application can matriculate and the applicant may register and commence the PhD programme.

Later in the semester, the admissions team will request a Master’s final academic transcript to assess if the programme entry requirements are met. If the transcript falls below requirements, the primary supervisor will be asked to provide a statement on how the PGR is currently performing and how they will be supported on the PhD programme. This evidence along with the transcript will be reviewed by the Admissions Tutor/DCO/PGR Director for the department and where applicable the School PGR Director to determine if the PGR is able to continue on the programme.

Prospective applicants may reach out to you directly to discuss whether you are interested in supporting their proposal. In the Pre-Application section you will find general admissions information to support you in responding to queries.  This section also includes standard response templates that you may wish to use in your responses to prospective applicant queries. We would recommend that you encourage applicants to share their draft research proposal with you, and you may wish to correspond directly with them and informally redraft the proposal until it is suitable.

Whilst working with applicant on their proposal, please bear in mind ethical considerations. You may also wish to check the potential applicant’s academic qualifications to make sure they are eligible for the programme – the admissions team will only check eligibility at the point of formal application.

All staff and students should be wary of opening suspicious emails or phishing attempts and report them to phishing@manchester.ac.uk (sending the email as an attachment). The national cyber security centre has provided guidance on how to spot and report scam emails, texts, websites and calls.

You may forward the email to the DA admissions team and we may be able to confirm the legitimacy of the email. If we are unable to do so, please refer to the links and guidance above.

Please email the DA admissions team, and attach a screenshot of the error or access request.

We hope to provide applicants with their programme outcome within 6 to 8 weeks from the date the application was submitted for initial review.

If the applicant intends to apply for funding, they may need to hold an offer by a given deadline to be eligible. These deadlines are detailed in the Funding section, and we will communicate this deadline to you when the application is circulated.

Yes, applicants may submit a programme application and it will be considered as per the evaluation process. However, if the funding intentions are not given, we cannot support them to meet funding competition requirements and deadlines.