• Bachelor's (Honours) degree in a cognate subject at 2:1 or above (or overseas equivalent); and
• Master's degree in a relevant subject - with an overall average of 65% or above, a minimum mark of 65% in your dissertation and no mark below 55% (or overseas equivalent).

To enter the SoSS Studentship competition, applicants to programmes in all departments except Philosophy and Economics must submit their complete application no later than 1 December 2024.

Philosophy and Economics:

Applications for September 2025 entry will be accepted until 30 June 2025. All Philosophy and Economics applicants will be considered for School of Social Sciences PhD Studentships.

However, the competition may be closed at any stage if all awards have been allocated, so we recommend that you encourage potential supervisees to apply as early as possible.

Applicants to all programmes (except Philosophy) seeking to apply for ESRC NWSSDTP or AHRC NWCDTP funding must submit their programme application by 1 December 2024. Philosophy applicants seeking to apply for AHRC NWCDTP funding must submit their programme application by 13 January 2025.

1. Applicants submit their application containing all necessary supporting documents, and indicating the intention to apply for a SoSS studentship.
2. Applications are then circulated for review via the evaluation process. If you have a potential supervisee seeking SoSS funding, please ensure to review their application in a timely manner.
3. During the evaluation process, the applicant is interviewed by the supervisory team and the Departmental PGR Director/Admissions Tutor. Following interview, the PGR Director/Admissions Tutor informs the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team whether a studentship should be offered to the candidate.
4. Once all relevant approval is given, the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team issues the programme offer and funding letter. If a candidate is held in reserve for an award, the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team sends notification.
5. Unsuccessful outcomes are sent to reserve candidates following the allocation of AHRC NWCDTP/ESRC NWSSDTP awards.

1. Applicants submit their application by 1 December 2024. Applications must contain all necessary supporting documents and indicate the intention to apply for a SoSS studentship.
2. Applications are then circulated for review via the evaluation process. If you have a potential supervisee seeking SoSS funding, please ensure to review their application in a timely manner. 
3. All eligible applicants holding offers are compiled into a candidate list, provided to Departmental PGR Directors and Admissions Tutors, along with access to all relevant application documents.
4. Departmental PGR Directors and Admissions Tutors review and rank the applications and provide their rankings to the SoSS PGR Director for approval. The rankings are then returned to the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team.
5. Studentships are allocated to the highest ranked candidates, and remaining candidates are held in reserve. The Doctoral Academy Admissions Team issues funding letters to SoSS studentship awardees.
6. All SoSS studentship awardees are encouraged to submit an application for ESRC NWSSDTP or AHRC NWCDTP funding.
7. Following the outcome of ESRC NWSSDTP and AHRC NWCDTP competitions, if SoSS studentship awardees receive research council awards, the funding is reallocated down the ranking list.
8. Once all studentships have been allocated and accepted, the Doctoral Academy communicates outcomes to all unsuccessful candidates.