President's Doctoral Scholar award

Scholarships to support the most outstanding international applications

Successful PDS Award holders will benefit from:

Fully-funded scholarship

• all university tuition fees at the international rate;
• a tax-free annual stipend (at UKRI rate) plus a £1,000 stipend enhancement.

Eligibility criteria

• hold a conditional/unconditional offer for a PhD programme to commence in September 2025;
• hold (or are about to obtain) a first-class honours undergraduate degree (or international equivalent) from a reputable institution;
• ideally, hold a master's-level qualification at merit or distinction (or international equivalent);
• have a track record of engaging with research. This may include contributions to publications/articles, promoting their research to a wider audience, prizes for research or project work;
• be interested in attending a series of exclusive events to facilitate interactions with our academic community and network with other PDS Award holders.

We will only consider applications for these full scholarships once you receive a formal offer.

Application forms will be provided to the Primary Supervisor following the issue of an offer letter to the candidate for a PhD programme.

Step-by-step guide to applying

Applications are now open for 2025/26

If you wish to be considered for this award, you must first find a project, contact the listed project supervisor to discuss your suitability for the project and apply for the project before Wednesday 15 January 2025. You can find out more about projects, supervisors and applying on our getting started and applying pages.

When applying you should state that you intend to apply for a PDS Award on the application form.

Once you have been interviewed and offered a place for your chosen project, you will need to be nominated for the PDS Award by your supervisor. You'll work with your primary supervisor to complete the PDS nomination form and this will need to be submitted to the Faculty Doctoral Academy by Friday 21 February 2025.

All PDS applications will be reviewed internally and a shortlist of candidates will be interviewed before final offers on funding are made.

Interviews are expected to take place in March 2025.

To support the development of links with Global South, should two candidates of equal quality be identified following the panel interviews, priority will be given to the project/candidate linked to that region.