ESRC PhD Funding Opportunities at NPCU

As part of the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre we are pleased to welcome scholarship applications from well-qualified applicants. The ESRC DTC is in partnership with the universities of Kent, Reading and Surrey. Further details of the ESRC DTC South East can be found here. The ESRC DTC has a total of 24 fully funded PhD scholarships available.

The deadline for applications for ESRC funding is 10th February 2012. Offers to successful candidates should go out the week before Easter (which is on 6th to 9th April). Full details on ESRC PhD funding can be found here.

Applications and Admissions

Applications from students who wish to be considered for ESRC funding should be made directly to the Department of Politics and International Relations. The Department welcomes applications from highly qualified and motivated candidates. The application process for our postgraduate research programmes is an interactive one. We place great emphasis on matching prospective students to supervisors’ interests, building on our existing research activities. Those interested in conducting a PhD within the New Political Communication Unit should consider how their research interests overlap with its current members. 

Interested potential applicants should first refer to our website to obtain a good idea of the department's research foci: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Politics-and-IR/About-Us/. The Department is only able to consider applications in research areas of interest to its full-time academic staff.

In the first instance, potential applicants should prepare a research proposal, outlining the project that they will undertake if accepted onto the PhD programme.  This should be at least 8-10 pages long and should include the key research questions, hypothesis, proposed methodology and a bibliography. Email this research proposal, along with a cv, to the Director of Graduate Study, Dr Alister Miskimmon.

If the proposal is met with interest by a potential supervisor, the Director of Graduate Study will invite the potential applicant to discuss their proposal further via email. UK-based applicants may be invited to visit the Department. Promising potential applicants will then be advised to apply formally for a place on our PhD programme. Candidates shortlisted for the PhD programme will be interviewed.

Potential applicants may contact the Director of Graduate Study with proposals at any stage of the academic year. For the 2011/12 academic year, the deadline for formal applications from applicants wishing to be considered for funding opportunities is 10 February 2012.