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ESRC Studentships Main Competition

The UBEL DTP’s fully funded ESRC studentships cover full payment of tuition fees per year and an annual maintenance stipend.

What’s on offer

  • UBEL DTP studentships cover tuition fees at the UKRI rate and an annual maintenance stipend. For 2025/26 an UBEL studentship will cover tuition fees of £5006 and a minimum stipend of £22,780. This figure includes the London Allowance.
  • We offer a wide range of disciplinary pathways, in 6 groupings across 6 London institutions. Each pathway provides a range of study routes (+3.5; 1+3.5 +4.5) with MRes, MSc and MA programmes attached and accommodates both full-time and part-time students. 
 
Apply here

Academic qualifications

  • You should normally have (or expect to achieve by 30 September 2026) an upper second or first class honours degree or a Master’s degree from a recognised UK university, or the equivalent qualification if gained outside the UK.
  • For +3.5  award you must normally have (or expect to achieve by 30 September 2026) a Master’s degree with an appropriate level of research training.

Eligibility criteria

  • All UKRI studentships are open to both home and international students.
  • To be classed as a home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:
    • Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or Have settled status, or
    • Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
    • Have indefinite leave to remain or enter
  • If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classified as an International student. Please read the UKRI Eligibility guidance document (pdf) for full details on residency requirements. 

  • UBEL cannot cover visa costs for international students. For any visa or immigration advice, please speak to your proposed institutions visa compliance team.

  • UBEL is allowed to make no more than 30% of the total number of studentships (across competitions) to international students – this is an ESRC condition and cannot be waivered. (For 2025 Entry, UBEL could award only 10 international studentships out of 485 international applicants)

Guidance for applying

This video provides application guidance and answers key questions, led by the UBEL DTP Management team. 

We will be running another guidance webinar for those interested in applying for 2027 funding:

Friday 26 June 2026 at 13:00 – 14:00

To attend, please click here. 

Meeting ID: 344 318 418 050 588

Passcode: TY6R9VC7 

The UBEL Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) offers ESRC-funded studentships across 30 disciplinary pathways, organised into 6 subject groups and delivered through six London universities:

  • University of Greenwich
  • University of East London
  • School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
  • Birkbeck, University of London
  • University College London (UCL)


Applicants should review the available pathways across these universities to identify the most relevant one for their research.

Before applying for ESRC studentship funding from UBEL DTP, students should:

  • Select their intended pathway
  • Discuss their PhD proposal with a potential supervisor at one of the partner universities
  • Contact the relevant pathway leader(s) at their chosen university


The same pathways are used for both PhD studentships and Postdoctoral Fellowships.

 

Deadlines for Applications for 2027 ESRC Funding

14 September 2026Survey Monkey Apply opens for Preliminary applications. See guidance and FAQs available on webpage.
9 November 2026Deadline for Preliminary applications at 23:59
11 December 2026Pathway teams give decisions to DTP
14 December 2026Full Application Stage Opens for candidates who have been successful at the Preliminary stage.
1 February 2027Deadline for Full applications at 23:59
w/c 19 April 2027DTP Board confirms studentship awards for 2027 entry. 

Useful documents

Guidance for Supervisors

Contact us

Get in touch with the team.
Email: Ubel-dtp@ucl.ac.uk

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The ESRC has introduced a new PhD model from 2024/25. The new standard model for an ESRC studentship is 3.5 years.

Instead of the traditional three years of funding for a full-time PhD, ESRC studentships will include an extra three months of time (and stipend) to allow extra time for training throughout the PhD.

In addition, it is expected that ESRC studentship holders should have the opportunity to
complete a high-quality placement in academia, policy, business or civil society organisations as
part of their training. Students who participate in a placement will receive an extra three months of time (and stipend). This extra funded time would be in addition to the time periods indicated below and apply to all routes (i.e. 1+3, +3, 2+3 and +4, 3.5 and 3.25).