PhD scholarships
We are committed to giving you as many opportunities as possible to succeed. There are a number of funding opportunities available to students from both the UK and overseas.
Scholarships typically cover the costs of all or some of your tuition fees, a living allowance and a Research Training and Support Grant. However, this varies depending on the scholarship, so please check carefully the details of each scholarship and the funding that is provided. Awarded scholarships are highly competitive.
School of Law PhD Scholarship
The School of Law funded PhD scholarships for a full-time or part-time student for 2024-25 have now closed. Information on this scholarship can be found below.
The scholarship is awarded on a competitive basis. Applications are assessed on academic success and qualifications, experience, research background, a clear well-articulated, fully-developed research proposal which contributes to knowledge or society and a good match with supervisor expertise.
This scholarship provides the following funding:
- Fees: Full payment of tuition fees across the course of study at the Home rate. For international students, the residual fee must be met by the individual.
- Maintenance/stipend: £15,000 per year for full-time students with payments being made to the individual in quarterly instalments for three and a half years after the start of the course.
- Research Training Support Grant: Up to £500 per year for 3 years with the balance of unspent funds rolling forward each year. Restrictions apply to the use of these funds and there must be a clear connection to supporting the research project. Any unspent funds at the end of the project will be retained by the School.
The above will be pro-rated for a part-time student.
There are several other scholarships available which include:
- PhD Research Council scholarships - These include scholarships awarded either by:
- The White Rose Doctoral Training Partnerships
- These scholarship awards include empirical socio-legal or criminology research projects and are awarded to UK and international students wishing to start in October 2025. The current round of the competition will provide the following awards:
1. WRDTP Pathway Awards
2. WRDTP Advanced Quantitative Methods Awards
To be considered for this award applicants will need to have secured an offer (conditional or unconditional) to study for a PhD in the academic year 2025-26 by the 6th of January 2025. Interested applicants must contact the School PGR Director, Dr Maria Tzanou (m.tzanou@sheffield.ac.uk) or PGR Deputy Director for Admissions, Professor Tsachi Keren-Paz (t.keren-paz@sheffield.ac.uk) in advance of their application.
- These scholarship awards include empirical socio-legal or criminology research projects and are awarded to UK and international students wishing to start in October 2025. The current round of the competition will provide the following awards:
- The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities
- These scholarship awards include projects which fall within the scope of Arts and Humanities and are awarded to UK and international students. To be considered for this award, you need to have a PhD offer by the School of Law by the 6th of January 2025.
- The White Rose Doctoral Training Partnerships
What's included and how they're awarded
The scholarships are awarded on a competitive basis. Applications are assessed on academic success and qualifications, experience, research background, a clear well-articulated research proposal, the potential impact of the research and a good match with supervisor/department/faculty expertise.
How to apply
- In order to be considered for a scholarship you must firstly apply for a place to study, via the Postgraduate Online Application System.
- Submit the scholarship application: Once you have completed step 1, or if you already have an offer to study with us, you should log into your postgraduate application and complete the additional scholarship section.
Please note: It is essential that you apply for the scholarship that is most suited to your project and circumstances as once the deadline has passed it is not possible to change this. If you are unsure about which scholarship to apply for, please contact law@sheffield.ac.uk
If you have any questions about scholarships please see our FAQs or email pgr-scholarships@sheffield.ac.uk.