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.

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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

We are delighted to announce the availability of a School of Law funded PhD scholarship for a full-time or part-time student. We welcome suitably qualified applicants in the field of law and criminology for study commencing October 2023.

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, the potential impact of the research and a good match with supervisor expertise.

We particularly welcome applicants in the following subfields of law and criminology:

  • Law and technology
  • Public international law
  • Family law
  • Children and the law
  • Public law
  • IP law
  • Tort law
  • Wellbeing and the legal system
  • Policing
  • Probation and non-custodial punishment
  • Prisons and imprisonment
  • Punishment and penal theory
  • Gender and criminal justice
  • Criminology of war
  • Colonial and post-colonial law and justice
  • Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Laws
  • Indian Constitutional Law

This scholarship will fund the following:

  • 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: £13,000 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.

How to apply

1. In order to be considered for a scholarship you must first apply for a place to study, via the Postgraduate Online Application System.

2. Submit the scholarship application: Once you have completed step 1, or if you already have an offer to study with us, you should complete our Google Form to apply for the scholarship. (Please note that applying via the 'additional scholarship' section on PG Online will not work, as this does not apply to this Scholarship)

3. The deadline for applications is Thursday 26th January 2023.

For further information or support with your application, please contact law-pgr-support@sheffield.ac.uk.

There are a number of 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 2023. The current round of the competition will provide the following awards: 

        1. WRDTP Pathway Awards, incorporating 2 x Interdisciplinary Research Awards and 2 x WRDTP/Stuart Hall Foundation Awards for Black British students

        2. WRDTP Advanced Quantitative Methods Awards

        In order 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 2023-24 by the 25th of January 2023. For this,  PhD applications should be received by the School of Law no later than 15th December 17:00 in order to be processed in a timely manner. Students without suitable masters-level research methods training must also apply for the MA Social Research (1+3 award). Interested applicants must contact the School PGR Director, Dr Maria Tzanou (m.tzanou@sheffield.ac.uk) or PGR Deputy Director for Admissions, Dr Surabhi Shukla (s.shukla@sheffield.ac.uk) in advance of their application.
    • The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities  
      • These scholarship awards include doctrinal legal projects and are awarded to UK and international students. WRoCAH is committed to increasing the diversity of our student cohort. For this reason, they are seeking to allocate a minimum of two studentships for Black British applicants in the 2023 recruitment cycle, as Black British students are currently significantly underrepresented among WRoCAH students.You will only be considered under this process if you request consideration. 

        To be considered for this award, please submit your PhD application to the School of Law by the 15th of December 2022. Most applicants will be new starters but the WRCoAH also considers applicants who are already in the first year of their PhD.

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

  1. In order to be considered for a scholarship you must firstly apply for a place to study, via the Postgraduate Online Application System.  
  2. 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.

Further information

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