PhD Studentship - Doctoral Studies 2023

PhD Studentship – Doctoral Studies 2023

UCA is the UK’s highest-ranked creative university (Guardian/Complete University Guides 2021), offering courses in Architecture, Art, Crafts, Design, Fashion, Film, Performing Arts and Creative Business across Surrey, Kent, and overseas. 

We support our students to forge their own path and use their creativity to make a difference. Right now, they’re making the creative industries more inclusive and sustainable, changing perspectives, and winning awards – from Golden Globes to Pulitzers.

Research at UCA

With a vibrant and progressive research community and a wealth of specialist resources for creative research and practice, UCA offers you the ideal environment, based in UCA Doctoral College in Canterbury, to explore your chosen field and develop unique and impressive doctoral work.

We are a top-ten research community for Art & Design, and the second largest provider of creative education in Europe. In REF 2021 99% of our research was internationally recognized for quality, with 78% was judged to be world-leading or internationally significant. In our research centres (including the Crafts Study Centre, the International Textiles Research Centre, and the Centre for Sustainable Design), research produced impacts were rated as 87.5% world-leading or internationally significant.

Our PhD Studentship

We are currently seeking exceptional applicants to our MPhil/ PhD programme and have ONE open Vice Chancellor’s PhD Studentship on offer for Home, EU or International candidates looking to pursue practice-based or thesis-only research projects. The package includes a fee waiver for three years’ full-time study, and a stipend of £17,688 each year for three years (or equivalent for part-time study for Home students). The studentship recognises excellence in research and will be highly competitive.  There is no separate application for the Studentship. Studentship decisions are based on the strength of the research proposal, performance at interview and the University’s research priorities. Applicants whose application passes an initial review will be invited to interview. Applicants who are successful at interview and offered a place can then be put forward for consideration for the Vice Chancellor’s Studentship awards. All applicants wishing to be considered for a Vice-Chancellor’s Studentship or other funding must apply by 17 April 2023. Decisions on studentship awards will be announced by 30 July 2023.

Our subjects

To apply, you will need to submit a research proposal that is focused in one of our specialist areas (or spans several of them). For 2023/24 entry we will consider applications in any of our specialist areas. These are: crafts, fine art, photography, visual communication and design, fashion and textiles, music, film, media and performing arts, video games, animation, architecture, critical theory, business for the creative industries and sustainability.

How to apply

To see our entry requirements, register your interest or apply, please visit www.uca.ac.uk/research/research-degrees

Please note: All our PhD students begin their studies in September, so we recommend that you submit your applications by 17 April 2023 to start in September 2023. We will consider applications after this date, but early applications may be more likely to be successful, as supervisors’ capacity is limited. 

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