Forshaw PhD Studentship in Architecture

Award Summary

• A tax-free stipend paid monthly £21,805 per year for up to 3 years (or part time equivalent), subject to you making satisfactory progression with your PhD research. 
• Available to those who legally identify as female, who qualify for home tuition fees, with the home fee rate paid in full (or part time equivalent). 

Overview

We are now inviting applicants for the sixth award of this PhD scholarship in architecture, part of a generous endowment from David and Mary Forshaw to support women in architectural education and research. Based in the Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC), the PhD may be pursued either by creative practice or by written thesis, with any appropriate supervisory team from across ARC’s multidisciplinary membership.

In accordance with the terms of the Forshaw endowment, the studentship is open to those who legally identify as female only.

The studentship is open to applicants who qualify for home tuition fees only.

This studentship supports a candidate to undertake a doctoral research project in any area of architectural research supported by ARC. This may include, but is not restricted to, architectural design, architectural history and theories, environmental design, new materials and materialism, heritage, pedagogy and children’s spaces, participation and co-design, representation, healthcare architecture, age and ageing, media and curation, and creative practice inquiry. We expect architecture to be the focus of the candidate’s research, and anticipate a background in architecture. 

It is expected that the successful applicant will play a role in nurturing the PGR community in our school.

Students are expected to be resident in, or near, Newcastle for the duration of the award. 

Number of awards: 2

Start date: September 2026 start

Sponsor: School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Supervisors

Supervisors should be drawn from ARC membership and should be named as part of the application. It is recommended that you approach a prospective supervisor or supervisors prior to submission, and that key related correspondence is appended to your application.

Eligibility criteria

The studentship is only open to applicants who legally identify as female and qualify for home tuition fees status.

Applicants must have:

• A 1st class or 2:1 honours degree in Architecture.

OR, a demonstrable interest in architecture and some understanding of architectural research methods and a 1st class or 2:1 honours degree in a cognate subject.

• Excellent organisational and communication skills
• IELTS 6.5 overall (with 6.0 in all sub-skills) if their first language is not English.

We prefer candidates to have an additional qualification at Masters level.  

How to apply

You must send the covering letter, CV, research proposal, and any correspondence with prospective supervisors, by email to APLPGR@ncl.ac.uk with code APL040 as the email subject.  In the body of the email, you must include the line ‘I confirm I legally identify as female and qualify for home fees status’.

You should also apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal. To do this please ‘complete an online application’.

You will need to:

• Insert the programme code 8160F in the programme of study section
• Select ‘PhD School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape’ as the programme of study
• Insert the studentship code APL040 in the studentship/partnership reference field
• Attach a covering letter and CV. The covering letter must quote reference code APL040 and outline your ability to undertake a suitable project.
• Attach a 1,000 word research proposal. This should include a proposed research strategy that includes a rationale for the study and possible methodological directions.
• Where appropriate, attach any correspondence with a prospective ARC supervisor or supervisors.

Contact details

Dr Christos Kakalis and/or Professor Adam Sharr