PhD Studentship: Law and Criminology: Fully Funded PhD Scholarship in the ESRC Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) - Law and Criminology

Criminology sits within the School of Social Sciences, adding complementary interdisciplinarity in legal studies, the Wales Observatory on Human Rights of Children and Young People, the Centre for Social Change, and the collaborative Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology (CCJC). The CCJC undertakes interdisciplinary empirical research on areas including youth justice policy, drug policies and criminality, policing, sports criminology, sex work, crimes of the powerful, the political economy of crime in the Global South, terrorism and cybercrime. Swansea University also hosts the Administrative Data Research Centre (Wales), which facilitates access to linked, de-identified administrative data in a secure environment. 

The School of Law is located within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences providing a unique setting within which to conduct empirical or socio-legal research connecting with law the concerns and methods of social science. Swansea’s School of Law has an active and vibrant research culture including: CCJC; Cyber Threats Research Centre (CYTREC); Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL); Observatory on Human Rights and Social Justice; and the Centre for Governance and Human Rights. Previously the School has supported studentships across a wide range of sub-disciplines, including: public and constitutional law; legal education; human rights; disability law; asylum law; tort law; environmental law; European Union law and governance; family law; perceptions of risk in third sector sporting clubs; banking and environmental risk; comparative Welsh/English housing law/policy; and constitutional perspectives on Welsh Devolution. 

Students will predominately be based at Swansea University, although will be invited to attend WGSSS events at other locations in Wales. Throughout the PhD, all WGSSS students come together for joint workshops, residential courses, and annual conferences. Seminars include those organised by the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice Conference (held at Gregynog, Powys) each year, who also hold residential postgraduate training days. In these, and other events, students work and present alongside established researchers. 

Funding Details

The studentship funded by the ESRC covers tuition fees and an annual tax-free living stipend in line with UKRI minimum rates (currently £21,805 for 2026/27).

Closing Date: 06/12/2026

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