Funding and Awards

English at Queen Mary aims to provide financial support to outstanding applicants.

How to apply for funding

There are two main funding schemes, QMUL’s own Humanities and Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Studentships, and the AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards. Both schemes are open to UK and international (including EU) applicants. They have different application routes, explained below.

QMUL Postgraduate Research Studentships

Each year Queen Mary offers a number of Postgraduate Research Studentships to highly qualified PhD applicants. They include a tuition fee waiver and a full annual stipend. Studentships are tenable for up to three years. Applicants from the United Kingdom, European Union, and overseas are eligible to apply. We welcome applications in any area of the Department’s research expertise as well as interdisciplinary projects with other departments.

All candidates who are offered a place on our PhD programme will be automatically considered for a Queen Mary Postgraduate Research Studentship if they indicate on their application that they wish to be considered. Please note that there is no separate application form for the studentship.

You must submit your PhD application via the online portal and include a Research Proposal, Statement of Purpose, CV, degree certificates, transcripts, two references, and IELTS scores (if applicable).

Candidates should hold a first-class or an excellent upper-second class Honours degree or equivalent, and would normally be expected to hold a Masters degree.

Please note that these awards are also open to existing PhD students in their first year of a full-time study or their first two years of part-time study.

The deadline and further details for September 2026 entry will be announced here and on this page as soon as possible.

AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards in the Arts and Humanities

The deadline for application is 1 December 2025 (5pm GMT).

Information is provided here.

If you wish to apply, you are recommended to register for an information session via the page linked above.

BAME Studentships for UK candidates

We encourage applicants from BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds who have been previously under-represented in this process. Further details to follow.

Externally Funded Awards

We welcome applications from prospective Commonwealth Scholars and candidates seeking other externally-funded awards.

Further information

For further information please contact the Co-Director of Graduate Studies, Dr James Vigus: j.vigus@qmul.ac.uk

See also the College page offering information on research studentships.