Scholarships at Cardiff University

Our Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarships for Research Excellence offer seven eligible applicants the opportunity to join our Doctoral Academy community for 3 years on a full-time basis.

Please note, applications for the 2020 Vice-Chancellor's International Scholarship for Research Excellence have not yet opened.

Awards will be made to the highest quality candidates with the potential to become outstanding researchers. This will be demonstrated through your academic achievements, research preparedness and a clear understanding of the significance of your research area.

The Scholarship includes tuition fees, an annual stipend (in line with UKRI rates, updated annually and currently at £15,009 for 2019/20) for three years, and your academic School will also contribute towards research costs. The first quarterly stipend payment will be made available shortly after your course commences.

The awards are available to support applicants to our full-time PhD programmes (excluding clinical courses). They cannot be awarded to students undertaking research on a part-time or distance-learning basis and are not available for any other types of research degree. Continued eligibility for the Scholarship is dependent on satisfactory academic progress.

How to apply

The 2020 scheme is not currently open for applications. The following details outline the application process and eligibility requirements. When the scheme opens for application, we will publish the timeline here.

Once finalised, we will publish a list of eligible research areas and supervisors you can apply to. Applications received with research projects outside of the published areas will not be considered.

There is no separate scholarship application form for the scheme. Once the call is open you should apply for your chosen PhD programme via the University's online application form. It is advisable that you make contact with your potential School and supervisory team beforehand.

To be considered for the scholarship, you must fulfil eligibility, ensure you complete the University's application form and:

attach an academic CV (guidance on creating an effective CV)
ensure your personal statement gives a strong statement of your research interest, preparation and understanding of the research context and significance (guidance on writing a statement of academic research interest)
in the research section, when asked “Are you self-funding your research?”, select “No, I am not self-funding my research”
when asked “Please provide the name of the funding you are applying for”, insert “V-C’s International Scholarship for Research Excellence”.
If you have already submitted an application to the University, please contact your School’s postgraduate administrator/ admissions team to let them know you wish to be considered for the Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarship for Research Excellence.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the scholarship you must be a national of (or permanently domiciled in) a country in the ‘Least Developed’ or ‘Other Low Income’ categories on the 2020 OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list.

You must also:

• meet the entrance criteria for your chosen PhD programme
• be liable to pay overseas tuition fees
• not have been awarded another scholarship covering both tuition fees and stipend.

If you have either a tuition-fee only or stipend-only award, you are eligible to apply but you will not receive double-funding.

Selection process

After the deadline, each of our academic schools will nominate up to two applicants to a University panel. The School and University panel will review nominees based on:

1. their academic qualifications and achievements
2. their level of preparedness for the research programme, which may include their technical and/or research skills, their research and/or professional experience
3. their understanding of the research context for, and the significance of, their proposed or advertised project.

The panel will assess the School nomination form, the academic CV and personal statement. For eligibility purposes, nominees will be made an ‘offer of study’ (conditional or unconditional) at Cardiff University - this does not mean an ‘offer of funding’ has been made.

Candidates demonstrating the highest research potential will be selected for a Scholarship.