Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Studentships

This prestigious scholarship, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), is for students doing a PhD in any field of the arts and humanities.

Key facts

Fee status

All fee statuses

Your country/region

All nationalities

Level

Postgraduate (research)

Number of awards

Value of awards

See details

Deadline

Deadline for the current round of applications has passed. We're waiting on funding confirmation for the next round.

The University of Stirling is a member of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities (SGSAH). It is also a member of Higher Education Institution of the AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership Scotland (AHRC DTP Scotland).

The SGSAH has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to support postgraduate studentships, training and support for postgraduate Research Students in the Arts and Humanities.

The DTP studentship offers a high-value scholarship package which supports students to pursue innovative research in their chosen research areas. The design of the DTP will benefit successful students from training and development opportunities, such as events, internships and artist residencies, short term language courses and summer school.

The Faculty will run a training event for applicants, and prospective supervisors will work closely with successful applicants on their applications. A Faculty panel will also provide detailed feedback on applications.

The University of Stirling is now taking applications for AHRC-funded PhD studentships in the following subject areas:

  • Archaeology
  • Creative Writing
  • Cultural Studies
  • English Language and Literature
  • Film History, Theory and Criticism
  • Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Heritage
  • History
  • Journalism
  • Law and Legal Studies
  • Linguistics
  • Media and Communication Studies,
  • Modern Languages (Chinese, French and Francophone Studies, Spanish and Latin American Studies, Translation Studies)
  • Museum Studies (incl. Heritage and conservation)
  • Philosophy
  • Politics
  • Popular Culture
  • Public Relations
  • Publishing
  • Religion
  • Scottish Literature
  • Television History, Theory and Criticism
  • Theology
  • Visual Arts

Full guidance is available on the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities website.

Eligibility and availability

The AHRC via SGSAH has been offering awards to PhD researchers from around the world (the UK, the EU and International). All funded PhD students, whether UK, EU or International will be eligible for a full award – both a stipend to support living costs, and fees at the HEIs’ UK rate. The University aims to provide fee waivers to suitable successful international candidates.

  • Applicants must hold an unconditional or conditional offer for a PhD degree programme.
  • Applicants must not be holding another full scholarship for the 2025-26 academic session, though partial scholarship funding from elsewhere (e.g. fees only or stipend only) may still be considered.
  • Applicants may be either new or continuing students.
  • Applicants already holding doctoral qualifications should not apply.

How to apply

You can only apply for the studentship through the University of Stirling. You will need to identify a potential supervisor and discuss your proposal and application with them in the first instance. Alternatively, the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies can help you identify a supervisor specialising in the area of your proposed research project. Enquiries can be sent to fah-pgr@stir.ac.uk

The completed forms must be:

  1. submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Graduate Studies Office (fah-pgr@stir.ac.uk) by 17:00 pm on 16 December 2024;
  2. copied in to Professor Christine Ferguson on christine.ferguson@stir.ac.uk to enable us to carry out an internal review process for nomination.

On nomination by the University of Stirling, you can then apply to the PhD research programme using our online application portal.

You should also send your note of interest to the Graduate Studies Office (fah-pgr@stir.ac.uk) in order to be exempted from the process of finding a supervisor.