Eligibility Criteria

Applicants do not apply directly to the WRDTP for an award, but are instead nominated by their university.  You should therefore allow sufficient time to liaise with potential supervisors. You should also ensure that you observe any processes or deadlines that the individual department, school or university has in place for assessing applications.  All universities are required to have fair and equitable processes for determining which applicants should be nominated to the WRDTP for consideration.

As part of the application process, you will be required to complete a WRDTP Studentship Application Form.  Please note that this is a separate process, and is in addition to any form that you may have completed when applying for a place to study a PhD at your chosen university. More details can be found here.

Applicants must meet the entry requirements of their nominating school or department.  The ESRC also stipulates that: ‘for all studentships, students must have qualifications of the standard of a good honours degree at first- or upper second-class level, from a UK academic higher education institution, or, through a combination of qualifications and/or experience, be able to demonstrate equivalence. In the majority of cases, students will have undertaken an undergraduate course at a recognised UK higher education institution or equivalent international qualification. Prior qualifications may be enhanced to meet these requirements by the acquisition of at least one satisfactorily completed academic year of full-time study or its part-time equivalent (i.e., two years) towards a UK higher degree, if applying for an award without an undergraduate degree’.  Please note that applicants must satisfy their university’s entry requirements AND the ESRC’s minimum threshold.

The ESRC limits the proportion of awards available to international applicants to 30%, which means that the WRDTP cannot offer any more than 30% of its awards to international candidates each year. To manage this, each of our universities has a limit on the number of international applications that it puts forward to the WRDTP.  If you are an international candidate, you should speak to your school or department to find out about the selection processes that may be in place. 

Remote, online or distance-learning PhD programmes are not eligible for ESRC funding. For full details, please consult the WRDTP “Reasonable Distance” from Institution Policy. 

All study undertaken as part of a WRDTP studentship must be carried out within the UK, except as part of overseas fieldwork which is an integral part of the study, conferences, or training.  Students may not, for example, write up their thesis whilst resident outside the UK during the period of their ESRC award. In such a case tuition fee and maintenance grant payments will cease. All students must reside within a reasonable travel time of the university at which they are registered and we would expect there to be direct contact between the student and supervisor. This applies to full-time and part-time students. Please refer to the Key conditions section of the ESRC Postgraduate Funding Guide for details.

Applicants who have already commenced a PhD are not eligible to apply for a WRDTP studentship, regardless of whether they are based in the UK or internationally, due to the programme’s specific requirements. If you hold a PhD offer with a start date prior to 1 October 2027, we recommend contacting your university to discuss deferral options. Deferring your start may enable you to apply for a WRDTP studentship.