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PhD funding is exclusively the responsibility of the student. We strongly recommend that full funding for the three years of a PhD is secured before starting.
Funding for the three years of your PhD should cover tuition, London living expenses, attending relevant conferences/meeting/workshops appropriate to your field and discipline, and any fieldwork, equipment, and software that your research may require throughout your studies.
Self-funding a PhD is possible, but please bear in mind that self-funding adds significant stress. UCL RDR offers numerous paid opportunities to our PhD students for career-supporting tasks such as teaching, running social media, and supporting our events, but this work is not sufficient to cover the full costs of pursuing a PhD. RDR sometimes advertises PhD scholarships and funded project-related PhD opportunities. We advertise them on our website and social media channels.
UCL has a website dedicated to possible funding sources although it does not and cannot cover all opportunities. UCL Student Support and Wellbeing as well as Students' Union UCL might at times be able to provide advice on emergency funding for sudden, unforeseen circumstances.
UCL Scholarships – 2025 Entry
UCL Research Excellence Scholarships (RES)
UCL’s prestigious Research Excellence Scholarship (UCL-RES) aims to attract outstanding scholars to undertake doctoral research at UCL.
Applications should be made by 4pm on 10th January 2025 to rdr-pgr@ucl.ac.uk with the subject line "UCL RES Application 2025". Full instructions and details of application materials to submit can be found here.
UCL's Research Excellence Scholarship for Cross-disciplinary Training (RXD)
UCL's Research Excellence Scholarship for Cross-disciplinary Training (RXD) is our UCL new award for current research students to spend a year in another department acquiring new research skills.
UCL is offering up to 4 scholarships annually are available to full-time UCL MPhil/PhD and EngD students from any country wishing to spend an additional year of their MPhil/PhD or EngD in another UCL department acquiring research skills and knowledge from a different discipline, which can be applied in their normal area of research. Training should be of one year's duration to permit sustained exposure to the new discipline.
The scholarships can be taken at any point during the fee-paying period of their MPhil/PhD or EngD programme.
Applications should be made by 4pm on 10th January 2025 to rdr-pgr@ucl.ac.uk with the subject line "UCL RXD Application 2025". Full instructions and details of application materials to submit can be found here.
UCL Research Opportunity Scholarship (ROS)
UCL's Research Opportunity Scholarship (UCL-ROS) supports Black, Asian and ethnic minority postgraduate research degree students at the start of their academic career.
Applications should be made by 4pm on 10th January 2025 to rdr-pgr@ucl.ac.uk with the subject line "UCL ROS Application 2025". Full instructions and details of application materials to submit can be found here.
The Dean's Prize
The Dean's Prize supports overseas-fee-paying students who have won a competitive scholarship to cover their stipend, by waiving the international fees. This is often used in conjunction with the China Scholarship Council - UCL Joint Research Scholarship (CSC), for which the Dean's Prize should be secured before applying for the CSC scholarship.