Postgraduate funding

In 2025, as we celebrate 125 years of University status by Royal Charter, we are proud to mark this milestone by investing in the future of global education. 

We're offering £4,000 scholarships for international students studying with us in September 2025, and awards of up to £5,000 for students domiciled in India.

Find out more and apply

Our Alumni Scholarship offers our returning alumni a £2,000 tuition fee waiver for their Masters studies in the 2025/26 academic year.

As a Birmingham graduate, we want to support you in taking the next steps in your journey as you continue to study, and develop your career.

• The deadline for round one is 23:59 (UK time) on 30 April 2025.
• The deadline for round two is 23:59 (UK time) on 31 July 2025.

Apply now

Our Birmingham Masters Scholarship offers £3,000 via a tuition fee discount, to support the brightest and best applicants undertaking Masters study at Birmingham during the 2025/26 academic year.

Round 1 applications close 23:59 (UK time) 30 April 2025.
Round 2 applications close 23:59 (UK time) 31 July 2025.
Apply now.

The University of Birmingham is proud to offer 50 scholarships worth £4,000 each to make postgraduate study accessible for students from widening participation backgrounds.

Round 1 applications close 23:59 (UK time) on 31 March 2025.
Round 2 applications close 23:59 (UK time) on 31 July 2025.
Apply now. 

This award is open to UK, EU and Overseas applicants studying campus-based research programmes in the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology. 

Applications for all Doctoral Scholarships for the College of Arts and Law should be submitted through the Arts and Humanities Research Council funding website. Students can find more information about Arts and Humanities Research Council funding in the AHRC funding section below.

Application closing date: 12pm (noon) 13 January 2025.

Apply now - Carr-Smith Scholarship.

The College of Arts and Law offers a number of Music scholarships of varying values to students taking our Doctoral programmes:

• Music PhD (specialising in Composition, Musicology or Performance)

Applications for all Doctoral Scholarships for the College of Arts and Law should be submitted through the Arts and Humanities Research Council funding website. Students can find more information about Arts and Humanities Research Council funding in the AHRC funding section below. 

The deadline to apply is 12pm (noon) 13 January 2025.

Music Doctoral Scholarships - apply now.

We are seeking applications from outstanding candidates for a postgraduate scholarship for research in Hispanic Studies. The Sir Henry Thomas Scholarship provides Home fees and a stipend of £12,100 for three years, subject to satisfactory progress. 

International students can apply and if successful the Home fee will be a contribution to the Overseas Fee.

 Applications for all Doctoral Scholarships for the College of Arts and Law should be submitted through the Arts and Humanities Research Council funding website. Students can find more information about Arts and Humanities Research Council funding in the AHRC funding section below.

Application closing date: 12pm (noon) 13 January 2025. Apply now - Henry Thomas Scholarship.

This award is open to UK, EU and Overseas applicants studying campus-based research programmes in any of the following Schools within the College of Arts and Law:

• English, Drama and Creative Studies
• History and Cultures
• Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music
• Philosophy, Theology and Religion

However, preference is given to applicants studying English Literature, French, Music or Shakespeare Studies.

Applications for all Doctoral Scholarships for the College of Arts and Law should be submitted through the Arts and Humanities Research Council funding website. Students can find more information about Arts and Humanities Research Council funding in the AHRC funding section below. 

Application closing date: 12pm (noon) 13 January 2025. Apply now - Stanley Ray Scholarship. 

Funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), through the Midlands Graduate School DTP offers awards for campus-based doctoral research in a range of disciplines including Applied Linguistics, Area Studies (African Studies), Economic and Social History, and Socio-Legal Studies.

Applications close 12:00 GMT Tuesday 21 January 2025. Apply now - Midlands Graduate School ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership. 

These government-backed student loans provide up to £11,836 for taught and research Masters courses and up to £27,892 for postgraduate doctoral courses in all subject areas, including programmes delivered on campus or by distance learning. Criteria, eligibility, repayment and application information can be found on the UK government website. 

The University of Birmingham is approved by the US Department of Education to offer the William D Ford Federal Direct Loan Programme, enabling eligible American students to access financial support.Find out about the loans available, whether you are eligible and how to apply.

Other funding opportunities may be available to prospective postgraduate students throughout the year. For details of all funding opportunities that may be available to you, please visit the University's Postgraduate Funding Database. 

Applications open Monday 14 October 2024.

• Apply now

General information

M4C is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, University of Warwick, Coventry University, University of Leicester, De Montfort University, Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham.

For 2025 entry Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership is offering up to 87 fully funded PhD studentships for eligible students in arts and humanities through an Open Competition and 23 studentships through Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDA). The CDA projects provide diverse and unique project opportunities with national, regional and local partner organisations.

For 2025, the Stuart Hall Foundation (SHF) Scholarship will support up to two studentships a year for Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic candidates to undertake doctoral research in arts and humanities.

• Find out more about SHF

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding is open to UK and International research students. M4C studentships can be undertaken full-time and part-time. Studentships for open doctoral awards are for 3.5 years and for the CDAs are for 4 years full-time study (a maximum of 7 years and 8 years respectively for part-time study).

There are two routes to PhD study:

• Open Doctoral Awards, where you agree a research proposal in any disciplinary or interdisciplinary area of the arts and humanities with your supervisory team. (87 awards available)
• Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs), which are co-designed between an M4C institution and an external partner organisation. (23 awards available)

Open doctoral awards

We invite applications from UK and International students with research interests in the following AHRC subject areas:

• Archaeology
• Classics and Ancient History
• Drama and Theatre Arts
• English Language and Literature
• Geography
• Heritage Studies
• History (including African Studies)
• Interdisciplinary (including Sexuality and Gender Studies)
• Law
• Linguistics
• Media, Film Studies and Creative Writing
• Modern Languages
• Music
• Philosophy
• Theology and Religion
• Visual Arts and History of Art

For full details of the research areas available, please see our AHRC research areas.

Deadlines and further information

The deadline for AHRC funding applications is 12:00 GMT on 13 January 2025.

For full eligibility, funding, research supervision areas and CDA project details, and for dates and booking information for the November 2024 application writing workshops, visit the M4C website or contact enquiries@midlands4cities.ac.uk.

• Apply now - AHRC funding

• College of Arts and Law Postgraduate Scholarships
• The Amphlett Scholarship
• Digital Media and Creative Industries Masters Scholarships
• Edna Pearson Scholarship
• GREAT Scholarship 2024 - India and Ghana
• GREAT Scholarship 2024 - Nigeria (LLM only)
• Harding International Scholarship (Law)
• The Islam Scholarship
• John Pagett Bursary
• Music Masters Scholarships
• The William Paton Award
• Sir Henry Thomas Scholarship
• Wolfson Scholarships
• Woltmann Scholarship

All postgraduate students within the College of Arts and Law are eligible to apply for funding to help with conference expenses or research expenses as part of the Postgraduate Research Support Fund.

The funding can cover anything from travel and accommodation to photocopying and books, and has proved to be a real help to our past and current doctoral researchers.

How to apply

To apply, current students are asked to complete the application form [DOCX, 19KB].

Please note that students wishing to travel for research purposes are required to complete and submit a risk assessment [DOCX, 26KB] along with the application. Read our step-by-step guide [DOCX, 22KB]. Please note that although some sections of the paperwork refer only to ‘staff’, the process applies to all CAL researchers, including PGRs. Many research trips will be low risk and so can be signed off by you and your supervisor. If you are in any doubt about how to complete the form, please contact calresearchkt@contacts.bham.ac.uk for advice.

Further information can be found in the guidance notes [DOCX, 31KB].

There will be two rounds of funding during the year 2024-25:

• Monday 21 October – 12 noon (GMT) on Monday 11 November 2024
• Monday 27 January – 12 noon (GMT) on Monday 24 February 2025

Further assistance

If you have any queries, please email calpg-research@contacts.bham.ac.uk

All College of Arts and Law postgraduate researchers (PGRs) are eligible to apply for funding to help with community building activities as part of the PGR Community Development Fund.

The aim of this fund is to encourage PGRs to collaborate with their peers to organise activities that support professional and career development. This might include holding exhibitions, publishing journals, organising conferences, or providing catering for events.

How to apply

To apply, current students are asked to complete the application form [DOCX, 22KB].

Further information can be found in the guidance notes [DOCX, 23KB].

There will be three rounds of funding during the year 2024-25:

• Monday 23 September – 12 noon Friday 11 October 2024
• Monday 11 November – 12 noon Friday 6 December 2024
• Monday 27 January – 12 noon Friday 28 February 2025

Further assistance

If you have any queries, please email calpg-research@contacts.bham.ac.uk