CENTRE-UB PhD Studentships

To be eligible for a PhD studentship, you are required to have obtained or are expected to obtain at least a 2.1 degree classification from a UK university (or equivalent for a non-UK university) in an area related to the specific PhD project. Please check the specific requirements for your chosen project. If you have questions about your eligibility, please contact the supervisor of the PhD project.   

Both home and international applicants are invited to apply. Due to funding stipulations set by UKRI, we are able to recruit at least 70% of home applicants and up to 30% of international applicants to the cohort each year. To be classed as a home applicant, candidates must meet the following criteria: a) be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or b) have settled status, or c) have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or d) have indefinite leave to remain or enter. If you do not meet these criteria above, you would be classed as an International applicant.

All studentships are co-designed and co-supervised by researchers at the University of Birmingham together with partner organisations from a range of sectors. This close link with partner organisations provides a unique learning opportunity for the PhD students to apply their learning across different contexts, sectors and environments beyond that of traditional academia. 

View all current projects. 

 To apply for a Centre-UB PhD studentship you should complete the Centre-UB application form, which you can download here. This form, together with your CV, your EDI survey number, your academic transcript, and two references should be submitted using the online portal for your chosen PhD project, which is included in each project description. Further guidance is provided in the ‘Steps for applying to a studentship’ section of our website. 

If you have not yet completed your undergraduate degree, please provide the transcript of the previous years and an academic reference which confirms your expected degree classification. At least one of the references should be an academic reference.

Experience shows that students who are engaged in early discussions about the project with the supervisors are more likely to be successful in their application. We therefore encourage you to contact your potential supervisors and ask any questions you may have about the project.  

As part of our reporting to our funder, the ESRC, Centre-UB is required to provide diversity statistics for the overall funding applicant pool. All applicants are therefore requested to answer a brief online survey. Please note that all questions on the survey can be answered with ‘prefer not to say’. At the end of the survey, you will be provided with a number which you are requested to include in your studentship application. Applications without this survey number will be rejected. Please note that this information you entered in the survey will not be available to the panel evaluating the studentship applications and will never be available to the supervisors of your project.  You can find the online survey here.  

Steps for applying for a studentship: 

1. Download the Centre-UB application form, which includes a link to the EDI survey;

2. Select the PhD project you would like to apply to;

3. Complete the online application form for your chosen project, you can find the link on the project description page.  This will take you to our application portal. As part of the online application, you are asked to upload the following documents:

   1. Personal details
   2. Complete the EDI survey and report the survey number on your application
   3. Centre-UB application form
   4. Your CV
   5. Your academic transcript (more than one file can be added)
   6. Two references (at least one academic reference)

To support the processing of the applications, we ask you before uploading the files to save them as ‘your surname_document type’.  If your name is John Smith, you should save the application form as  Smith_application, your CV as Smith_CV, your transcripts as Smith_transcript, and your references as Smith_references. If you have more than 1 file for the transcripts and the references, please add a number at the end. For example, Smith_reference1 

The deadline for applications is 5 March 2025 at 5pm, interviews are expected to take place in April 2025. 

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact us on centre-ubehaviour@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Each 4-year studentship will include a UKRI-rate stipend (for 24/25 this was £19.237– paid in monthly instalments) and tuition fees. The stipend rate for 2025/26 will be announced here soon. PhD students will also have access to ample training opportunities. 

PhD students will be provided with training tailored to their needs and expertise. Training is split into the following types:

• specialist training, that includes in-depth subject/disciplinary methodological and theoretical training, and training and support in generating, accessing, and analysing data that supports data driven research applicable to human behaviour;

• conceptual training, to ensure that PhD students understand the breadth of social science methods, and to support them to make: (i) informed choices about their research design; and (ii) engage critically with research outside of their immediate discipline;

• general training, to equip PhD students with research skills required for postgraduate study and for their future career, within academia and/or beyond, e.g. project/data management, ethics, referencing, impact;

• ‘research in practice’ training, to develop PhD students’ transferable skills and to provide practical opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge and methodological skills in different contexts and during placements;

• cohort-building opportunities, to empower PhD students to develop peer support networks and engage in on-going learning, during and beyond the studentship.