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ESRC/SENSS Doctoral Studentships

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Goldsmiths is part of the South-east Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), funded by the ESRC to train the next generation of social scientists.

Fully-funded ESRC studentships are available to research students via this DTP. There are up to 40 studentships are available across the 10 SeNSS institutions for entry in October 2023.

Routes for research and training

There are a variety of flexible routes for research and training, depending on your background and the research you’re planning to undertake. SeNSS positively encourages applicants from talented students whose highest qualification is an undergraduate degree, who may be funded to undertake a Masters (see 1+3 route below)

  • 1+3 route
    If you don’t already have a Masters degree with an extensive methods component, you should consider applying for a 1+3 route. This offers one year of funding to undertake an approved research Masters, followed by three years of funding to undertake your PhD.
  • +3 route
    If you already have a Masters degree with an extensive research component (for example, a research Masters offered by an ESRC Doctoral Training Centre), you will need to apply for this route, which offers three years of funding to do your PhD.

  • +4 route

    Some of our departments don’t offer a suitable research Masters, but instead offer a +4 route: four years funding to do your PhD, with a requirement to take core research training courses from the Doctoral Training Partnership in your first year. You will cover equivalent material to students on the 1+3 route, but you will not receive a separate Masters degree.

Please note, candidates who, on application for funding, have already completed approximately half of the required research methods training may be offered 3.5 years of funding, with the first six months used to enhance and complete the required level of training.

Value

International students are eligible for all UKRI-funded postgraduate studentships, with the award of a stipend to support living costs (£19,668 for 2022/23) and tuition fees at the international rate (with funding provided by Goldsmiths and the UKRI).

Number available

There are up to 40 studentships are available across the 10 SeNSS institutions for entry in October 2023.

Year of entry

2023. Please note that if you have already started doctoral study, you may still be eligible for SeNSS studentship funding providing that, at the start of the SeNSS award, you will have at least 50% of your fundable period of study (which excludes writing-up/completion years) remaining. A student who has started their doctoral studies on a part-time basis and is awarded funding is permitted to convert to full-time status from the start of their funding award.

Eligibility criteria

Goldsmiths students are eligible to apply for funding in the following SeNSS disciplinary pathways:

You can check your eligibility for the funding on the SeNSS website. 

Application deadlines

You must have applied to Goldsmiths for a PhD place (or Masters and PhD if appropriate) by 2 Dec 2022 (5pm GMT). You should indicate that you are interested in being considered for SeNSS ESRC funding and you are strongly encouraged to contact the relevant SeNSS pathway lead for your research area prior to making an application; these are listed below. 

Education

Psychology

Social Anthropology

Sociology

You will also need to have submitted a separate funding application on the SeNSS System (HEIApply) by Friday, 20 January 2023 (12:00 noon).

How to apply

Please complete the following steps:

  • Check your eligibility for the funding
  • Contact your SeNSS pathway lead (see contacts above) and potential supervisors for your research
  • Apply for a PhD place at Goldsmiths (i.e. apply for admission) by 2 December 2022 (17:00 GMT), indicating clearly that you want to be considered for ESRC funding. If you're applying for one of the 1+3 awards you'll also need to apply for a Masters place.
  • Wherever possible please submit all supporting documents with your online admissions application. In very unusual cases where this is not possible, please send them directly to the postgraduate administrator in the Goldsmiths academic department you are applying to, making it very clear that you are looking to be considered for it is for an ESRC-funded studentship
  • Submit, by the 20 January 2023 (12:00 noon), a separate application for SeNSS funding via HEIApply platform; a link to this system will be made available via the SeNSS website.

Selection process

The academic department to which you’ve applied will consider your application and may invite you for an interview. If successful you will be offered a place on the relevant PhD research programme.

The department has a limited allocation of nominations that they can make to the relevant pathway for funding. If you are amongst the strongest candidates applying within the pathway at Goldsmiths, then you may be nominated to go forward to the next stage of the competition.

If nominated, your application will be considered at the SeNSS DTP studentship selection panels, who will then make their funding offers to the best of the nominated candidates.

Further information

If you would like further information about the South-east Network for Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership or would like to informally discuss the studentship application process, please contact graduateschool (@gold.ac.uk).

For further information please visit the SeNSS and ESRC web pages.

Find out more about Goldsmiths scholarships and bursaries regulations.

Applicant workshops

Events run by Goldsmiths

Goldsmiths will be hosting an online workshop via MSTeams on Thursday 3 November (2-4pm). This event will set out further details about the process of applying to both SeNSS/ESRC studentships and CHASE/AHRC studentships. You can join the session via the link below.

Goldsmiths Graduate School: Workshop for studentship applicants (3 November 2022)  

In keeping with Goldsmiths commitment to the values of diversity and inclusion and to tackling barriers to application, we especially welcome applicants from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

Events run by SeNSS

Separately, SeNSS will be hosting a number of applicant webinars (‘Ask SeNSS’) to help applicants in understanding the process.

Further information on these can be found at the link below:

Ask SeNSS — SeNSS Doctoral Training Partnership (senss-dtp.ac.uk)