The Graduate School at the University of Westminster is very pleased to announce 10 new full PhD studentships funded by the Quintin Hogg Trust to begin in the academic year 2025/26 for a September or January start.
Applications are welcome to our twelve Schools listed below. For any queries about any aspect of the application process or informal enquiries about where your research might fit within a School, please contact the relevant School PhD Coordinator (details below).
In our selection of successful applications, we will be looking in particular for the following:
- Research proposals that fit with one or more of the key themes of our Research Communities
- Research proposals with strong inter-disciplinary potential
- Applications which meet the university’s commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion
The studentships will consist of a fee waiver (at home fee level) and an annual stipend which will match UKRI stipend levels and will include London weighting. UKRI have not announced their 25/26 stipend level yet, but in 24/25 the UKRI UK fees are £4,786 and the stipend is £21,237 (which includes London weighting). The stipend will be for three years.*
Applications are welcomed from international students. The difference between the home fee waiver and the fee for international students would need to be met by the student. Overseas fees for 25/26 are £17,000.
Applications should be submitted by 5pm on Friday 7 February 2025. Interviews will take place in the week beginning 10 March 2025.
Please make sure you detail within the application form the programme you wish to be considered for – see School information below. You must include the title of the studentship in your application i.e. The Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship. Read more about our entry requirements for research degrees, and on how to apply.
The information and resources highlighted on the Thinking of doing a PhD page will also provide useful reading to support your application.
Applications are welcome across our twelve Schools:
The School welcomes research proposals related to the themes of its two research centres:
These themes include:
- Information systems and digital business
- Information management and modelling
- Business process management
- Digital business design and transformation
- Ontology engineering and knowledge representation
- Construction management and digital construction
- Sustainability in the built environment and climate change
- Project management
We also welcome interdisciplinary proposals spanning the above research areas, with the potential to positively impact the lives of individuals, organisations and society.
For enquires contact: Dr Alireza Nazarian ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Business Information Management
- MPhil/PhD Project Management
- MPhil/PhD Operations Management
- MPhil/PhD Property and Construction
The School of Architecture and Cities invites applications in the subject areas covered by the School's research groups and centres:
- Architectural Humanities Research Group
- Emerging Territories Research Group
- Transport and Mobilities Research Group
- Design Practices Research Group
- Active Travel Academy
- Centre for Air Traffic Management Research
For enquiries contact: Dr Kate Jordan ([email protected])
Available programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Architecture
- MPhil/PhD Architecture by Practice
- MPhil/PhD Transport
- MPhil/PhD Urban Design
The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) in the Westminster School of Arts (WSA) welcomes applicants in any of our areas of expertise (moving image and media aesthetics, expanded photography, art and society, fashion, music).
CREAM is particularly interested in applications exploring research around environmental questions, propositions and answers as they impact and relate to the global majority. CREAM is also interested in projects exploring questions of sustainability, ecology and environment as it relates to art and technology.
We also welcome proposals that re-think past knowledge and reflexively engage with archives as trajectories and counter hegemonic historical discourses.
For enquiries contact: Dr Ozlem Koksal ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Music
- MPhil/PhD Creative Media
- MPhil/PhD Moving Image and Media Aesthetics
- MPhil/PhD Expanded Photography
- MPhil/PhD Visual Arts
- MPhil/PhD Fashion
See the profiles of our Research Groups, including their research interests and suggested PhD research topics. All applications matching these interests will be considered. This year, the School is particularly focused on applicants whose research can result in real-life impact (e.g. through the use of virtual and mixed reality, or other technical and theoretical means) in the areas of health, wellbeing, sustainable cities, urban environment, arts, communication, culture, diversity and inclusion.
For enquiries contact: Dr Alexandra Psarrou ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Computer Science
- MPhil / PhD Electronic Engineering
The School particularly welcomes applications in the areas of Accounting (Accounting Standards; Auditing; Corporate Governance; Financial Reporting and Disclosure, Sustainability Reporting and Taxation) and Finance (Capital Markets; Corporate Finance; Behavioural Finance; Financial Institutions; Financial Econometrics; FinTech; Digital Finance; Market Microstructure and Sustainable Finance).
For enquiries contact: Dr Alireza Nazarian ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Accounting
- MPhil/PhD Finance
The School welcomes applications in any areas of the humanities (literature, English language, linguistics, visual culture, history, creative writing, languages and area studies), as well as cross-disciplinary projects that combine insights from the humanities with those from other subject areas. We would particularly encourage projects in the areas of culture, ethnicity and migration; heritage, cultural memory and identity; decolonising the humanities.
For enquiries contact: Dr Sylvia Shaw ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD English Literature
- MPhil/PhD English Language
- MPhil/PhD Linguistics
- MPhil/PhD Visual Culture
- MPhil/PhD Modern and Applied Languages
- MPhil/PhD History
- MPhil/PhD Creative Writing
Westminster Law School welcomes applications in any of its areas of expertise including: legal theory; law and technology; entertainment law and popular culture; international law; human rights; policing and criminal justice; law and development; gender and sexuality; and commercial law. Read more about research degrees in the Law School and finding a supervisor.
For enquiries contact: Dr Alexandra Fowler ([email protected]) or Ruth Mackenzie ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Law
The School would welcome applications in the following areas of our established research expertise:
- AI, imaging and health
- Exercise, resilience and nutrition
- Mechanisms of disease
- Medicines development
- Biomarkers of healthy ageing, infection and disease
- Quantum biology
- Stem cells, biomaterials and nanotechnology
We would be particularly interested in interdisciplinary research proposals in the context of human health encompassing the above-mentioned research areas.
For enquiries contact: Dr Polly Hayes ([email protected])
Available MPhil/PhD Programme pathways:
- Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology
- Biology
- Biotechnology
- Microbiology
- Molecular Biology, Biophysics and Biochemistry
- Nutrition
- Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy
The School welcomes in particular applications in the areas of: interfunctional coordination; customer experience; services and digital marketing; influence of organisational and national culture; social innovation; sustainable Tourism and events; sustainable consumption.
For enquiries contact: Dr Alireza Nazarian ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Business Studies and Strategy
- MPhil/PhD Consumer Research
- MPhil/PhD Marketing
The Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) in the School has a long-standing reputation for producing world-leading research. CAMRI welcomes applications which explore the political, economic, social and cultural significance of the media across the globe. CAMRI research is focused on four key themes: Communication, Technology and Society; Cultural Identities and Social Change; Global Media; and Policy and Political Economy. See the CAMRI site for more information about our research and potential PhD supervisors. CAMRI particularly welcomes applicants from the Global South.
For enquiries contact: Dr Ed Bracho-Polanco ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Media Studies
This School hosts two Research Centres and three Research Groups. Their profiles and research interests are available at:
- Centre for Employment Research
- Westminster Development Policy Analysis
- Research Centre on Peripheral Populations; Global Economic Policy Group and Research Group on Entrepreneurship
All applications matching their interests will be considered. For this year the School welcomes in particular applications in the areas of: Labour standards and worker rights; Global Health Policy; Migration (especially gender and health related); Integration of peripheral populations; International trade and investment; Education and labour economics; Policy evaluation; Applied econometrics; Administrative data studies (e.g. NPD-LEO); Energy economics; Evidence-based Human Resource Management; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace; Entrepreneurship (especially EDI, Innovation and Ethics related); Social entrepreneurship; Corporate sustainability management.
For enquiries contact: Dr Alireza Nazarian ([email protected])
Available Programmes:
- MPhil/PhD Economics
- MPhil/PhD Human Resource Management
- MPhil/PhD Leadership and Development
- MPhil/PhD Entrepreneurship
Within the School of Social Sciences candidates can pursue a PhD in either Psychology, Politics and International Relations, Sociology or Criminology.
- The Centre for Social Justice Research (CSJR), established in 2023, sets out to understand contemporary social inequalities and challenge the power relations and institutions that sustain them in order to bring about meaningful social change. CSJR members are experts in a range of areas in critical social science, including prisons, migration, education, gender, race, and social class. We welcome creative and interdisciplinary projects and are particularly keen to see applications from students from non-traditional backgrounds. For enquiries contact: [email protected]
- The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), established in 1989, has a longstanding reputation for research excellence. Research in Politics and International Studies at CSD was ranked fourth highest in the UK for impact in the Research Excellence Framework 2021. CSD academics undertake socially engaged, methodologically diverse and often interdisciplinary research that aims to address a range of critical political challenges in relation to democracy worldwide. For enquiries contact: [email protected]
- The Westminster Centre for Psychological Sciences conducts inclusive, practice-informed research with global impact across different sectors of society. Our research falls into five themes and we welcome applications in the following areas: health, stress and wellbeing; learning and development; brain, cognition and perception; identity, self and society; forensic and investigative psychology. For enquiries contact: Dr Kyoko Murakami ([email protected])
Available programmes:
- MPhil/ PhD Criminology
- MPhil/ PhD Politics and International Relations
- MPhil/ PhD Psychology
- MPhil/ PhD Sociology
*Minimum full-time enrolment before submission is 33 months. Fee waivers are in place for the three-year studentship. Following that there is a six month no fee period for writing up. Should a doctoral research student not have submitted by the end of the no fee period then a £1,500 fee is applicable.