Application Deadline: 23.59 (GMT) on 19 November 2015
Commonwealth Split-site (PhD) Scholarships are offered for citizens of developing Commonwealth countries. These scholarships are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth.
High-quality graduates who have the potential to become influential leaders, teachers, or researchers in their home countries, and whose proposed research has a developmental and leadership focus.
Your application must be made in the context of a departmental/institutional link with a UK university already in operation or currently under negotiation.
Applications without supporting statements from both your home country supervisor and your proposed UK supervisor will be considered ineligible.
Eligibility
To apply for these scholarships, you must:
- Be a Commonwealth citizen, refugee, or British protected person
- Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country
- Be registered for a PhD at a university in your home country
- Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2016
- By October 2016, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honours standard, or a second class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master’s degree)
Scholarship Worth:
- Approved airfare from your home country to the UK and return at the end of your award (the CSC will not reimburse the cost of fares for dependants, nor usually the cost of journeys made before your award is finally confirmed)
- Approved tuition and examination fees
- Stipend (living allowance) at the rate of £1,034 per month, or £1,268 per month for those at universities in the London metropolitan area (rates quoted at 2015-2016 levels)
- Thesis grant towards the cost of preparing a thesis or dissertation, where applicable
- Warm clothing allowance
- Study travel grant towards the costs of study-related travel within the UK or overseas
- If you are widowed, divorced, or a single parent, child allowance of £444 per month for the first child, and £109 per month for the second and third child under the age of 16, if you are accompanied by your children and solely legally responsible for them
Selection process
Once received by the CSC, each candidate’s application is first considered by a member of the CSC’s panel of advisers with expertise in the subject area concerned, and then by the CSC’s selection committee in competition with other candidates.
Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:
- Academic merit of the candidate
- Quality of the proposal
- Potential impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country
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