University of Edinburgh Business School Doctoral Access Scholarship

Overview

The University of Edinburgh, established in 1583, is a world leading university, ranked 22nd in the world in the QS 2024 rankings. The University of Edinburgh Business School is accredited by the:

• Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
• EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS)
• Association of MBAs (AMBA)

This triple accreditation highlights the quality of teaching and excellence of research at the School.

The Business School really values doctoral research and looks for the best and brightest to join our global student and alumni community. However, we understand that joining a PhD programme can be financially difficult. To ensure that highly achieving individuals who may face barriers accessing postgraduate research study have the opportunity to pursue a PhD with us, the Business School is offering one fully-funded scholarship. The scholarship will cover tuition fees and offer a stipend at the UKRI minimum rate, will be awarded to a candidate looking to pursue their own research topic in one of our academic research areas.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following requirements:

1. All candidates must hold a conditional or unconditional offer onto one of our Doctoral programmes and expect to join in September 2025. While you can be awaiting an application outcome when applying for this scholarship only those with an offer can be considered. Therefore, please ensure all necessary documents have been uploaded to your programme application at least 10 working days before the scholarship deadline.
2. You must be a UK national domiciled in the UK.

In addition you must meet at least one of the following eligibility criteria:

• You are care-experienced. We define care experience as any time spent in care at any stage of your life. Care may have been provided in one of many different settings, such as if you were:
  • in residential care
  • in foster care
  • in kinship care
  • looked after at home with a supervision requirement
  This includes adopted children who were previously looked after. There is no age restriction on our definition of care experienced.
  • Support for Students with Care Experience
• You were/are in receipt of a Maintenance Grant as an undergraduate (if you started your undergraduate course after August 2016 you will need to provide evidence from the Student Loans Company to confirm your household income was assessed as £40,000 or less)
• You were/are in receipt of a Young Students' Bursary, an Independent Students' Bursary, or a Care Experienced Students' Bursary as an undergraduate—as assessed by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS)
• You live in an area within the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation lowest 20% (SIMD20)*
• You live in an area with an Acorn classification of 5

*To check your eligibility for the two postcode criteria above, use the postcode lookup tool. We will use the home address where you lived during your last year of school or college.

We particularly encourage applicants who have one of the following categories of ethnicity to apply: Black Caribbean; Black African; Black Other; Mixed – White/Black Caribbean; Mixed – White /Black African; or Other mixed background that includes Caribbean heritage.

You will not be eligible for this scholarship if:

• You are fully sponsored by your employer
• You are already in receipt of a full scholarship
• You already hold a PhD qualification

How to Apply

To be considered, candidates must submit both a programme application and a scholarship application using the University Online Application System. To access the scholarship application you must first complete your programme application.

• Programme Application Guidance
• Scholarship Application Guidance

We strongly encourage applicants to reach out directly to potential advisors at the Business School by email to discuss the opportunity of doing a PhD under their supervision. Applicants should take care to ensure the academic staff they reach out to have similar research interests. To do this, candidates should browse staff profiles.

Selection Process

Eligible applicants will be ranked initially by a selection panel comprising of senior academic colleagues within the Business School broadly within the applicant’s discipline. The top ranked candidates will then be invited to an interview with the Business School PGR Programme Director and senior Business School research colleagues. The interview will focus on motivation, research experience and contribution of the research.

Applications are ranked considering a number of criteria, most importantly:

• The academic background of the candidates, including their achievements/research experience so far
• The potential of the candidates' doctoral research proposal (e.g., novelty, contribution)
• A whole person approach – preparedness and potential to:
  • undertake and complete a PhD
  • flourish with funding
  • contribute to a positive/diverse PhD community

Once candidates are ranked based on the above criteria those also demonstrating financial need and widening access criteria will be prioritised for interview.

Scholarship awards are subject to candidates successfully securing admission and joining a Business School doctoral programme in September 2025.

Award Announcement Date

Candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application in late spring 2025.

Please be aware that we also hold a reserve list. In the event that a successful candidate later declines their award, the award will be offered to the top candidate on the reserve list. Candidates will be notified if they are listed as a reserve candidate.

Contact

Scholarship Support Team
phd@business-school.ed.ac.uk

University of Edinburgh Business School
29 Buccleuch Place
Edinburgh
EH8 9JS