King's A*STAR PhD Studentships

Projects from Theme 1 - Theme 4 are open to Home/EU students with standard research council restrictions. EU students are only eligible for a full studentship if they have lived, worked or studied within the UK for three years prior to the funding commencing. Unfortunately, we cannot accept applications from non-EU candidates. Click here to go to the UKRI website for more information on eligibility requirements. Projects from Theme 5 - Theme 6 are open to Home/EU residents and residents of the following countries USA, Canada, Latin America, and Australia.

Click here to go to the UKRI website for more information on eligibility requirements

Students will receive a tax-free stipend for each year of study, this rate will be in line with the UK Research and Innovation minimum rates. For 2020/21 this will be £17,285 per annum.

A Research Training Student Grant (RTSG) will be provided for research consumables and for attending UK and international conferences. At King’s College London consumables allowance (for MRC DTP 1st year £5,000 and 4th year £2,000; for other projects dependent on the project type). At A*STAR: a one-off allowance comprising an airfare grant of S$1,500 and a settling-in allowance of S$1,000; housing subsidy; monthly stipend of S$2,500; conference allowance; medical insurance; miscellaneous research costs of the PhD work is covered by the A*STAR Research Entities.

All tuition fees will be fully covered by the Studentship.

Applicants must have or be predicted to obtain a high-quality BSc degree with a 1st or a high 2:1, or a master’s qualification at Merit/Distinction grade.

If English is not your first language you will be required to provide evidence that you meet the minimum English requirements of the Faculty [Band D] as prescribed by the university’s English Language requirements. If you are unable to provide this confirmation before applying any offer you are made would be conditional upon you meeting these requirements prior to enrolment and no later than the 31 of August 2020. Click here for further information on English Language Requirements Students recruited to these studentships will spend a maximum of 2 years of the studentship in Singapore at an A*STAR Research Institute with the named A*STAR supervisor on each project. Students will receive a consumables budget and stipend from A*STAR in line UK Research and Innovation minimum rates. The Award will also include a one-time airfare grant, medical insurance and a one-time settling in allowance.  You can contact the King’s Admissions Team for further information. To apply for the A*STAR and King’s College London Studentships, consult our ‘How to Apply’ guidance below.

Click here for further information on English Language Requirements

The funding available supports Home/EU students within standard research council restrictions. EU students are only eligible for a studentship if they have lived, worked or studied in the UK for 3 years prior to the funding commencing. Please contact the Postgraduate Admissions Team to determine whether you are eligible for an award before you start the application process. If you have been classed as ‘overseas’ for fees purposes by the institution you are applying for admission to, you will not be eligible.

Applicants must have, or be predicted to obtain, a high-quality BSc degree with a 1st or a high 2:1. Alternatively, students must have a master’s qualification at Merit/Distinction grade.

All applications must be submitted via the King’s Apply Portal. We will not accept any other form of application

On your application you must provide the contact details of two academic referees. If you feel it would be more appropriate, we can accept one reference from a non-academic research environment, e.g.: an employer from a research institution or company. Note: academic references must list a university email address and employer referees should list the official email address of the company. If you already have two references, you can scan and upload these directly to King’s Apply instead (note that they must be signed and on headed paper). Note: it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure references are submitted to the portal by the application deadline. Be sure to start your application before the deadline and contact your referees to let them know we will be requesting a reference from them.

Referees will only receive a notification to submit an applicant’s reference once the applicant has submitted their application. Referees will not be contacted whilst the application is still in progress. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure references are submitted to the portal by the application deadline and so we advise to submit your application before the deadline and contact your referees to let them know we will be requesting a reference from them.

We will be accepting applications up until 23.59 on Sunday 10th May 2020. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered. We advise that you do not wait to submit your application until close to the deadline, in case there are problems with uploading documents etc. Applications missing mandatory attachments may not be considered for shortlisting.

Yes. In the research proposal section, please enter the funding code that corresponds to the theme in which your first-choice project is listed as the ‘Project Title’ (see below for an example). Please list three projects of interest in order of preference in the free-text box under the Research Proposal section (see below for an example). Project Title: Insert funding code: THEME2_2020 State your three preferred PhD projects from the list of PhD projects on offer for 2020 Entry. These should be listed in order of preference and you should include the number that is assigned to the project and the project title. Please list these in the free-text box under the Research Proposal section of the application, for example: 2.1 ‘’Project Title’’ 3.4 ‘’Project Title’’.

You do not need to take an English Language Test before making submitting the application. However, should you be successful in gaining a studentship, this will become a condition of your offer and an IELTS test must be taken before we can make an unconditional offer.

The Fee Status Questionnaire is only mandatory for EU applicants; British Nationals who have resided in the UK since birth do not need to complete this form.

Please be sure to complete the following sections of the form with all relevant information (all questions with an asterisk are mandatory and you will not be able to submit without answering these): § Personal Information* § Education* § Employment history (you will be able to enter up to five sets of employment information) § The ‘Nature of work’ field allows only 50 characters, but you can upload further employment information on the references screen § Personal statement*. Please include your personal statement in this section. You should type your personal statement directly into the Personal Statement free text box (Personal Statements uploaded onto the application as a separate PDF will not be accepted). There is a 4000 character limit, so please ensure that any text you plan to copy and paste into the box is within these limits (you should note that the Personal Statement character limit includes punctuation and spaces and so may differ from the character count in your source text). § CV*: upload a PDF copy of your CV as an attachment to the Personal Statement Section. § Fee Status Questionnaire: If you are an EU Applicant, please attach a complete Fee Status Questionnaire [CP1] to the Personal Statement section, this is a mandatory requirement of all EU Applicants. § References*: Contact details for two academic referees or relevant employers in research institutions/companies (we will then contact your referees directly). § Funding*: In the funding section of the online application form please enter the funding code that corresponds to the theme in which your first-choice project is listed. § Research Proposal*: In the research proposal section, please enter the funding code that corresponds to the theme in which your first-choice project is listed as the ‘Project Title’. Please list three projects of interest in order of preference in the free-text box under the Research Proposal section.