Joint PhD Scholarships 2025/26

Award details

Joint PhD Scholarships are offered by the King’s Doctoral College for joint PhD programmes between King’s College London and four of its international partner universities (listed below) for the 2025/26 academic year.

Partner Universities: 

• The University of Hong Kong
• Humboldt University, Berlin
• The National University of Singapore
• The University of Sao Paulo

Award value

The scholarship covers the following:

• Full Tuition Fees (at home or international rate)
• Annual Stipend: at the UKRI rate (was £21,237 for the year 2024/25)
• Annual Research Grant: £1,000 - £5,000, depending on the research project whilst at King’s

Eligibility criteria

Applicants MUST:

• be due to commence a full-time joint PhD programmes run in collaboration between King’s College London and a stated partner (The University of Hong Kong, Humboldt University, Berlin, The National University of Singapore, or The University of Sao Paulo) during the 2025/26 academic year. Please refer to the 'King’s Doctoral College PGR Joint PhD 2526 guidance' document for a full list of eligible programmes;
• have applied to King’s College London as the home institution;
• have provisional agreement from supervisors at both King’s and the partner university;
• have submitted all the required application materials by the funding deadline, including references transcripts, confirmation from the King’s supervisor to supervise you, and the Travel Plan form, which can be found online or obtained via the King’s Admissions office.

Please note that:

• scholarships cannot commence prior to October 2025;
• the funding is only offered for full-time study;
• applications for joint PhD programmes must be approved by both King’s College London and the partner university before a formal admissions offer can be made. As such, the process may take longer than for a single PhD programme. Students are able to apply for the scholarship whilst their application is being considered in order to meet the set deadline;
• students are required to spend a set minimum amount of time at the partner university (12 months for the Humboldt, NUS and USP partnerships and 50% of the overall time for the HKU partnership). Candidates must therefore note their potential periods of candidature in the Travel Plan form mentioned above. 

Award conditions

Please refer to the attached 'King’s Doctoral College PGR Joint PhD 2526 guidance' document for details about the terms and conditions.

Application process

Applications open from: 04 November 2024

Application deadline: 02 March 2025 (23:59pm UK TIME)

Deadline for references: 16 March 2025 (23:59pm UK TIME)

Interviews: week commencing 16 June 2025 (exact date to be confirmed)

 

 Please follow the instructions below. Applicants who fail to apply as instructed are not eligible for consideration.

1. Candidates must first apply to King’s College London for one of the above joint PhD programmes using the online admissions portal (https://apply.kcl.ac.uk/). It is recommended that the programme application is submitted by the deadline of 02 March 2025(23:59pm UK TIME).
2. As part of the above application, candidates must have been in contact with potential supervisors at both King’s and the partner university and obtained tentative agreement to work with them. Evidence of this (e.g., email correspondence) must be provided with the application materials.
3. In the funding part of the online admissions application form, candidates must tick the box at item 5 (Award Scheme Code or Name) and enter the code 2526-JOINT. If this code is not entered, or is not spelled correctly, the funding application will not be picked up and the candidate will not be put forward for consideration.
4. The candidate must have submitted all necessary information and supporting documentation (including the Travel Plan form, transcripts, references, and confirmation from your prospective supervisor that they will supervise you) to the admissions portal by the funding deadline of 16 March 2025 (23:59pm UK TIME). Candidates should refer to the relevant entry in the online prospectus for information on what is required for their programme. If any information is missing the funding application will be ineligible but the candidate can still proceed with the application for the programme itself, using alternative means of funding.

Please note that candidates who have already applied for admission, and those who previously applied but deferred entry to 2025/26, are not required to submit a new admissions application.

For full details about the scholarship, please refer to the attached 'King’s Doctoral College PGR Joint PhD 2526 guidance' document.

Contact details:

Email: doctoralstudies@kcl.ac.uk

 

Student Testimonial

Yee Win Neo, Digital Humanities (Joint PhD with National University of Singapore)

"King's College London is a highly ranked university in the UK, and during my Masters', I knew of several students who graduated from King's. I chose to apply to the university because the Digital Humanities department was home to several experts working on infrastructures and data, and I wanted to learn from them.

One of my supervisors suggested applying for the joint PhD and scholarship during my interview, so here I am!

It is a huge privilege to be paid while researching on something that matters to you, and I cannot believe how lucky I am to have been given this opportunity. Thanks to the funding from the Centre of Doctoral Studies, I am able to fully concentrate on my research for the next four years.

My advice for a prospective student would be that you should apply for any funding you know of.  But the joint PhD scholarship opportunity allows you to conduct your PhD in two universities and countries, which is a very rare opportunity for cross-cultural work and networking.

It is important that you make clear what your goals for undertaking a joint PhD are, and of course, be genuine about who you are as a person."

 

Application forms

King's Doctoral College PGR Joint PhD 2526 guidance (0.30 MB)