Fees and funding

Deadline: 4 December 2025.

The School of Law at Queen Mary University of London is offering a limited number of QMUL Principal's Postgraduate Research Studentship Awards. To be eligible, your proposed research must be relevant to an area of law that the School of Law possesses academic expertise in, and thus can offer doctoral supervision in. For information on what areas of law the School of Law offers supervision in, please see the academic staff page for the research interests of permanent School academic staff.

Before applying, please read our Guidance to Applicants document on the Studentship web-page, which will help you complete your application.  The guidance is relevant to all applicants, regardless of subject area and type of Studentship.

Eligibility:

• The award is for full-time or part-time postgraduate PhD research students only.
• The award will cover all tuition fees whether at the Home or International rate. It is therefore open to both UK and overseas applicants. In addition, the recipient will receive an annual maintenance grant.
• Applicants must meet the academic and English language entry requirements of the School of Law PhD programme.
• The award is renewable over three/six years of study while in full- or part-time enrolment, subject to satisfactory annual progress reports.
• At the end of the three or six years (depending upon the mode of study), research students sometimes need further time to complete their research and thesis. This is known as ‘writing up’ time. Students only move to 'writing up' when their supervisor confirms that the student has submitted a satisfactory first full draft of the entire thesis for the supervisor’s review and the Director of Graduate Studies is satisfied that the student can complete within the year. The writing-up period does not attract full tuition fees, although a reduced writing up fee may be payable. A student in writing up is responsible for his/her own living costs as well as for any writing up fee.
• The award is for new applicants looking to enroll at the beginning of the coming academic year, in September 2026. It is also open to existing first year PhD students – they will receive funding for their final 2-3 years of study.
• The studentships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence. The application process for these awards is highly competitive

BAME Studentship

• We encourage applications from UK candidates in BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) groups who have been previously under-represented in this process.  For 2026-7 entry, the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) will be offering one fully-funded doctoral studentship (tuition fees and stipend at the QMUL rate) to a UK applicant from a BAME background.  To be eligible to apply for this studentship you must be a UK permanent resident from a BAME background, and eligible to pay home students fees. You will automatically also be considered for our other studentships. Our goal is recruiting outstanding and diverse candidates across the full range of studentships

   

Deadline: 4 December 2025

The School of Law at Queen Mary University of London is offering a limited number of PhD Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) awards.  Students on GTAs teach up to four hours per week on the undergraduate LLB degree course (with all the appropriate administration that accompanies this - such as providing office hours and marking student essays). GTAs are also involved with examining duties in the Department. Recipients, including part-time students, must therefore be available and able to teach across the working week during term-times.

To be eligible, you must submit a research proposal relevant to an area of law that the Department of Law possesses academic expertise in, and thus can offer doctoral supervision in. For information on what areas of law academics from the Department of Law offer supervision in, please see the academic staff information web-page  

Eligibility:

• The award is for full-time or part-time postgraduate PhD research students only.
• The award will cover all tuition fees whether at the Home or International rate. It is therefore open to both UK and overseas applicants. In addition, the recipient will receive an annual maintenance grant.
• Applicants must meet the academic and English language entry requirements of the School of Law PhD programme.  In addition, it is preferred that applicants hold a UK or common Law LLB undergraduate qualification, as funding recipients will be expected to be more familiar with the teaching syllabus of the course that they will assist teaching on
• The award is renewable over three/six years of study while in full- or part-time enrolment, subject to satisfactory annual progress reports.
• At the end of the three or six years (depending upon the mode of study), research students sometimes need further time to complete their research and thesis. This is known as ‘writing up’ time. Students only move to 'writing up' when their supervisor confirms that the student has submitted a satisfactory first full draft of the entire thesis for the supervisor’s review and the Director of Graduate Studies is satisfied that the student can complete within the year. The writing-up period does not attract full tuition fees, although a reduced writing up fee may be payable. A student in writing up is responsible for his/her own living costs as well as for any writing up fee.
• The award is for new applicants looking to enroll at the beginning of the coming academic year, in September 2026. It is also open to existing first year PhD students – they will receive funding for their final 2-3 years of study.
• The studentships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence. The application process for these awards is highly competitive.

Deadline: 28 January 2026.

Queen Mary has been offering joint Scholarships to Chinese students since 2007. The award, open only to applicants from China, provides a fee waiver (provided by Queen Mary), as well as a stipend (provided by the Chinese government), and one return air fare between China and London per academic year.

Eligibility:

• ordinarily be citizens and permanent residents of the People's Republic of China at the time of the application. A number of CSC scholarships may also be open to applicants who are Chinese citizens but studying outside of China at the point of application. 
• not have received any CSC scholarship within five years of the time of application; 
• be applying to the PhD programme as a new applicant 
• be interested in pursuing original research in one of the key research areas of the School of Law at Queen Mary; 
• meet the Academic and English language entry requirements of the School of Law’s PhD Programme. The School of Law PhD Programme requires an IELTS score of 7.5 (with 7.0 in the written element). Applications submitted without an IELTS certificate will not be considered. Read more about the Law PhD entry requirements.
• satisfy any other selection criteria as determined by the China Scholarship Council. 

The application process for the CSC award has 2 steps. You must first apply to the School of Law PhD programme by the January 2026 deadline, and be successful in your application, receiving an offer of a place on our PhD programme. Only offer holders will be able to complete the second part – to apply directly to the CSC scheme and follow their application process (which can involve your proposed supervisors also completing application documentation in support of your application). The CSC will confirm the ratified nominees that have been selected to receive funding in June 2026.

Deadline: 23 January 2026.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded London Interdisciplinary Social Science (LISS) (provided by Queen Mary, in conjunction with King’s College London (KCL) and Imperial College) Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) is offering a range of studentships for the next academic year, and applicants to the School of Law PhD programme are eligible to apply for these awards. The Studentship comprises a full fee waiver and an annual stipend of around £21,500 per year.

Depending upon the eligibility of the recipient, the funding can be awarded to either doctoral students (the +3.5 award) or for 4.5 years of study (the 3.5+1 award) which includes one year of MRes study, and 3.5 years of PhD study).   

To be considered for this award, applicants must both have submitted their PhD or Post-graduate taught degree application to the School of Law, submitted the separate, on-line, funding application form on the LISS web-site and your proposed supervisor must have submitted a completed Supervisor Statement Form (both forms are available on the LISS web-page).  For 3.5+1 applicants, you will still need to submit a research proposal and gained agreement from an academic to act as supervisor (and thus submit the supervisor supporting statement) by the deadline. 

Eligibility

The LISS DTP award has a number of important eligibility criteria, which include (but are not limited to): 

• All eligibility criteria, the funding application forms and information on the application process can be found on the LISS web-page
• The LISS DTP Studentship scheme offers funding for either 3 years or 4 years.  Which scheme an applicant is eligible to apply for depends upon their academic background - to be eligible for the +3 year award, the applicant’s MA degree must have provided research training that covers 75% of or more of the ESRC’s ‘Core Training Requirements’. Those applicants who haven’t must apply for the 3+1 award, which includes one year of MRes study where this research training is provided (there are 4 ESRC-eligible MRes programmes offered by the School of Law - if an applicant is only eligible for 3+1 funding, then they must apply to the relevant MRes programme, and not the PhD programme).  Applicants must only apply for either the +3 or 3+1 schemes, so must check before applying which award they are eligible for - applicants can contact the liss-dtp@kcl.ac.uk contact e-mail to check this 
• LISS applicants must have contacted a full-time, permanent academic staff member from the School of Law and gained agreement for them to act as supervisor prior to the funding deadline.  The supervisor must, by the funding deadline date, have completed the ‘Supervisor Statement Form’ in support of an applicant’s funding application for the application to be eligible.  Applicants are encouraged to contact academic staff directly and gain agreement prior to their submission of their PhD and funding application. However, If an applicant is unable to obtain agreement to supervise via this route by early December, they can still submit their PhD application formally – we will aim to appoint a supervisor as part of our formal application review. However, we cannot guarantee that applications received after early December without a supervisor already confirmed will have their formal application review completed (and a supervisor appointed) in time for such a funding application to be viable.  
• The applicant must meet the entry requirements of the Queen Mary School of Law PhD programme. 
• The award is open to Home or International applicants.  
• The applicant’s research falling within the broad social and behavioral science remit of the ESRC funding body, relating to one of the ESRC research areas

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds outstanding original research across the arts and humanities. Queen Mary is pleased to have been awarded the AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award Funding for doctoral studentships, including Collaborative Doctoral Awards.  

Queen Mary will award five AHRC Doctoral Landscape awards per year for five years. The first cohort will begin their doctoral research in October 2026, and the final cohort will start their studies in October 2030. 

Each studentship will provide the following for students to submit their thesis within the funded period:

• A maintenance stipend and tuition fees based on UKRI (home) rates.  
• Support for research related costs.
• Opportunities for full-time or part-time doctoral research.  
• Full-time awards will be 3.5 years in duration, with flexibility to extend up to 4 years to support individual student development opportunities such as placements, training, or additional skills development.  
• Part-time awards will be offered on a pro-rata basis.  

The studentships will be awarded through a competitive selection process. 

Applications open in October 2025 and will close on 1 December 2025.

Eligibility:

• Please check the minimum entry requirement on the Schools page that you are applying to using the links at the bottom of the page. 
• A limited (30%) number of awards are available for international students.  
• Research must fall within the AHRC remit.  
• We specifically welcome applications in interdisciplinary research and from typically under-represented groups including those from black and asian ethnic-minority backgrounds. 

New PhD students undertaking full-time research in the area of Intellectual Property (IP) can apply for a Herchel Smith Scholarship to start in the 2026-27 academic year.  

The research topic should focus on one of the following themes: IPRs and public international law/private international law; IPRs and intangible cultural/scientific heritage; IPRs and human rights; Doctrine of functionality; The role of intellectual property law in promoting and regulating art; intersection of international trade and intellectual property law (e.g. Patents and Trade in Stem Cells; Trade Marks and Tobacco Plain Packaging); intellectual property transactions (e.g. Licensing of Broadcasting Rights for Premier League matches); interrelationship of TRIPS with regional and national Law (e.g. TRIPS and the European Patent Convention); philosophy of intellectual property; primary and secondary markets in IP; Art 102 TFEU applied to "double identity" TM cases; property rights in persona; enforcement of IP; exhaustion and licensing. 

The award covers three years of study while in full-time enrolment, subject to satisfactory annual progress reports. The award will cover all tuition fees whether at the Home/UK or International rate. It is therefore open to both UK and International applicants. In addition, an award of around £21,500 per year (reviewed annually) will be paid to the recipient on a monthly basis throughout the calendar year starting from September 2026. 

Information about this scholarship, which is open to applicants’ whose proposed area of research relates to intellectual property law.

Deadline: 15 January 2026

Eligibility:

• Only applicants proposed area of research falls within the field of Intellectual Property Law will be considered  
• The award is for new applicants who will enroll at the start of the coming academic year, in September 2026. Therefore, current PhD students who enrolled prior to September 2026 are not eligible to apply for the award. 
• Please note that our PhD programmes are September entry only.  
• Applicants must fulfil the necessary academic requirements to be eligible for the programme (this includes graduating from their LLM course with the specified grade or higher).  
• Successful recipients of this award are not required to undertake any teaching or research assistant duties, but they are expected to participate in the Intellectual Property community at Queen Mary University of London. 
• The award is open to Home and International applicants.