Scholarships The Vice Chancellor’s Postgraduate (PGR) Scholarships

Transforming lives through education

London Metropolitan University’s Strategic Plan outlines our commitment to improving the experiences, opportunities and outcomes of students and colleagues from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. While we begin with providing a fairer and more equitable culture for those who are already studying and working at the University, we also wish to effect change and create positive impact as we embark on research in exciting, challenging and above all important fields of enquiry. We wish to see greater inclusivity in our research work.           

To support our aspirations and underpinned by our Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategy 2020/21 - 2024/25 , we are inviting candidates to apply for one of up to 10 fully funded Postgraduate Scholarships for a period of up to four years' full-time support to complete a PhD with us.

All successful candidates should have an excellent degree in a subject relevant to the topic applied for. An excellent master’s degree will be considerate highly desirable. Those with alternative professional or occupational experience will also be considered in lieu of master’s level qualifications.

Candidates should contribute to our race equity agenda and enhance our intellectual life. These new colleagues and students should work on topics that chime with our transformative agenda; they should be afforded the opportunity to interact with students (as tutors, lecturers, or mentors); and their contribution for students should bring something new to our curriculum.

Benefits

The successful candidates will be supported to achieve Associate Fellow status with the Higher Education Academy and will have access to the necessary teaching experience to achieve this.

The Vice-Chancellor's scholars are expected to undertake the in-house Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education module entitled Facilitating Student Learning (FSL) which typically runs from the end of October to the middle of February. The aim of this requirement is to enhance scholarship outcomes for the candidates by providing a foundation in contemporary practice in learning and teaching in higher education.

Successful completion of this module will enable students to qualify for the Associate Fellowship at Advance HE (AFHEA). As part of the requirements for the AFHE award, students need to be engaged in teaching or learning support sessions for at least 20 hours. Typically, this will be two hours per week with at least some of the hours running concurrently with the FSL module. The teaching/ learning support allocation will be arranged at a school level, as appropriate.

A work placement of up to three months may be included as a part of the PhD journey if it enhances the research outcomes and/or the career prospects of the student. It has to be accommodated withing the four years of maximum funding.

Those who are offered a post will also be given support to attend conferences and publish papers.

Successful candidates will also be given the opportunity to gain experience supporting various research fora and committees and be involved in University-wide research activity, initiatives and events.

Application process

The application process consists of two stages, the initial competition with a short research proposal and the official application through our usual system with a full research proposal for autumn 2023 start. Successful candidates must pass both stages.

Stage 1

All candidates must provide:

• A short cover letter outlining the motivation for applying
• A 300-500 word proposal that directly addresses the contribution they will make to the particular project. Candidates may only apply for one project.
• A 200-word statement describing their values in relation to race equity agenda and the University values
• A PDF/scanned proof of their qualifications
• Passport or other ID document scan

Please submit your application by email to rpo@londonmet.ac.uk by Friday 9 June 2023. Please insert all elements of the application as attachments. Applicants should mention the project they are applying for in their proposal and save ALL documents with their name included (eg: EDI Statement_FIRST NAME_SURNAME). Please do not send in software-generated text as this will count against your application.

Due to the unprecendented number of applicatins, shortlisted candidates will be informed week commencing 19 June. If you do not hear from us by 26 June, please consider your application as unsuccesful.

Interviews of shortlisted candidates will take place during the week 3 - 7 July. Places will be offered for autumn 2023 start. They can only be taken up if the right to study in the UK is established.

Stage 2

The successful candidates of Stage 1 will submit a full application via our website for autumn 2023 start by 1 September 2023. The application must contain a full research proposal.

Funding

Each scholarship will come with a fee waiver and a stipend of £23,000 per annum, a figure that is based on a London Living Wage rate of £11.95 per hour for 37 hours per week and 52 weeks per year net. This funding will be available for a maximum of four years.

Projects

Projects are listed by academic school. Six projects are led by multidisciplinary supervisory teams and are also listed separately.