University announces additional support for Commonwealth PhD scholars

The University of Glasgow is pleased to announce that it will provide a stipend uplift to Commonwealth Scholarship PhD students studying at the University.

Many of our partners use these scholarships to support their young academics to gain a PhD, which more widely supports their home institution’s capacity building.

As we are all aware, the cost of living is increasing. Those on fixed incomes are particularly vulnerable to rising costs, including PhD students on fixed stipends. UKRI has recognized this with an increase to their standard monthly stipend of UKRI-funded studentships, announced in May 2021. However, the Commonwealth Scholarship stipends have in the past been less than that provided by UKRI and have not risen as much in response to recent increases in the cost of living. To address this, the University of Glasgow is pleased to announce that, effective from the academic session 2023/24, we will provide an uplift to the stipend to match the revised UKRI levels.

The Commonwealth PhD Scholarships support students from developing countries and fragile states in the Commonwealth, as classified by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), for full-time doctoral study at a UK university. The scholarships are awarded to high-quality graduates who have the potential to undertake world-class research of a developmental nature and to become influential leaders, teachers, or researchers in their home countries.

We are keen to collaborate more closely with our partners to encourage applications for the Commonwealth Scholarships, and to work with scholars to develop their own research programmes when they return to their home institutions.

We encourage applicants for Commonwealth Scholarships from our partner institutions to develop applications with potential supervisors. If you or your researchers are not sure how to identify potential supervisors at the University of Glasgow, please contact the Glasgow Centre for International Development at gcidadmin@glasgow.ac.uk.