Warburg Institute Scholarships
Competitive funding is available for students wishing to begin their PhD at the Warburg Institute in October 2025. Please read below for eligibility requirements, deadlines, and application process. Queries can be addressed to the Programme Director, Dr Sara Miglietti (sara.miglietti@sas.ac.uk).
Rubinstein Scholarship
The Rubinstein Scholarship is open to home students who have been offered a place on the Institute’s MPhil/PhD Programme. It covers home fees and provides an annual £18,000 maintenance payment for a maximum of three years. This scholarship is not available to distance learning students. To be eligible to apply students must have been offered a place on the PhD programme and be categorised as a home student. For a full set of fee status definitions, please visit the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website. The scholarship will be awarded on the basis of academic merit.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday, 14th March 2025.
Applications can be made on the SAS Application Portal.
Apply for the Rubinstein Scholarship
External Scholarships
The London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) award
Applications open soon.
The London Arts and Humanities Partnership offers up to 90 cross-institutional studentships per year available for postgraduate research students studying arts and humanities disciplines. Applications for 2025/2026 will open in November, with a deadline at the end of January 2025. The competition is open to home and international students on both the full-time and part-time tracks. The studentship covers home fees and a maintenance stipend for 3 years.
How to apply for a LAHP studentship via the Warburg Institute:
- Submit an expression of interest to the Programme director, Dr Sara Miglietti, (sara.miglietti@sas.ac.uk), by 13 December 2024. Your submission should include:
- the name of your prospective supervisor at the Warburg (it is a good idea to reach out to them beforehand)
- your CV (please include details about your academic background, as well as any prizes, awards, publications, training courses, or relevant research experience)
- a summary of your proposed PhD research (between 1,000 words and 2,000 words), covering your research questions, sources, methodology, intended contribution to scholarship, and provisional structure and timeline for the project. Please include a bibliography (not included in word count)
- a sample of your academic writing (between 4,000 and 10,000 words)
- the name of an academic referee who can write in support of your application
- transcripts of your previous degrees (optional but encouraged).
- Early inquiries are strongly encouraged. Applications received after the 13 December deadline will normally not be considered.
- Suitable candidates will be invited to attend an online workshop to start preparing their funding application, w/o 16 December 2024 (exact date TBC). They will also be invited to submit a formal application for admission to the Warburg PhD programme by 3 January 2025.
- Offer-holders will work with their prospective supervisors on preparing their funding application. This will be due with LAHP at the end of January 2025. (Exact date TBC.)
Note for international applicants: LAHP can award up to 30% of its studentships (including stipend) to international students. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will only fund the Home fee. The difference between the Home and International fee must be found elsewhere, e.g. from the Higher Education Institution, an external funder or student contribution. The Warburg Institute will offer successful international applicants up to two competitive awards to offset the difference between home and international fees. More details about the application process will be shared in due course.
For further information about the LAHP studentship, including eligibility criteria, please visit the LAHP website. It is a good idea to sign up for one of their online information sessions that will run in November and December.
Commonwealth Scholarships
Commonwealth Scholarships for citizens of developed Commonwealth countries (Australia, The Bahamas, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cyprus, Malta, and New Zealand) are offered for PhD and split-site PhD study in the UK. These scholarships are funded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Scottish Government, in conjunction with UK universities.
All subject areas are eligible, although the CSC’s selection criteria give priority to applications that demonstrate the strongest potential for strategic impact.
Marshall Scholarships
For U.S. citizens only, Marshall Scholarships are mainly funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and are overseen by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the UK. Up to forty Scholars are selected each year to study at graduate level at UK institutions in any field of study.
Aga Khan Foundation
The Aga Khan Foundation provides a limited number of scholarships each year for postgraduate studies to outstanding students from developing countries who have no other means of financing their studies. Scholarships are awarded on a 50% grant : 50% loan basis through a competitive application process once a year in June or July. The Foundation gives priority to requests for Master's level courses but is also willing to consider applications for PhD programmes.
The Klesch Collection Scholarship for Graduate Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Painting
The Klesch Collection offers grants towards the yearly cost of university fees to graduate students who have been accepted into a full-time Art History MA or PhD course of study worldwide, beginning the next academic year. PhD students are welcome to apply for any year in their programme. Applications will be considered from students who will focus/are focusing their studies on European and British painting of the Renaissance and Baroque periods (c. 1400 – 1700).
Gerda Henkel Foundation PhD Scholarship
In line with one of the founder’s wishes, a special focus of the Gerda Henkel Foundation is support for up-and-coming scholars. Special attention is made when approving grants to enable qualified young researchers of both sexes to conduct scientific work for a limited period of time and in order to improve their academic training. As part of its Ph.D. programme, the Foundation seeks to promote highly-qualified new academic talent. Only those candidates are considered whose study achievements and exam performances show them to be especially gifted and whose Ph.D. theses can be expected to yield well above-average results. At present, each year about 50 scholarships are awarded.
Loans
UK PhD Government Loans
From September 2018, the UK government will offer loans of up to £25,000 to support students wishing to undertake a PhD who are not in receipt of UK Research Council funding.
These loans will be available to English-resident students and support all types of doctorate degree at universities within the UK. Although you are not eligible for this loan if you already receive UK Research Council funding, you can combine this loan with other funding sources.
Federal Direct Loans for US Students
Federal Stafford loans are operated by the US Government to assist US citizens with the costs of studying.
Support Fund
Warburg Student Support Fund
The Institute has a small hardship grant that both MA and PhD students can apply to. The maximum amount of funding available per student is likely to be a few hundred pounds.
The Warburg Hardship Grant provides discretionary financial assistance for all students – particularly to meet extra costs that cannot be met from other sources of support. The grant is intended to alleviate financial hardship.
Find out more
Travel Fund
Warburg Institute Travel Fund for existing Warburg MPhil/PhD Students
The Institute has a small Student Travel Fund which provides grants for research visits and when giving a paper at a conference for both full-time and part-time Warburg MPhil/PhD students.