Fees and Funding

South West Doctoral Training Centre ESRC studentships

The Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath have come together to form one of the UK’s largest Centres of postgraduate research training for social scientists in fields ranging from economics and human geography to quantitative methodology and psychology.

Together, the three Universities educate over 5000 masters and 1600 doctoral students in the social sciences. The new Centre draws on the established research excellence of the partners, including the expertise of more than 750 social science research staff. This represents one of the largest groupings of social scientists in the UK.

The Economic and Social Research Council has granted doctoral training centre status to the collaboration. The South West Doctoral Training Centre (SWDTC) has been accredited to offer a hub of world-class social sciences research. As one of only 21 Centres in the UK, the SWDTC is part of a national network which will train a new generation of social scientists. The SWDTC has been allocated 41 studentships per annum.

The SWDTC offers +3 training where students register for a three-year PhD programme and 1+3 training which includes one year of research training through a Masters programme followed by a three-year PhD programme.

Disciplinary pathways

At the University of Exeter the SWDTC includes postgraduate research training in the following disciplinary pathways:

Interdisciplinary pathways 

The SWDTC has created a number of new and innovative training pathways which aim to tackle current national and international research priorities. The University of Exeter is involved in pathways covering the following interdisciplinary research themes:

  • Environment, Energy and Resilience
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Security, Conflict and Justice

You can find out more about these themes on the South West Doctoral Training Centre's webpages. Information on the studentships currently available can be viewed by following the studentships available link.