Vice Chancellor’s PhD Scholarships Competition 12 fully funded PhD places available

Investing in Excellence

Nottingham Trent University has an outstanding reputation for our commitment to research that shapes lives and society. As part of our continued pledge to invest in research excellence we are delighted to announce the availability of 12 fully funded PhD bursary places.

The School of Social Sciences has research that is world leading and internationally recognised for the major contribution that it has made to the advancement of knowledge. Covering a range of disciplines, Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent has a strong focus on theoretically-informed and applied research that is multi-disciplinary in nature.

Social Sciences at NTU encapsulates a diverse range of research activity which brings together academics engaged in applied research, spanning psychology, politics and international relations, sociology, social policy and social work. The last Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 ranked Nottingham Trent joint 8th in the country for it research in social policy, with 60% of its research activity regarded as either world-leading or internationally excellent.

We are especially successful in responding to the needs of external partners and have recently won grants from the ESRC, British Academy, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, European Commission, Home Office, Cabinet Office, BECTA, Department for Education, Age Concern, Responsibility in Gambling Trust – and have undertaken research for a wide range of public service organisations in the East Midlands and beyond.

Research is undertaken across the range of social science disciplines and covers the breadth of social and governmental concerns. The areas of research that are of particular interest to us and in which we can offer PhD supervision, are based on projects connected with the following research groups:

Politics and International Relations

• International studies
• Political Theory
• European Politics
• Political participation.

Psychology

• Addiction and Aberrant Behaviours
• Wellbeing
• Cognition and Perception
• Language and Psycholinguistics
• Development, Interaction and Social Relations.

Sociology and Criminology

• Community engagement
• Crime (including crime reduction, criminal justice, responses to crime, policing, penology, criminological theory, hate crime)
• Geography of social problems and public service provision
• Religion and sexuality
• Work and employment
• Young people and inclusion.

Social Work and Professional Practice
We are particularly interested in pursuing research that adopts a participatory design and research that impacts upon social policy. Our particular areas of research expertise lies in:

• Social inclusion / exclusion
• Homelessness
• Faith and social welfare
• Comparative social policy/social welfare and the Chinese community
• Fostering and adoption
• Children, young people and safeguarding
• Mental health/ substance misuse and offending

For more information about the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarships and to download an application pack please click on the ‘Apply’ button below.

The studentships will pay the equivalent to UK/EU fees and provide a maintenance stipend linked to the RCUK rate (£13,726 per annum for 2013/14) for up to three years. Applications from non-EU students are welcome, but a successful candidate would be responsible for paying the difference between non-EU and UK/EU fees. (Fees for 2013/14 are £11,600 for non-EU students and £3,900 for UK/EU students.)

The closing date for applications is Friday 24 January 2014 at 9.00am.

For more information please contact the Graduate School at Nottingham Trent University
Email:gradschool@ntu.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)115 848 8124/8123/2108/8088