ESRC WRDTP Studentships at the University of Leeds
The WRDTP partner universities offer the following 3 and 4 year programmes leading to the award of a PhD on a full time or part time basis.
Students are based within the Department of their primary supervisor, and in addition to one-to-one support with their supervisory team, are able to access a range of training provided by their Departments, Schools, Faculties, their University, and the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership.
This ensures that WRDTP students not only produce detailed, original research in an area of social science, but also engage with wider skills and methods training that supports the transition to employment, either within academia or beyond.
1+3 Studentships: an integrated Research Training Masters – MA Social Research (Interdisciplinary) – (delivering the majority of the core training requirements) followed by a 3-year PhD programme.
The first year of these programmes is provided through an MA Social Research taught framework. This introduces students to research design, quantitative and qualitative methods, develops their professional skills, and allows them to take specialist and advanced subject-based courses in the field of their research topics.
In the second year onwards, students then work on their own research projects, alongside ongoing advanced training which is undertaken across the period of their doctoral studies.
+3 Studentships: 3-year PhD
These programmes are aimed at students who already have significant social science research experience. They then extend their existing training by taking modules in four key areas:
- Discipline-based training: provides a high-level understanding of academic debates in their field, and a supportive research environment in which to develop PhD topics
- Professional skills for research leadership: develops experience of how academic work is funded, published and translated into practical use beyond the university
- Advanced research methods: provides exposure to cutting-edge methods that support students’ own projects and their future research ambitions
- Interdisciplinary working: enables students to articulate how their PhDs contribute to wider societal challenges through work within one of the seven thematic pathways of the WRDTP
Interdisciplinary, Thematic Training Pathways
The Thematic Interdisciplinary Training Pathways are as follows. Each link will direct you to further information about the Pathway:
Each pathway has a pathway director and deputy director who coordinate activities within the pathway. Contact details for the pathway Directors and Deputies can be found on the WRDTP webpages.
Researchers whose projects straddle the remit of the ESRC and another Research Council may be awarded an Interdisciplinary Research Studentship. Researchers intending to use Advanced Quantitative Methods, in particular using large-scale datasets, are required to provide extra information in the application form.
Eligible Schools at the University of Leeds
The following schools/divisions are affiliated with the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership and can therefore accommodate Postgraduate students with ESRC funding (managed through the White Rose DTP)
Leeds University Business School (LUBS)
Institute for Transport Studies
School of Computing
School of Earth and Environment
School of Education
School of Geography
School of Health Sciences
School of Healthcare
School of History
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
School of Law
School of Media and Communication
School of Politics and International Studies
School of Psychology
School of Sociology and Social Policy