School of Politics and International Relations Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA)

Awardees of such hold a unique position in the University; they are both registered PhD students in receipt of a scholarship and employees of the University.

The GTA will cover tuition fees (UK or International) plus a combined maintenance grant and salary, equivalent to the Research Councils UK National Minimum Doctoral Stipend.

The scholarship will be offered for one year in the first instance, renewable for a maximum of three years subject to satisfactory academic performance. 

Please note that International students must have the appropriate documentation to evidence eligibility to work in the UK . The method of determining tuition fee status  is complex and follows guidelines issued by the UK Council for International Student Affairs. 

Criteria

To be considered for the scholarships, candidates must hold: 

• an Honours degree (First or 2:1). 
• a Master’s degree (Merit or Distinction) from recognised institutions, with first-class marks in research dissertations and research methods (if available).

All candidates must have a background in Politics, International Relations or a cognate discipline. Applicants must also provide evidence that they satisfy the University’s minimum English language requirements . 

Further details

The School of Politics and International Relations  offers a supportive, dynamic and diverse environment for creative research. We have a longstanding international reputation for research excellence across the fields of comparative politics, international relations, peace and conflict studies, and political thought. The breadth of expertise within the School enables us to provide research supervision on a wide range of topics as well as theoretical and methodological approaches. The research interests of our staff can be found on the School of Politics and IR website . We particularly welcome applications from female and BAME candidates.

How to apply

Completed applications must comprise all of the following: 

• A Kent PhD course application, made via the online prospectus,  in the School of Politics and IR at the University of Kent including:
  • The name of the proposed primary and secondary supervisors; this should be agreed with the relevant staff member prior to submission.
  • A transcript of degree undergraduate and postgraduate marks to date and certificate, if completed, in pdf format.
  • The name and email address of two academic referees. Please leave a suitable amount of time for your referees to respond to the reference request which is sent automatically upon submission of the PhD application in KentVision. References must also be received by 9th  February 2024.  
  • A current CV in pdf format.
  • Upload the Division of Human and Social Sciences Research Scholarship application form  and save it to your Kent application portal with the name ‘HSS Research Scholarship GTA Application 2024’. This document requires a supervisor statement and a supervisory team statement so please leave sufficient time for this before the deadline.

Please note that the Kent PhD course application form includes fields and word count guidelines that are not specific to consideration for this competition, so please ensure that you follow the procedures listed above. In fields such as ‘Reasons for study’ and ‘Research proposal’ you are welcome to write ‘See Division of Human and Social Sciences Research Scholarship application form’.