Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU)

XJTLU is an international joint-venture university founded by Xi’an Jiaotong University in China and the University of Liverpool in the UK. As a Sino-foreign cooperative university, it captures the essence of both parent universities and is the largest of its kind approved by China’s Ministry of Education.

Research Impact

Since 2006, 5398 publications from XJTLU have been indexed in WoS (Web of Science) Core. The average Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) for all publications from XJTLU for 2018-2022 are 1.35. XJTLU’s CNCI was higher than global’s and China’s CNCIs in each of the past 5 years.

Under the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) schema, XJTLU has been most productive in the fields of Engineering, Computer Science and Economics & Business in 2018-2022. Computer Science and Environment/Ecology have contributed the most ESI Highly Cited Papers. As of June 2023, there are 4 fields for XJTLU entering the Top 1% worldwide in the ESI rankings, namely Engineering, Computer Science, Social Sciences, and Environment/Ecology.

PhD Programme at XJTLU

The PhD programme at XJTLU will equip you with a range of professional skills to help you undertake world-changing research and maximise your future employability. We offer a wide range of funding opportunities and a supportive academic environment where you’ll get tailored training and development.

It normally takes three to four years to complete a full-time doctoral programme. Upon successful completion of PhD programme at XJTLU, you will be awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Liverpool.

To explore more information regarding doctoral studies at XJTLU, please visit our doctoral admission page.

Minimum Entry Requirement

Applicants holding a UK first or 2:1 class Bachelor's degree with Honours or Pass with Merit Master's degree meet the minimum academic requirement of our PhD programme. Applicants must also meet the English language requirement for the relevant research area.

Each doctoral programme has specific academic qualification and English language proficiency level required to enter the programme. Please visit the doctoral entry requirement page to find out the entry requirement for each programme.

How to Apply

You may find the required materials for PhD application in our How to Apply page. After preparing all the application documents, you are welcome to start your PhD application. PhD applications are accepted all year round. There will be four entry points each year, and the application deadlines are outlined below for each entry.

Entry Point	Programme Start Date	Application deadline
September entry	1 September	30 June
December entry	1 December	30 September
March entry	1 March	15 December of the previous year
June entry	1 June	31 March

For general queries on the application, please contact DoctoralStudies@xjtlu.edu.cn.

Funding Opportunities

XJTLU offers a range of scholarships to highly motivated and dedicated full-time doctoral candidates to pursue research leading to a doctoral degree. Qualified applicants may receive financial support including:

• A full scholarship: consists of a tuition fee waiver for three years (RMB 297,000 total value) and a monthly stipend of RMB 5,000 for three years (RMB 180,000 total value).
• A fees-only scholarship: consists of a tuition fee waiver for three years (RMB 297,000 total value)
• A partial tuition-fee scholarship: consists of up to 50% tuition fee reduction for three years (RMB 148,500 total value).

1. Apply for a Scholarship for an Existing Funded PhD Project

You can apply for an existing PhD project which has received funds from the University or external funding bodies. These projects have an established research topic and a formed supervisory team. You can check the below list of funded PhD project for information about specific projects available or contact potential supervisors to discuss funding opportunities.

Please note, the reference number with * refers to PhD project collaborated with industry.

2. Apply for a scholarship with your own project

If the above funded projects don’t match your research interest, you can also bring your own research project to apply for a scholarship. This scholarship is available to potential doctoral candidates whose principal supervisor is from following schools:

• Academy of Film and Creative Technology
• Academy of Future Education
• Design School
• International Business School Suzhou
• School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang)

Please note there will be two application rounds for student applying for scholarship with own project in each academic year:

• First round – applications submitted by 17:00 CST (UTC+8), 15 October will be reviewed in the first round and the successful scholarship recipients will be announced in December.
• Second round – applications submitted by 17:00 CST (UTC+8), 15 April will be reviewed in the second round and the successful scholarship recipients will be announced in July.

The scholarship deadlines must be strictly adhered to and late submissions will not be accepted.

Life in Suzhou

Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is located in Suzhou, a charming city in eastern China that can be conveniently connected to Shanghai by a high-speed train in less than 30 minutes.

As a beautiful and ancient city, Suzhou combines a 2,500-year-old history with a drive to become one of the most modern cities in China, which has a population of 13 million and a GDP of more than 2 trillion RMB – far larger than those of many entire countries!

Suzhou is one of the top 10 most attractive cities in China to foreign talents. The city has a permanent foreign population of almost 30,000, half of which are in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) area, where XJTLU is located. Please visit the Life in Suzhou page to explore food, shopping, sports and activities in Suzhou.