PhD Studentships - School of Social Sciences

The School of Social Sciences invites applications for its PhD programmes. This competition is available to UK and International candidates and includes full UK or International fee waiver for up to 36 months. The fee waiver will be decided based on academic excellence.

This call is open only for new applicants for April 2025 start. Candidates who already hold an offer from one of our PhD programmes or existing PhD students are not eligible to apply.

The School of Social Sciences fosters an environment of interdisciplinary research that bridges Economics, Law, Sociology, Politics, and International Relations. The school is proud to harbour programmes ranked amongst the top in the UK, with a significant percentage of the research produced being rated as world leading. As a PhD candidate, you will join a vibrant community of postgraduate researchers who are dedicated to making a difference in a range of theoretical and practical fields. You will also have the unique opportunity to collaborate with esteemed faculty members who are internationally recognised in their fields and will benefit from our strong links with local, national, and international academic communities. The rich environment at the School of Social Sciences is home to stimulating seminars, workshops, and lectures from distinguished academics and practitioners, ensuring that you receive a well-rounded and impactful research training.

We welcome applications from candidates who intend to develop their research within three of our PhD Programmes. It is recommended that applicants identify a prospective supervisor and contact them to discuss the research project before applying.

You can find supervisors through the following links:

• Surrey Law School
• School of Sociology
• School of Politics and International Relations

Please check the links below for more information about each programme, available research expertise, and application requirements.

• Law PhD
• Politics PhD
• Sociology PhD

We also encourage applications from candidates who are eager to explore innovative interdisciplinary questions and who wish to be supervised by academics based at different schools/departments (e.g., Law & Economics/Law & Politics/Politics & Sociology, etc.). If you have questions regarding making an application for an interdisciplinary research project, please contact Dr Lucas Miotto at first instance: l.miotto@surrey.ac.uk.

Candidates who already hold an offer from one of our PhD programmes or existing PhD students are not eligible to apply. Applicants will need to meet the minimum entry requirements for the relevant PhD programme. Please note that programmes have specific requirements. You can find the specific entry requirements on the relevant programmes page below: 

• Law PhD
• Politics PhD
• Sociology PhD

How to apply

Applications should be submitted via the subject relevant programme pages:

• Law PhD
• Politics PhD
• Sociology PhD

In place of a research proposal, you should upload a document stating the title of the project that you wish to apply for and the name of the relevant supervisor.

For application queries related to the specific PhD Programme please contact the following academic staff:

• Law PhD Programme – Dr Lucas Miotto: l.miotto@surrey.ac.uk or Dr Conor Casey: c.a.casey@surrey.ac.uk
• Sociology PhD Programme – Prof. Christine Hine: c.hine@surrey.ac.uk
• Politics PhD Programme – Dr Malte Philipp Kaeding: m.kaeding@surrey.ac.uk