China Scholarship Council (CSC)-Kent PhD Scholarships

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Scholarship value

Full tuition fees at overseas rate, living stipend, a return airfare from China to the UK, medical insurance and a one-off reimbursement for UK visa costs.

Deadline

The deadline for 2023 has now expired. Information about any scholarship offer for 2024 will be added when available.

Criteria

You must:

  1. Have submitted an application to study PhD (full-time, September entry only) at one of our UK campuses before you submit your application for this scholarship.
  2. Have a strong academic background and excellent research skills.
  3. Be a citizen of the People’s Republic of China at the time of application. Unfortunately, applicants from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are ineligible.
  4. Be a permanent resident of the People’s Republic of China at the time of application. Chinese citizens working abroad are therefore ineligible. Chinese students currently studying overseas, however, are eligible.
  5. Satisfy the selection criteria relating to current study and employment as set out by the CSC on their website.
  6. Agree to return to China for two years upon completion of their studies and/or research at Kent. Some exceptions apply (for example if the student is offered a postdoctoral position at Kent, they are allowed to postpone their return to China).

Further details

The University of Kent and the China Scholarship Council are jointly providing up to 20 fully funded PhD scholarships per annum for Chinese students to study at University of Kent's UK campuses.

If you have any questions, please contact the International Marketing and Recruitment Team at china@kent.ac.uk.

Please do not use this email address to submit your application. The correct email address for applications is specified below.

How to apply

  • You should follow the university’s standard process to submit your PhD application. Guidance can be found here. Please note you can only choose full-time as your study mode and September 2023 as your start date if you wish to apply for this scholarship.
  • Once you have submitted your PhD application, you must send a confirmation email to kentgrc@kent.ac.uk attaching the following documentation to your email:
    • Curriculum Vitae (CV)
    • Undergraduate and Postgraduate Transcripts
    • Statement of Interest (500 words max) - "Why I am interested in applying for a PhD at the University of Kent". Please include your applicant ID with your statement.
  • Your scholarship application will be assessed by the school in which you are applying; successful applicants will be invited to an online interview with the school. (If you are not successful for the CSC-Kent PhD scholarship, your PhD offer remains valid and you are free to source other funding and/or self-fund.)
  • If you are nominated, we will provide you with further guidance no later than 10 March 2023 on submitting a separate application to CSC via their website, which will be open on from 10 – 31 March 2023.
  • Once you have submitted your application to CSC, they will make a final decision in late May/early June 2023. Please note only candidates nominated by the University of Kent will be considered by CSC. Therefore you should not submit an application to CSC unless you have received an invitation and specific instructions from Kent to do so.
  • CSC will share a list of the successful applicants with Kent in May 2023, to be checked and confirmed by Kent.
  • Once confirmed by Kent, CSC will publish the final selection outcome on their website and you will be notified as well.
  • At that point, we will get in touch and ask you to reconfirm your intention of accepting the scholarship and studying at Kent. If we fail to hear back from you by 30 June 2023, your scholarship offer will be automatically withdrawn. Your PhD offer, however, will remain valid.