Psychology Pathway

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship. The studentship will start on 1 October 2027.

How to apply

To apply for SWDTP Psychology pathway studentship please simply click on the ‘online application’ links below for the PhD Psychology: 
Online application
Within the Research section of the application form, in the following fields, please add:
  • Proposed project title/studentship title: add your project title 
  • Proposed supervisor: add potential supervisor’s name
  • Studentship Code: SWDTP 27-10 Psychology
When the application asks for a research proposal, please just upload the SWDTP Studentship Application Form 2027 Entry (Annex A).

Application guidance

It is important that you follow the instructions above or your application for this studentship may be missed and therefore will not be considered.
Before applying, please ensure you have read the Doctoral College’s general information on applying for a postgraduate research degree. 
For more information on the admissions process please contact research.degree.admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.

Psychology 
School of Psychology
Faculty of Health

In the Research Excellence Framework, 83% of Research in the School of Psychology was judged to be of a world leading or internationally excellent standard. This places us within the top 20 psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry schools across the country. We have a thriving PhD community with around 70 postgraduate research and DClin students. 
ESRC-funded studentships can be taken up in any of the specialist areas of research supported by the school. The school has a wide range of psychology research interests including cognition, learning, vision, music, developmental, emotion, health, clinical, social and neuroscience. Students have access to extensive, modern, and well-equipped laboratory facilities supported by a dedicated team of technical staff. 
There are two routes to an ESRC-funded PhD in Psychology at Plymouth:
Successful applicants will be part of a large, vibrant, highly collaborative community of PhD students with good interdisciplinary links, providing opportunities for research, training and collaboration.

Initial enquiries

You can search through a list of research areas we offer supervision in or have a look at our staff pages. You need to identify a supervisor in the School of Psychology if you want to apply to the psychology pathway at the University of Plymouth. 
If you would like advice on potential supervisors, please contact Dr Patricia Kanngiesser (patricia.kanngiesser@plymouth.ac.uk). 

How to apply

The ESRC SWDTP encourages collaboration across the universities of the partnership and with external organisations.
Closing date: 12 January 2027, 12:00 noon (UK time)
Start date: 1 October 2027 
The studentship is supported for three to four years depending upon the pathway and includes full Home tuition fees plus a stipend which is currently £21,805 per annum 2026/27 rate (2027/28 rate TBC). 
There are limited number of places for international students.

Eligibility 

Information on the eligibility criteria for full awards can be found on the South West DTP website.

Application process

You will need to discuss your proposed research topic with an academic staff member in psychology before submitting your application and have a letter of support from your prospective supervisor (Annex B).
You will need to submit the following documentation in order for us to consider your application:
Your application will only be considered if it contains the above and you have met our minimum criteria. If we need further details or additional documentation, we will contact you.
For full details on the studentship process, please see the South West Doctoral Training Partnership Preparing to Apply and Applying for a Studentship pages.
SWDTP Equal Opportunities Student Data Form 2027 Entry
Why do you collect data about people’s personal characteristics?
Across UK Higher Education it is generally suspected that access to postgraduate study is neither as open nor as inclusive as it should be and that more needs to be done to widen participation and equality of opportunity. However, the data needed to help make the system be more equitable is not as complete or as reliable as it needs to be to most effectively support change.  
Providing EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) and equal opportunity data helps to better understand issues of selection and under-representation in postgraduate study. Such data are held confidentially and separately from the rest of your application. They are used only in aggregated and anonymised forms for internal monitoring purposes and as part of our required reporting to our funder, the ESRC – for example, as counts or percentages of the numbers in each category. We ask all applicants to complete the monitoring form. 
A link to the online form will be sent to you on submission of your funding application documents.