Current PhD studentships

The application window for an October 2026 start is now closed. Applications for October 2027 will open in November 2026.

Based in Milton Keynes, UK

Each year, the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) offers full-time funded PhD studentships for an October start. We do not currently accept applications for a February start.

Funding is available for UK, EU and international students. Fully-funded PhD studentships will include fees and maintenance for three years, depending on satisfactory progress. Anticipated stipend for 2026/2027 is approximately £20,780 per annum.

Faculty studentships for 2026 will be prioritised for doctoral research proposals based, but not exclusively, on one of the following research projects.

Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport

• Beyond Abuse: women’s stories of life after past harms in sport
• Skills Development and Further Education in England
• The role of an informed strength & conditioning programme on injury prevention and performance enhancement in tennis
• Strength and Conditioning for Golf
• Depictions of poverty and welfare
• Durability in Endurance Athletes

Educational and Learning Technology

• GenAI in promoting Citizen Science Learning

Health, Wellbeing, Social Work and Social Care

• Recovering the hidden histories of people with learning disabilities from Black and minoritized ethnic communities
• Dying well: exploring what It means for people living with dementia
• First do no harm: The language of witness care in professional regulation fitness in nursing
• Research in care ethics
• Reforming the Mental Health Act 1983
• FACT-PA FACiliTating Physical Activity for people with long term health conditions

Languages and Applied Linguistics 

• Research Informed Language Teaching (RILT) Monitoring Assessing and Enhancing Evidence Based Pedagogy
• PIPE Pragmatics and interaction in professional emails

Closing date for applications (including for self-funded study): 16th January 2026.

We anticipate interviews will take place in early March 2026.

The Open University is offering full and part-time PhD studentships in health and wellbeing and innovation in learning, funded in collaboration with the ESRC funded Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership.

Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences