Applications for the 2025 WRoCAH AHRC Open Competition Studentships are now open.
WRoCAH will have approximately 55 AHRC Open Competition Studentships to award across the three institutions (Leeds, Sheffield and York) for October 2025 entry.
Guidance Notes for Applicants
Full guidance notes to help you with the application process can be found here
Please ensure you read these guidance notes carefully before you apply.
Am I eligible to apply to WRoCAH?
In order to be eligible
- Your research must fall within the research remit of the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC). You can check the scope here.
- You must be a new PhD student in October 2025 or be no further than day 1 of your second year (or equivalent if part-time) on 1st October 2025 of your PhD at the University of Leeds, Sheffield or York.
- You must have already applied to your chosen institution (Leeds, Sheffield or York) before you apply to WRoCAH
When to apply
You should apply to your chosen institution as soon as possible. You will need your 9 digit University number in order to apply to WRoCAH.
The application deadline for the 2025 WRoCAH AHRC Open Studentships Competition is 17:00 GMT on Wednesday 22nd January 2025.
What do I get?
If your application is successful and you are awarded a studentship, you will receive the following
If you are a new PhD student:
- 40 months of stipend (36 months to cover the usual PhD funding duration, plus 4 months to cover mandatory WRoCAH activities)
- The stipend for 2024/25 is £19,237 (2025/26 rate is not yet available. This page will be updated as soon as this information is available).
- Fees covered at the Home rate (the difference between the Home and International fee rate may be covered by your institution. Please check the guidance notes to confirm the situation with the instition to which you have applied.)
- Access to funding from the small award, large award and Student Led Forum schemes, to cover activities like conference attendance, fieldwork, or event organsation.
- Funding for language training where necessary for your research (provided it is listed in your application).
- Funding for longer REP projects if you complete one that is longer than 1 month
- WRoCAH training & other cohort activities
- Membership of the WRoCAH cohort, in addition to belonging to your Department or School community
- The support of the WRoCAH team
If you are already a PhD student in your first year of study (or equivalent if part-time) and you successfully apply to WRoCAH, you will receive all of the above except the duration of funding is different. Your funding will take into account the number of months of your PhD you have already completed. You will receive at least 28 months of funding, plus any months of your first year that are still to be completed by 1st October 2025.
Submission within the funded period
The AHRC requires that all newly funded students submit their thesis within their funded period. Therefore you must plan to complete your thesis in the funded period from the very beginning. Please talk to your supervisor about how to scale the project to fit within this timeframe and ensure you are both planning towards this deadline.
Black British Studentships
WRoCAH is committed to increasing the diversity of our student cohort. For this reason, we are seeking to allocate a minimum of two studentships for Black British applicants in the 2025 recruitment cycle, as Black British students have traditionally been underrepresented among WRoCAH students.
If you wish to be considered for one of these studentships, you need to check the box on the form to indicate that you are eligible and wish to be included for consideration. To be eligible you must be of British nationality and eligible to pay fees at the Home rate (International applicants are not eligible to apply for this). If you do wish to be considered for these studentships, please be aware that this information will be shared with your proposed Department/School, but it will not be shared with the reviewers of your application. This information will only be shared with the chairs of the subject cluster panels once the selection process has been completed.
Ethnically Minoritized Home Student Support
In addition to the Black British Studentships, each department/school is allowed to shortlist an additional ethnically minoritised British student. To be eligible you must be of British nationality, eligible to pay fees at the Home rate and be of an ethnically minoritized identity (International applicants are not eligible to apply for this). If you request to be considered for this shortlisting and your application is not the one put forward by your School or Department under this specific opportunity, your application will still be considered as part of the open competition. If you wish to be considered for this, select yes in answer to this question in the application. You will also be asked to confirm your ethnicity (using a pre-populated list). By completing these two questions, you are confirming that you are eligible to apply. While there will not be any ‘ring-fencing’ of awards for such applicants, this measure is being undertaken to try to ensure that the profile of the shortlisted applicants to Stage 2 mirrors as closely as possible the applicant pool.
International Candidates
The Competition is open to all candidates, whether Home or International. A WRoCAH studentship meets the cost of the fees at the Home fee status level. For International applicants, the International fee is higher and in most cases this difference will need to be met by the applicant. Each of the Universities has agreed to meet the fee difference for the top ranked International candidates, but this will only be for two (Sheffield and York) or three (Leeds) students.
We are not permitted to cover the costs associated with moving to the UK or to your new University. If you are awarded a studentship, all such costs (visa, health surcharge, flights, etc.) will need to be covered by you or you will need to find an alternative funding source.
Application Form
To apply for a WRoCAH studentship for October 2025, please use this form.