Funding for Graduates

Graduate funding opportunities

This page contains funding information both for applicants and on course students.

The University's Graduate Admissions Pages has a comprehensive summary of funding opportunities and information for propsective students including a search facility that covers many research funding opportunities for both applicants and on-course students.  In addition, on-course students can use Research Professional to identify potential funding and the BAJR webpages also have useful links to funding opportunities. 

Unless specifically stated below, the funding deadline for graduate courses in the School of Archaeology is January 20, 2023. Applications submitted after this date will not be consider for funding offered by Oxford. Funding deadlines for other University courses can be found on the relevant course page on the Graduate Admissions website. 

Finally, specific schemes to which our students have applied to in the past are listed below:

funding table

Funding for applicants

Clarendon Awards

All applicants who have submitted their applications before or in time for the January deadline are automatically considered for the University's prestigious Clarendon Awards, covering fees and maintenance for three years. Over the last few years, some 4-7 of these each year have gone to Archaeology applicants, awarded on the basis of merit.

School of Archaeology Awards

Typically, five awards of £7,000 each are available for each academic year. 

To be eligible you need to apply to the MSc in Archaeology programme through the usual application system no later than the January application round. If you are offered a place on the programme you will be automatically considered for shortlisting for one of the awards.  Applicants will normally be notified if they have been successful by the start of April. At this point an acceptance of the award is expected within a couple of weeks. 

All Home and Overseas status applicants are eligible. 

Awards will be offered to the strongest applicants who demonstrate: 

  • motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study, 
  • sound reasons for applying to the School of Archaeology, the MSc in Archaeology and your chosen stream, and 
  • evidence that your academic ability and focus are suited to the demands and nature of the degree. 

Successful applicants are asked to inform the School of Archaeology of any other offers of financial support for the purpose of their studies at Oxford. Adjustments to the value of the award may be made to take account of these.

For more information about other funds, see the School of Archaeology Funding Page, and the University Graduate Funding pages. 

Edward Hall Memorial Fund

All candidates offered a place on the MSc in Archaeological Science will be considered for a bursary from the Edward Hall Memorial Fund. These bursaries honour Edward Hall (1924-2001) who was instrumental in the development of archaeological science, and helped to establish the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art in 1955.

We typically award between two and four bursaries each year of £4,000 to £10,000. To be eligible you need to apply to the MSc in Archaeological Science programme through the usual application system no later than the January application round.  All applicants will be automatically considered for one of the bursaries and notified if they have been successful by the end of April. At this point an acceptance of the bursary is expected within a couple of weeks.

 

Bursaries will be awarded to the strongest applicants who demonstrate

  • motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study,

  • sound reasons for applying to the School of Archaeology and the MSc in Archaeological Science, and

  • evidence that your academic ability and focus are suited to the demands and nature of the degree.

Successful applicants are asked to inform the School of Archaeology of any other offers of financial support for the purpose of their studies at Oxford. Adjustments to the value of the bursary may be made to take account of these.      

For more information about other funds, see the School of Archaeology Funding Page, and the University Graduate Funding pages. 

Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme

Those applying for a Masters or DPhil in Classical Archaeology are eligible to apply to the Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme in the Humanities. This prestigious scholarship covers all fees, as well as a generous maintenance grant. Ertegun Scholars also enjoy dedicated use of Ertegun House, which provides space for each Scholar for writing and research, as well as opportunities to participate in social occasions, lively lectures, performances and other activities developed expressly for the Scholars.

To apply for this fellowship, you must select ‘Ertegun Graduate Scholarships in the Humanities’ in the Funding Section of the University's Graduate Application Form, as well as attaching a specific supporting statement found here. To be elegible for this fund, you must apply by 20 January 2023. 

A specific application form is required, which is uploaded with your application. Please note: ONLY CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY students are eligible. 

Graduate Scholarship in Archaeology, with St. Cross College

St Cross College, jointly with the School of Archaeology, offers the Graduate Scholarship in Archaeology for students who will begin studying for a DPhil in any of the fields offered in Archaeology at the University of Oxford beginning in the academic year 2023-2024. Applications can be submitted up to March 2, 2023. 

The St Cross Graduate Scholarship covers the cost of the Home/EU/International course fee (including college fees) plus an annual maintenance grant to the value of the UKRI doctoral stipend, and is tenable for between one and three years coterminous with full fee liability on condition of successfully completing Transfer of Status. The successful scholar will be given priority for a room in College accommodation (at the standard rent) for the first year of their course.

The Graduate Scholarship is awarded purely on the basis of academic merit and is tenable at St Cross College only.

Applicants entering into DPhil status in 2023-2024 should apply for a place in the School of Archaeology using the University's standard application form and must list St Cross College as their first choice. Everyone who applies for the DPhil in Archaeology, Classical Archaeology or Archaeological Science before the 2nd March 2023 deadline and lists St Cross will be considered automatically.

No specific application form is required, but St Cross College must be listed as first choice. 

Oxford NERC DTP in Environmental Research

The Oxford Doctoral Training Partnership in Environmental Research has funding (fees and stipend) for students working on projects related to the environment that fit within one of their three research streams:

·      Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Processes

·      The Dynamic Earth, Surface Processes and Natural Hazards

·      The Physical Climate System

One major benefit of carrying out a PhD through a doctoral training partnership is the opportunity to develop projects in collaboration with partner organisations who can offer support in many areas, including identifying critical problems that need solutions, and access to facilities, equipment, people, data and collections of materials and samples.  Partner organisations may also be able provide financial assistance and co-supervision; and access to mentoring, work placements, the oportunity to work with organisations outside academia.  These partnership opportunities are mutually beneficial - and will be enriched by your energy and commitment to your field of research, your ideas and your discoveries.

Various archaeology research projects are a good fit for the NERC DTP. Students intending to work on archaeological research projects that would fit within these broad areas should apply to both the School of Archaeology and the DTP.

More information and details on how to apply can be found on the Environmental Research DTP Website. If you would like to discuss applying, please contact Professor Victoria Smith. 

The Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund for Near Eastern Archaeology

The Wainwright Fund aims to encourage the study of non-classical archaeology of the countries of the Middle East. The projects supported are wide ranging; the Fund holds an annual Schools Essay Prize, awards Research Grants to mature scholars and also sponsors a post-doctoral Fellowship.  More information can be found on their website.

Separate applications are required. 

Standard Bank Africa Chairman's Scholarships

The Standard Bank Africa Chairman’s scholarships are available for applicants to any full-time, one-year taught master’s course, including all masters programmes offered by the School of Archaeology. This scholarship is open to applicants who are ordinarily resident in Angola, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia or Zimbabwe.

The scholarship covers course fees and a grant for living costs. Awards are made for the full duration of your fee liability for the agreed course.

All students deemed eligible will automatically be considered on application to masters programmes. The scholarship is only tenable at Wadham College, but you do not have to list Wadham College as your first course. However, successful applicants will be transferred to Wadham College in order to take up the scholarship.

No specific application form is required.

Other Award Schemes for Overseas Students

Comprehensive information on funding for international students can be found on the University's Student Funding pages.

The Funding Search (formerly the Scholarship Search) contains information about scholarships that are managed by the International Office, as well as college awards over £2,000 (as listed in this year's Graduate Studies Prospectus). It also contains information about departmental awards and funding for UK/EU students.

American students who would like to take out a US student loan to fund their studies can do so through the International Office. They can find comprehensive information on how to do this at the University's US Loanspages.  We are also able to assist with Canadian student loan applications; they should contact Jenny Carter (jenny.carter@admin.ox.ac.uk) for advice.

Many of these scholarships require separate applications, please check dates and details individually. 

Boise Trust Studentship and Small Research Awards

The Boise Trust Fund was established by Charles Watson Boise to support research on the antiquity and evolutionary origin of modern Homo sapiens and other hominins, with particular emphasis on the continued exploration of appropriate sites in Africa, and on the early migration of Palaeolithic communities.  All applications should be in this field of research.

For details on how to apply contact: trustfunds@zoo.ox.ac.uk (Secretary to the Boise Trust Fund).  

Separate applications are required. 

St Cross College is pleased to offer the Sonia Hawkes Scholarship in European Medieval Archaeology, in partnership with the Clarendon Scholarship funding scheme, to research students who will begin studying for a DPhil course at the University of Oxford in October 2024 and whose research concerns the archaeology of medieval Europe, c. AD 400-1500. The Scholarship covers the annual cost of the course fee and the standard UKRI stipend for annual living costs for the three years of full fee liability.

Application criteria

All applicants who have submitted their DPhil course application by the relevant 2023-2024 admissions deadline will be considered automatically.

Funding for on-course students

The Meyerstein Fund supports research by graduate students in all branches of archaeology. Probationary Research and DPhil students can apply for a first grant of up to £400 and a second grant of up to £200 (balance from first grant can be added to second grant; the overall total awarded to any one applicant being £600). Comparable research by students in the first year of an MPhil degrees and students registered for the MSc in Archaeological Science will be sympathetically considered – the maximum awarded being £200.

The Craven Committee funds research (travel, conferences, fieldwork) in Classical Archaeology. For further information, contact the Classics Faculty Board Secretary, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3LU, graduate@classics.ox.ac.uk 

The Boise Trust Fund was established by Charles Watson Boise to support research on the antiquity and evolutionary origin of modern Homo sapiens and other hominins, with particular emphasis on the continued exploration of appropriate sites in Africa, and on the early migration of Palaeolithic communities.  All applications should be in this field of research.

For details on how to apply contact: trustfunds@zoo.ox.ac.uk (Secretary to the Boise Trust Fund). 

Students of Classical Archaeology can apply for moderate amounts of support from the Graduate Support Fund. The Graduate Support Fund is administered by the Director of Graduate Studies for Classical Archaeology, who may be contacted informally with enquiries. Grants are made throughout the year. The maximum sum granted per student per academic year from this fund is £250. Grants are made to applicants proposing to give papers at conferences; typically smaller sums are granted for attendance of conferences.