School of Divinity PhD Research Scholarships

We are offering two scholarships awards, both of which will cover tuition fees and provide a stipend at the UKRI rate. These awards will be valid for three academic years, subject to satisfactory progress.

The first award commemorates Rev Professor D.W.D Shaw, Dean and Principal of New College in the 1970s. The award is funded through a bequest from the estate of Rev Professor D.W.D Shaw. This scholarship will support research relating to Theology, Biblical Studies, Ethics, and Religion and Literature. 

The second award is funded by the School of Divinity and will support research relating to World Traditions.

The scholarships will be awarded to new applicants who have applied for admission to any PhD programme of study in the School of Divinity commencing in September 2026. 

Applications will be considered from UK/Overseas applicants wishing to study full-time/part-time/online distance learning programmes.

All scholarship awards holders are expected to be energetic members of our postgraduate community, and will engage with opportunities to present their work to the wider student and staff body during the period covered by their award. We offer our postgraduates a range of training and development opportunities appropriate to their programme of study.

Applicants must be of outstanding academic merit and research potential, evidenced through the PhD and scholarship applications.

To be considered for this scholarship, applicants must complete the following two steps:

1. Apply for PhD study. You must submit your PhD application with supporting documents.
2. Submit your scholarship application via the University’s online scholarship application system before 2nd February 2026.

You will not be able to access the online scholarship application form unless you have applied for admission to the University of Edinburgh and have your university username and password.

In order to gain access to the scholarship application system applicants must have applied for admission to the University of Edinburgh. Please note that, following the submission of an application for admission, it can take up to five working days for all system checks to be completed and access to be granted.  For this reason, the application to the PhD programme must be submitted at least 10 working days prior to the scholarship application deadline. We regret that we cannot consider late applications.

The online scholarship application form is located in EUCLID and can be accessed via MyEd - our web based information portal at: https://www.myed.ed.ac.uk

When logging in to MyEd, you will need your University User Name (UUN) and password. If you require assistance, please go to: http://www.ed.ac.uk/student-systems/support-guidance

Further guidance on applying for scholarships as a registered student can be found here: Applying for a scholarship | Student Systems | Student Administration

The scholarship deadline is 2nd February 2026.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their scholarship application by the end of May 2026.

Please contact the Postgraduate Research Support Officer (Div.PGRAdmin@ed.ac.uk) if you have any questions about the application process.

Please note that applications always exceed the number of awards available. Applicants are advised to apply to other funding agencies in addition to these funds.

The University reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to amend of withdraw any of the advertised scholarships, without notice.