Grants and Writing Resources for Cardiff University
A first-year Journalism and Communications student in Cardiff's School of Journalism, Media and Culture won the MCC Young Female Broadcaster of the Year Award 2026, and the prize put her on the Sky Sports broadcasting team for The Hundred Final. In September 2025, three students on the MSc in Transport and Planning won external bursaries: one of £10,400 from the Brian Large Bursary Fund and two of £10,000 from the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund.
Presenting Doctoral Research
Cardiff's Doctoral Academy runs the university's round of Three Minute Thesis (3MT®), where doctoral students explain their research to a non-specialist audience in three minutes. According to the Doctoral Academy Programme 2025–2026, the winner goes on to represent Cardiff in the later stages of the UK competition, and a support session beforehand covers how the rounds are judged and how to plan a pitch. Images of Research asks for one picture of your work and a 150-word description, which an expert panel of academics and communications specialists judges. In Pitch Your Research, you give a short talk, take questions from fellow students and get feedback from a member of Doctoral Academy staff.
Research Funding
Two Doctoral Academy funds appear in the 2025–2026 programme. The Community Fund supports an activity that adds to your own development as a researcher, conference attendance and training among them. The Development Fund is for researchers who want to organise something that brings others together, such as a reading group or a writing club.
Help With Writing
The Academic Study Skills and Mentoring team offers free classes through the year on essay writing, critical reading and thinking, note taking, referencing and exam preparation. You choose the classes that fit. A self-assessment tool helps you see which skills to work on first, and an online Academic Study Skills module is open whenever you want it. A student mentor from your own course can explain how your academic school works.
Doctoral students can write in company at the Doctoral Academy's writers' retreats, held as full days and as an annual residential retreat aimed at significant progress on the PhD thesis. The programme also lists thesis workshops, from Writing and Structuring an Effective Thesis to Finishing Your Thesis: From Feedback to Submission, which turns comments on a large draft into a revision plan you can manage.
Where Theses Are Published
The final version of every research degree thesis goes into ORCA, Online Research @ Cardiff. The thesis deposit page says the degree isn't awarded until Academic Registry confirms the deposit. The full text then goes online, either at once or when an embargo ends; a 12-month bar is the most common, and one of up to five years needs a statement from the Head of School.
When a paper, thesis, or dissertation is ready for a final edit, our editors can help. See our Cardiff University dissertation and thesis editing and Cardiff University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with Cardiff University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your Cardiff writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.