Grants and Writing Resources for Durham University

Durham's two-person team at the 2025 Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Moot Competition, an LLB student and an MJur student, finished runners-up out of 18 university teams after five rounds on a contract problem about unfair terms and penalty clauses. Competitors had to argue both sides of the case. Durham met Swansea University in the final.

Doctoral Funding

PhD funding at Durham comes from university scholarships, doctoral studentships and college funding, and from doctoral training programmes, partnerships with private and public sector organisations that offer training and research opportunities. Current partnerships include the ESRC Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership (NINE2 DTP), the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, and EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training in fusion power and in offshore wind energy. The Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships Programme for Neurodiverse Futures is new for 2027. On top of these, the Doctoral School lists a Research Training Support Grant among the additional funding across the university that supports postgraduate research.

One studentship is tied to a single goal. The Hunt-Raymond Global Grand Challenges Studentships fund PhD research aligned to a highlighted UN Sustainable Development Goal, which for 2027 entry is SDG 4: Quality Education, with tuition fees, a stipend at the UKRI rate (£21,805 for 2026 entry) and £5,000 in research training support across the programme.

Where Theses Are Published

Durham e-Theses holds the full text of Durham's PhD, MPhil and research master's theses, including digitized work going back to 1899. Anyone can read them free for personal study, teaching or other not-for-profit use.

Help With Writing

Undergraduate and taught postgraduate students can use the Academic Skills Centre, part of the Durham Centre for Academic Development, which offers support in academic writing among other skills. Its four services are online resources, drop-ins, taught sessions and one-to-one sessions. Most of it happens online or on the top floor of the Teaching and Learning Centre on South Road.

Doctoral researchers have a separate track. For them the Durham Centre for Academic Development runs a Researcher Development Programme, a doctoral strand of the Academic Skills Centre and a PGR mentoring scheme, along with a postgraduate teaching induction and the Durham Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award (DELTA).

For a final edit before submission, our PhD-level editors work with Durham students at every level. See our Durham University dissertation and thesis editing and Durham University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• The Art of the Counter-Argument: Building a Bulletproof Dissertation
• Treating the Personal Statement as a Scholarly Defense
• ProQuest Readiness: The Final Mechanical Audit