Grants and Writing Resources for the University of York
As the Department of English reported in October 2026, a York PhD student in English and Related Literature received the honourable mention in the English Literary Society of Japan's latest Young Scholar Prize competition, the top award given that year, with 50,000 yen, for an article on ineffability and incarnational poetics in T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The article is due in volume 103 of the society's journal, Studies in English Literature. In May 2026 a student team took a top honour at the Student Community and Volunteering Awards for its work with York City of Sanctuary's Patchwork Kitchen Project, which supports refugee and migrant women from Ukraine and Hong Kong and produced a community cookbook.
Doctoral Studentships
York awards more than £7m of UKRI studentships a year through its doctoral training programmes. These awards typically pay full tuition fees and a UKRI-level stipend for three to four years, and York meets the gap between home and international fees for international candidates holding a UKRI-funded place. The programmes range from the AHRC Doctoral Landscape Awards in the Arts and Humanities to the White Rose BBSRC DTP in Mechanistic Biology and the EPSRC CDT in Fusion Power.
Social scientists apply through the ESRC-funded White Rose Social Sciences DTP, a partnership of seven universities that includes York. Its stipend was £21,805 in 2026/27, with a full fee waiver at the home or international rate. For 2027/28 entry the partnership offers up to 38 pathway awards, two of them WRDTP/Stuart Hall Foundation Awards for Black British applicants.
Humanities Scholarships and Smaller Grants
Three Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarships in the Humanities, generally one each in history, literature and languages, pay £38,000 a year for 2027/28 entry, or £114,000 over three years. The money covers fees at the home rate first. The balance goes to maintenance, research, travel and training.
Self-funded research students who have exhausted other options can apply to the Graduate Research School's Conference Fund to attend UK and international conferences. For paid project work, York Internships are open only to York undergraduates and postgraduates. They generally last four to twelve weeks, pay at least the National Minimum Wage, and research is one of the sectors that hosts interns.
Journals and Competitions
The York Law Review is a student-led journal managed by students and staff at York Law School. It began in 2019/20 and releases a volume each summer, also available on HeinOnline. Its papers come from York Law School undergraduates and postgraduates, and the latest volume includes work adapted from 2024/25 dissertations. The journal's annual abstract competition is open to York students in every department.
Eleven postgraduate researchers reached the final of York's Three Minute Thesis in June 2026, held as part of the York Festival of Ideas. First place went to a Chemistry researcher developing a material that models the body's natural environment, so that cell models used to test medicines give more reliable results. The winner goes forward to the national final.
Writing Help and Thesis Rules
The Library's Writing Centre gives one-to-one guidance, online or in person, on academic writing, critical thinking and study habits, with separate booking for undergraduates, taught postgraduates and research students. Its online Academic Writing: a Practical Guide covers style, structure and planning. The one-to-one appointments page adds the Maths Skills Centre for statistics and 30-minute academic speaking sessions. The Research Culture and Researcher Development team runs a series of online writing retreats with focused writing time and regular breaks.
York's thesis format rules set a one-page abstract of no more than 300 words, a black sans serif font of at least 11 point, and no more than four levels of heading, with 1.5 line spacing recommended. Word limits come from each department. The PDF must be accessible, with built-in heading styles and alternative text on images and tables. Once the examination has concluded, the thesis is deposited in White Rose eTheses Online, a repository York shares with Leeds and Sheffield, and is open to read in full unless an embargo is granted.
Two policies cover proofreading. The Policy on Acceptable Assistance with Assessments applies to taught programmes, and the Policy on Transparency of Authorship in PGR Programmes applies to research degrees. Both let a third party correct spelling, punctuation, referencing and similar typographical errors and point out grammar and clarity problems for the student to fix. Students acknowledge the help when they submit and consult a supervisor before using a professional proofreader. They keep a copy of the edited work, showing every change, until the degree is conferred.
Our editors give a York dissertation, thesis or essay a final check within the University's proofreading rules, covering spelling, punctuation and the consistency of citations, references and footnotes. See our University of York dissertation and thesis editing and University of York 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 the University of York, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your York writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.