China Scholarship Council - Surrey Awards

20 fully funded PhD studentships for outstanding Chinese students.

Start date

1 October 2025

Duration

Up to 48 months

Application deadline

27 January 2025

Funding information

Successful candidates will each receive a full tuition and bench fee waiver (if any applicable).

CSC will provide each scholarship recipient with a living stipend (incl. medical insurance) as prescribed from time to time by the Chinese Government. CSC will also cover an international roundtrip airfare of economy class between China and the United Kingdom and will provide a one-off visa application fee reimbursement.

About

The University of Surrey’s Doctoral College is delighted to announce 20 fully funded PhD studentships for outstanding Chinese students.

We encourage applications from all research areas at the University of Surrey however applications with the following research themes will have a priority focus:

Computer Science
Electronic Engineering, and Space Engineering
Sustainability, with relevance to net-zero, environment, and the water-energy-food nexus
Manufacturing
Healthcare technologies and Biomedical engineering
Psychology, Mental Health, and Psychiatry
Food Science
Veterinary Medicine
Translation Studies.

These studentships offer you the opportunity to work with world-class academics on exciting research projects that tackle major challenges.

Eligibility criteria

Candidates applying for this award should:

Be citizens of the People’s Republic of China. Overseas Chinese students may be eligible for application subject to CSC policy at the time.
Hold an unconditional offer letter from UoS. Therefore, they should fulfil the relevant academic entry requirements set by UoS, including a high level of English language proficiency
Satisfy other application criteria set out by CSC.
Acknowledge that they should return to China upon completion of their studies through the programme.

How to apply

You will need to take the following steps to apply for a China Scholarship Council–Surrey award:

Identify and speak to a prospective supervisor. Find a suitable PhD programme where you can explore related research areas, identify a prospective supervisor, and contact them to discuss a project.
Apply for a place on a postgraduate research programme. Once you have discussed your project with a prospective supervisor you will need to make an application for a place through the relevant course page. Please make sure you indicate on your application that you are applying for the China Scholarship Council-Surrey award. The deadline to apply for a place on a doctoral programme for this studentship award is 23:59 GMT on 27 January 2025
Complete the China Scholarships Council-Surrey studentship application form. In addition to applying for a place on a postgraduate research course, you will also need to work with your prospective supervisor to complete this funding application application form (docx). Which will be used to select successful candidates for funding. Please also refer to the guidance notes (docx) which will assist you in filling in the application form. Once you have completed your form, please submit it to doctoralcollege@surrey.ac.uk by the deadline of 23:59 GMT on 27 January 2025. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted after this date.
Application review and selection. Your application will be independently reviewed and ranked by academic staff at the University of Surrey. If your application is selected to be put forward for funding under this scheme, you will receive a bespoke funding offer and academic offer from the University of Surrey. Applicants will be informed of the outcome by 10 March 2025.
Application to the China Scholarship Council. If your application is selected, you will also need to prepare and submit an application directly to the China Scholarship Council. Details of how to do this, along with the deadline, can be found on the China Scholarship website.