Imperial College President's PhD Scholarships 2026

Who can apply

Open to new PhD applicants from Imperial College London, the UK and worldwide; no restriction by nationality, though some departments may be unable to support international candidates
Already registered Imperial PhD students are not eligible
In receipt of, or due to receive, a first-class or equivalent undergraduate or integrated Master's degree; or, failing that, a distinction in a standalone Master's, with evidence of high performance if the result is still pending
Must have already contacted a supervisor in an Imperial academic department who has agreed to supervise the proposed research project; a supervisor may take only one President's Scholar at a time
A department may put forward a candidate as a special case if grades fell short for extenuating reasons but the candidate is otherwise judged to be of the required calibre
Applies to both full-time and part-time study
There is no separate scholarship application form; select the scholarship option in the funding section of the online PhD admissions form, and your department puts you forward based on academic merit and potential
Nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar or Sudan should check the UK government's current "visa brake" policy on gov.uk before applying: since 26 March 2026 it refuses Student visa applications made from outside the UK by nationals of those four countries, even where an offer or scholarship is already secured, and it is reviewed periodically rather than indefinite

There is no separate scholarship form, only a box to tick

There is no separate scholarship form here. You apply for PhD admission through Imperial’s own online system exactly as any other applicant would, and inside that form’s funding section you simply select the President’s PhD Scholarship option. Your department then puts you forward for the scholarship itself, based on academic merit and potential, alongside deciding your admission. Applicants who are not selected for the scholarship are automatically considered for a standard, unfunded PhD place instead, so applying for this does not put your admission at risk.

Line up a supervisor before you do anything else

Before you can meaningfully apply, you need to have already contacted a supervisor in an Imperial academic department and secured their agreement to supervise your proposed research project. This is the real bottleneck: supervisors are limited to taking on only one President’s Scholar at a time, so a popular supervisor may simply not be available, regardless of how strong your own application is. Check Imperial’s own Unavailable Supervisors page before you invest time reaching out to someone who cannot take a scholar this round.

Three rounds a year, each with its own notification date

Applications are considered at three points across the academic year rather than against one annual deadline. Apply by 2 November 2026 and, if successful, you hear by the end of January 2027. Miss that and there is a second round closing 11 January 2027, and a third closing 1 March 2027, each with its own later notification date. Funded places for the 2027-28 year can start any time from 1 August to 1 November 2027, so an early-round offer does not necessarily mean an early start.

The personal statement has a fixed two-page structure

The personal statement here is not a single free-form document. Imperial’s own guidance is specific: it is a two-page document, with the first page a personal statement of motivation and the second page your actual research proposal, written in the first person. A separate, more detailed research proposal document can go in a different field if your department asks for one. You also need to name two academic referees, and they must not be your proposed PhD supervisor, a detail easy to get wrong if you assume your supervisor doubles as a referee the way they might for other applications.

A bar set higher than “good enough for a PhD”

This is a competitive scheme with a bar set above ordinary PhD admission, not level with it. Imperial’s own eligibility criteria call for a first-class or equivalent undergraduate or integrated Master’s degree, or, failing that, a distinction at standalone Master’s level. If your grades fell short for a genuine, extenuating reason but your research potential is otherwise judged strong enough, your department can put you forward as a special case, but that route runs through the department directly and is worth raising with them before you submit anything. For a similarly funded UK doctoral route to compare against, see the Clarendon Fund Scholarships at Oxford, which works on a broadly similar automatic-consideration principle but through a different admissions calendar entirely.