China Scholarship Council – University of Manchester Joint Scheme
If you are liaising with a potential supervisee who may interested in applying for this funding competition, please direct them to the China Scholarship Council - The University of Manchester (CSC-UoM) Joint Scholarship Programme funding page.
The Faculty of Humanities will support up to six China Scholarship Council-The University of Manchester Joint Scholarships for PhD commencing September 2026.
The scholarships include tuition fees funded by the schools and living allowance funded by the China Scholarship Council. China Scholarship Council will also provide round-trip international airfare from China to the UK and visa and passport application fees.
Academic requirements
To be eligible applicants are required to meet the entry requirements for their programme.
Candidates must hold an unconditional offer letter from The University of Manchester. They must fulfil the relevant academic entry requirements set by The University of Manchester, including English language proficiency.
Deadlines
Below is the timeframe that will be followed for the scheme and the applicable deadlines:
| Action | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Deadline for applicants to submit UoM application | 12 January 2026 |
| Formal Offer to be issued and a Supervisor Nomination form submitted to the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team | 13 February 2026 |
| Departments to send their nominations to the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team | 20 February 2026 |
| Schools to send nominations to the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team | 27 February 2026 |
| Faculty panel to consider and rank nominations | 4 March 2026 |
| Candidates and Supervisors informed of the outcome of their nomination | By 6 March 2026 |
| Faculty to confirm nominations to International Office | By 6 March 2026 |
| International Office to submit candidates' details to CSC | 9 March 2026 |
| Faculty-nominated candidates are to apply at http://apply.csc.edu.cn | 10-31 March 2026 |
| CSC decision and announcement | End of June 2026 |
Full details can be found in the Call Document.
If you have a supervisee seeking to apply for CSC-UoM Joint Scholarship, you must submit the supervisor nomination form.
Allocation procedure
- Applicants submit their application by 12 January 2026. Applications must contain all necessary supporting documents and indicate the intention to apply for CSC-UoM scheme in section 9 of the application form.
- Applications are then circulated for review via PGRA. If you have a potential supervisee seeking CSC-UoM funding, please ensure to review their application in a timely manner. Applicants must hold a formal programme offer by 13 February 2026.
- The Supervisor Nomination Form must be submitted to the Doctoral Academy Admissions team by 20 February 2026. If all required approvals of the offer have not been given, or if the nomination form has not been submitted by 20 February 2026, the application will not be eligible for funding consideration.
- The Doctoral Academy Admissions Team will circulate the nomination forms to the Department PGR Director/Co-ordinator. The Department PGR Director/Co-ordinator reviews the nomination forms and ranks the candidates. The ranking is returned to the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team by 27 February 2026.
- The Doctoral Academy Admissions Team provides a candidate list containing the highest ranked candidate from each Department to School PGR Directors.
- School PGR Directors will review the department nominees and submit their top 4 ranked nominations to the Doctoral Academy Admissions Team. The Doctoral Academy Admissions Team will provide the school nominations to the Faculty Panel.
- The Doctoral Academy Admissions team will contact candidates not nominated for the Faculty Panel and inform them of the unsuccessful outcome, primary supervisors copied in.
- Faculty panel takes place, attended by the Associate Dean PGR and China specialists to review all nominations in the Faculty and rank nominations based on the following criteria:
- Academic track record (priority given to graduates from top Chinese institutions)
- Quality of research proposal
- Supervisor research profile (priority given to those published in high-impact journals in the last 5 years)
- The Faculty Panel returns the ranking of the top 9 nominees to the DA Admissions Team who then provides this to the International Office by 6 March 2026.
- The University of Manchester, via the International Office, provides a full list of nominees and reserve candidates to CSC by 9 March 2026.
- Candidates considered at the Faculty Panel are informed of the outcome of the nominations with supervisors copied in. Faculty nominated candidates are provided with a funding letter to support their funding application, and required to submit their application to CSC between 10 - 31 March 2026
- CSC will evaluate the candidates according to CSC requirements and priorities; provide The University of Manchester with a final list of scholarship recipients; and inform the successful candidates by the end of June 2026.