Studentships

Brunel University of London is pleased to invite applications for studentships in Education, offered through the ESRC-funded Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership (GUDTP). The GUDTP is an exciting collaboration between Brunel, the University of Oxford and the Open University, which offers its students access to innovative social science research training across all three institutions. Brunel DTP students in Education will be members of the GUDTP Education Pathway led by the University of Oxford and Brunel and delivered collaboratively by the two universities. You can find further information about the GUDTP here. Brunel DTP students on the Education pathway will join the Department of Education. Education at Brunel is a leading department in the UK offering the full range of provision at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In common with the university as a whole, the department has a rich ethnic mix among its student population and attracts a significant proportion of students from outside the European Union. The Education Department is ranked third in the Guardian University Guide 2027. In the last Research Excellence Framework, 60% of the Education Department’s research was world leading or internationally excellent and 90% of its impact was graded as internationally excellent. Our Doctoral Researchers are a key part of our research and scholarly community, and we seek to nurture and develop them as the next generation of researchers in education who both create and co-create new knowledge in order to advance the field. We view Education as a discipline in its own right as well as drawing on other disciplinary fields such as social policy, history, philosophy, sociology and human geography. We believe in the holistic development of the researcher and offer opportunities for doctoral researchers to become fully immersed in Department, College and wider University research networks, providing them with new insights into theory, methodology, methods, ethics and real-world application. Our research addresses education in the broadest sense, taking in both formal and informal education. Focusing across the lifecourse to include early years, schooling, higher education and lifelong learning. Departmental research is currently organised and led through three research groups: Education, Identities, and Society Media, Arts and Culture in Education STEM Education The Department is also affiliated with the following research groups and centres: Global Lives Human Geography: space, place and society Applicants are requested to contact Professor Emma Wainwright emma.wainwright@brunel.ac.uk to discuss their applications and indicate the member(s) of staff they consider suitable to potentially support their application. Joint Oxford-Brunel supervision will be available where beneficial, drawing on existing external co-supervision practices. More information on the Education research areas available at Brunel is available at: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Research-degrees/DTPs/Grand-Union-DTP

Brunel University London is pleased to invite applications for ESRC-funded studentships in Health and Wellbeing offered through the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership (GUDTP). The GUDTP is an exciting collaboration between Brunel, the University of Oxford and the Open University, which offers its students access to innovative social science research training across all three institutions. Brunel DTP students in Health & Wellbeing will be members of the GUDTP Health & Wellbeing Pathway, led by Brunel and delivered collaboratively by the three universities. You can find further information about the GUDTP here. Applicants conducting doctoral research in Health and Wellbeing at Brunel will be based within the appropriate subject area. The Pathway studentships are available across a wide agenda of the most significant national and global health and wellbeing challenges, offering applicants opportunities to work with expert research teams in a range of disciplines. Areas of expertise include - but are not restricted to - lifestyle behaviours and health and wellbeing inequalities sport, physical activity, health and wellbeing; health and wellbeing across the life course, including youth and in older age; psychology, health and wellbeing; health, social care and social work health economics digital health

Brunel University of London invites applications for a fully funded, three-year, full-time PhD studentship awarded through the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) London Doctoral Awards. The studentship is co-funded by Brunel and NIHR ARC London and sits within ARC London Theme 2: Prevention and Early Intervention. The student will be registered in Brunel Business School and will start on 1 October 2027. This is a competitive award. Funding of the successful applicant will be subject to NIHR London ARC award panel confirmation. NIHR ARC London is a large consrotium with several universities across London (UCL, KIng's College, Queen Mary, LSE, Queen Mary, SouthBank London, among others) The project English social care has relied on migrant workers, but overseas recruitment of care workers closed to new applicants on 22 July 2025, with in-country switching allowed only until July 2028. International recruits had already fallen from 105,000 in 2023/24 to 50,000 in 2024/25. Migrant workers are the most diverse part of the workforce, so the policy changes not just how many people deliver care, but who cares for whom. This PhD asks how ending overseas recruitment is affecting the capacity and quality of social care, and whether the system can deliver culturally appropriate care to older people. The project uses mixed methods. The quantitative strand uses a difference-in-differences design with Skills for Care workforce data, CQC registrations and ratings, and local authority returns. It exploits differences in how much providers and areas relied on international recruits before 2025 to estimate effects on vacancies, turnover, provider closures, quality and unmet need, and maps workforce composition against Census 2021 data on older people by religion, ethnicity and language. The qualitative strand interviews migrant care workers, employers, commissioners, older people and family carers in 2–3 local authorities in the ARC London area. It explores retention, sponsorship dependency and exploitation risk, and how cultural and religious matching (language, gender of carer, faith, food, end of life) shapes everyday care. Bringing the two strands together leads to a cost-consequence analysis of policy options and recommendations for commissioners ahead of the 2028 review. Supervision The student will be supervised by a cross-institution team that combines quantitative and qualitative expertise in migration, health and care: Professor Catia Nicodemo (Brunel, first supervisor), Professor Oyinlola Oyebode (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Joan Madia (Kings' College, London). What the studentship offers A tax-free stipend at the UKRI London rate for three years (£23,805 in 2026/27; the 2027/28 rate will be set by UKRI), plus tuition fees at the UKRI Home rate. Full-time study from 1 October 2027 to 30 September 2030. Opportunities to gain experience across ARC London, including patient and public involvement and engagement, implementation and knowledge mobilisation, and research capacity development. NIHR Career Development Award This Doctoral award will be an NIHR Career Development Award. ARC London Career Development Award holders will have regular networking opportunities and will be members of the NIHR Academy (benefits of Academy membership: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/nihr-academy/nihr-academy-member-benefits).There will be regular opportunities for award holders to apply to the ARC London Doctoral Award holders' Training and Development support funds for activities such as: expanding networks and forming new collaborations training courses training in, or development of, skills in research inclusion knowledge mobilisation implementation science any other development of skills or experience that would benefit future applications and longer-term research or practitioner academic career plans.