The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has confirmed that it will be funding over 1200 new post-graduate research students this Autumn, allowing them the opportunity to undertake either a Masters or a PhD in some aspect of arts and humanities research.
This news offers some career stability for UK post-graduates at a time when they are entering a world where jobs are thin on the ground.
These new awards will be the first cohort of a substantial commitment by the AHRC to fund new arts and humanities MA and PhD over the next five years.
AHRC Chief Executive Professor Rick Rylance said ‘‘These 1200 awards for post-graduate research in the arts and humanities reaffirm the commitment of the AHRC to ensure that the next generation of UK researchers will be trained to the highest standards, equipping them for a career in higher education or for a wide range of other professions. By supporting these young researchers we are helping to maintain the health and sustainability of arts and humanities disciplines, partly by supporting established subject areas but also focusing on vulnerable disciplines such as modern languages and encouraging developments in emerging research areas such as those relating to the UK’s vibrant creative and cultural industries’’
These awards are the first to be made thanks to the two new mechanisms the AHRC introduced this year for allocating its postgraduate funding - the five-year Block Grant Partnership scheme and the annual Studentship Competition.
In addition to these awards the AHRC will also be providing funding for a further ten Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs) in 2010 to support projects in Museology, Design and in Applied Arts & Crafts. The closing date to apply for these new awards is 29/10/2009 and can be done online at the Joint Electronic Submission - (JE-S) System.
Collaborative Doctoral Awards (also known as CASE awards) are intended to encourage and develop collaboration and partnerships between Higher Education Institution (HEI) departments and non-academic organisations and businesses.
These awards provide opportunities for doctoral students to gain first hand experience of work outside an academic environment. The support provided by both an academic and non-academic supervisor enhances the employment-related skills and training a research student gains during the course of their award.
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Notes to the editor
AHRC Media contact Emi Spinner, Communications Officer, 0117 9876 773
About the Arts and Humanities Research Council - Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. Arts and humanities researchers constitute over a quarter of all research-active staff in the higher education sector. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
Block Grant Partnerships (BGPs) are awards held by certain Research Organisations (ROs) for a period of 5 years, starting with students commencing their studies in October 2009. Each BGP will include a number of studentship awards and these will be advertised by the individual Research Organisations. A list of organisations holding BGPs, along with the subject areas in which they can offer studentships is available on our website.
Under the BGPs, the RO will apply for and be awarded studentships under three schemes, which enable arts and humanities students to undertake Master’s-level study or doctoral study at a Research Organisation in the United Kingdom.
The Studentship Competition provides postgraduate students studying at Research Organisations (ROs) in the UK with the opportunity to submit an individual proposal for an award. The Studentship Competition is of equal standing to the Block Grant Partnership (BGP) competition. Its purpose is to recognise that ROs with a historically smaller award profile with the AHRC still offer excellent postgraduate provision, and to enable these organisations to build capacity. Only ROs that do not hold a BGP award are eligible to submit proposals to the Studentship Competition.
Through its two new postgraduate funding mechanisms (the BGPs and the Studentship Competition), the AHRC aims to maintain stability across the subjects it supports, while allowing some scope for supporting newly emerging disciplines or courses. Based on the ROs solely eligible to submit applications, we anticipate that a large proportion of the awards made under the Studentship Competition will fall within the fields of the Creative and Performing Arts. We also expect that the majority of awards will be in the Professional Preparation Master’s Scheme.
Under the Studentship Competition, awards are available for arts and humanities students to undertake Master’s-level study or doctoral study at a Research Organisation in the United Kingdom.