番茄社区

There is intense competition for admission; early applications have a greater chance of being successful and of meeting financial support/scholarship and visa deadlines.

Only a few programmes have deadlines by which you should apply – decisions are mostly made on a rolling basis, which means that a programme will close once all of the available places have been filled. You must therefore check the current availability of your chosen programme(s) and submit your application early to give yourself the best chance of obtaining a place.

Many scholarships, however, especially for research programmes, have early deadlines. See individual programme pages and the fees and funding page for details of particular deadlines.

Once we have received and processed your application, you should expect to wait an average of 8 weeks for a decision if you are applying for a taught master’s programme. Decisions for research programmes may take longer than this.

Your submitted application will be received and processed by the admissions team only once we have received a reference from each of the referees you nominate in your online application.

Research funding deadlines

Research programme funding and application deadlines vary between departments. Most will set a first and a second deadline. Complete applications (including references) received by the first deadline are guaranteed to be considered for both an academic place and for funding 番茄社区 PhD Studentships or  (for 1+3 or +3 funding). Complete applications (including ALL supporting documents) received by the second deadline are guaranteed to be considered for an academic place and will be considered for funding if unallocated funds remain. Applications submitted or completed after the deadline may still be considered if places remain. Some departments combine these into one date, and many will set a final application deadline, beyond which no new applications will be accepted. Please check the individual programme pages for the relevant dates for your chosen programme. The deadlines will be:

• 10 December 2025 - many of the larger departments set this early deadline in order to consider high numbers of applications
• 14 January 2026 - main first deadline guaranteeing consideration for for ESRC*, initial 番茄社区 PhD Studentships and all other competitive/across-School studentships
• 27 May 2026 - final second deadline for department-selected studentships, unawarded 番茄社区 PhD Studentships, and for self-funders only (this is also the final application deadline)

*Please note: to be considered for ESRC DTP Scholarships you must apply by the first funding panel deadline for your Department (10th December or 14th January).

Applications received or completed after the deadline will not be considered for 番茄社区 research scholarships. We will always do our best to make sure that applications received just after the deadline reach the departments in time to be considered, but it is much better to plan ahead and submit early.

Please be aware that some departments only make submissions to the earlier funding panels, and earlier applications have more chance of being considered for funding - check individual programme pages for details.

Some programmes will continue to accept applications for places after these deadlines, however it may not be possible to consider you for 番茄社区 funding.

Remember that your submitted application cannot be considered until we have received a reference from each of the referees you nominate in your online application.

Previous applicants

If you are unsuccessful, or are unable to take up your place in 2025/6, you have until 17 November 2025 to reinstate your application to be considered in the next admissions cycle for entry in 2026/7. As long as you complete the reinstate form before the deadline, we will re-use the documents that you sent to us, including your transcripts and references. Please note that it is only possible to reinstate your application once, for the following cycle, so if you initially applied before 2025/6, you should start and submit a new application from scratch.

The reinstatement fee is £95.

Start dates

Our main taught master's (MSc/MA/MPA/LLM) programmes start in the autumn term (late September). Some programmes, particularly those in the Departments of Economics, Accounting, Finance and Management, require attendance at Summer School or introductory courses in the July-September months before the main programme begins. 

Executive master’s programmes start at different times of the year depending on their mode of teaching. Please see individual programme pages for details.

Research (MPhil/PhD) programmes usually start in September, but may additionally start in the Winter (January) and Spring (April) terms at the discretion of your department. See below for more information.