Applications for the Academic year October 2024- September 2025 open mid September, Funding application deadlines are as follows:
Gates US: 11th October 2023
Postgraduate Funding Competition (all other funders including Gates Cambridge): 5thDecember 2023
IMPORANT – this included applications from applicants who wish to be considered for Cambridge Trust funding (both inside and outside the EU).
Please note that ALL supporting documents (references, transcript, CV) must be uploaded within 7 days of the date of applying
A timeline for post-graduate funding competitions can be found here
(Applications for Lent and Easter 2024 are still being considered, but funding must already be secured, application deadlines available here)
Applicants are invited to follow the application flow chart and the additional information provided in the text below. Failure to do so, may result in your application being delayed or rejected.
Which qualification do you want to apply for?
PhD (thesis)– minimum 3 years, maximum 4 years full-time; code: MDNS22[Clinical Neurosciences NOTAF]
MPhil by research(thesis) (1 year); code: MDNSM2 [Medical Sciences MPhil (ClinNeuroSci)]
Admission Eligibility
Competition for admission to the University of Cambridge Postgraduate Programme is intense. Like all departments in the Graduate School, we require all our entrants to have:
- A Good II.i Honours Degree
- Two outstanding references from senior University staff at your most recent University
- Fluency in the English language – recent IELTS test with an overall band score of at least 7.0 with not less than 7.0 in speaking, listening and writing, and 6.5 in reading.
- We do not usually consider intercalating students unless the supervisor is strongly supportive and applicant does well at interview.
For more details of the University’s academic requirements see the University’s Graduate Admissions
All applications have a set fee which is administered by the Graduate Admissions Office further information on this can be found here
Funding
If you intend to apply for funding, University wide funding competitions, College Studentships or External Scholarships are advertised annually in early September. Occasionally, Department sponsored PhD studentships are available. These are advertised on the Learning Opportunities page.
Complete the application process as indicated in the application process flow chart. University wide funding competitions (eg Gates, Cambridge Overseas & Commonwealth Trusts, Cambridge Home and EU Scholarships etc) all have very early deadlines.
Please ensure you select the appropriate funding boxes if you wish to be considered for funding, failure to tick the box will stop you from being nominated for certain funding.
When applying to the programme with your own funding (personal, fellowship or studentship) please only apply to the course that your funding covers.
Please also see the funding search for funding options.
Further information; How to Apply for Funding
Cambridge MRC DTP and iCASE Programme
Closing Dates
Please make a careful note of the closing dates for the various scholarships and courses offered. They vary by category and country. We cannot consider late applications.
Closing dates for on-line applications are listed on the Postgraduate Study pages. Your on-line application will not be considered if it is submitted after these dates.
Research Projects
The first question on the GRADSAF application form requires you to choose a course – for research applicants this means you need to specifying which project(s) or supervisors(s) in which you wish to work. Please identify a proposed supervisor on your application form.
To choose a project, you need to do some serious homework to identify a topic and one or more supervisors within the department with whom you wish to work. Identify the research project you wish to apply for by reviewing the list of available research projects.
Selection dates
For those applying for Lent or Easter 2024, interviews will be a couple of weeks after closing deadlines.
For anyone applying for the next academic year 2024/2025 and for the funding round (deadline early December 2023) interviews will be the first week in January 2024. If you have been shortlisted for an interview you will be contacted by e-mail, as well as those who are not shortlisted.
*Please note that you can apply only once to any individual course in an academic year. This means that you cannot apply twice to the PhD in a particular department with two different research proposals, and you cannot apply again in the same academic year to a course from which you have been rejected.
Further helpful links;
https://pgstdnt.medschl.cam.ac.uk/
Postgraduate Admissions Page & a Help Chat Feature
For Prospective students, why not try the new Unibuddy platform where you can have a one-on-one chat with current students in the University.
For any further queries please contact the Education team on pgneurosci@medschl.cam.ac.uk
