Applying to Henley

We have an established PhD programme with more than 200 students coming from around the world to work with Faculty members based in one of our six departments. If you are looking to undertake a PhD in Accounting and Financial Management, Finance, Informatics and System Science, International Business and Strategy, Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour, Marketing and Reputation, or Real Estate & Planning, we aim to provide you with an outstanding research environment, conducive to the production of leading research and to the education of academics who will take up faculty positions in a range of universities and research roles in public and private institutions. The programme emphasises:

• Formal research training
• Flexibility to meet individual needs
• Student-staff interaction
• Timely completion of the degree.

As part of your personal development, you will also have the opportunity to contribute to teaching and research activities within the Business School and to engage in academic events held here and around the world (e.g. conferences, training, etc.).

For 2024/25 there are 18 fully-funded scholarships available, across the research areas of the Henley Business School, including 3 scholarships aligned with the World of Work Institute, the Centre for Business Ethics and Sustainability, and Henley Africa.

These scholarships will be awarded based on academic merit and cover tuition fees and provide a three-year stipend (subject to performance) aligned with the UKRI. For reference, the annual UKRI stipend rate in 2023/24 is £18,622.

Deadline for scholarship applications is 15 March 2024. Applications received after this deadline may be considered if all scholarships are not awarded.

Teaching assistantship opportunities will be available for selected students.

More funding opportunities are available from the University of Reading. For more information please visit the Doctoral and Researcher College website.

The application process normally consists of three main steps:

1. Formal application

Before applying formally you may want to contact a potential supervisor among our faculty members who is working in your area and could be interested in your topic. Please avoid contacting multiple faculty members simultaneously. We do talk to each other, and this is not seen as a professional practice.

2. Shortlisting based on the documents you uploaded in your application

3. Formal interview to assess your suitability to pursue a PhD at Henley Business School.

• Top grades in your Masters and/or Bachelor degrees.
• Top grade in your Dissertation (or equivalent research-based piece of work), if available.
• A well-developed research proposal. The proposal should aim to show both the academic potential of your research and the fit with the expertise and supervision capacity at the Henley Business School. Guidance on writing the research proposal can be found here, but you are welcome to get in touch with a potential supervisor among our faculty members or the PGR director of your program of interest for more specific advice.