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Fees and funding

Research degree fees

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Fees for research degree students

We'll assess your fee status when you apply to Essex and if you are successful in gaining an offer, your fee status will be confirmed in your offer letter. Visit our fee status page for more information.

We offer a wide range of scholarships, studentships and bursaries to make funding your studies easier, including our Postgraduate Research EU Scholarship worth up to £8000. If you're an Essex graduate or studied abroad here and your PhD is your first postgraduate course with us, you could also be eligible for our alumni loyalty discount.

If you are studying part-time at twice the standard duration (i.e. 72 months for a PhD) then you will pay half of the relevant fee each year.

2025-2026 fees
2026-2027 fees
Completion, extension and other fees

2025-26

The tables below show full-time fees, for one year of study, for students in 2025-26.

Each year, UKRI usually increases its fee and stipend levels in line with inflation, based on the Treasury GDP deflator. Minimum fees recommended by UKRI are adopted as the University of Essex Home-level tuition fee for postgraduate researchers on most doctoral programmes. The UKRI minimum stipend level is often used as a guide for other funders.

PhD, MPhil, MAD and MSD

Department/Centre

Home fee

International fee

Life Sciences

Psychology

Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science

£5,006

£22,550

Art History
Computational Finance and Economic Agents
Computer Science and Electronic Engineering
Economics
Essex Business School
Government
Health & Social Care
History
Human Rights
ISER
Languages and Linguistics
Law
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Philosophy
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Sociology

£5,006

£19,650

Professional Doctorates

Department	Home fee	International fee
Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies	£5,250	£9,825
School of Health and Social Care: Occupational Therapy	£2,393	£11,275
School of Health and Social Care: Clinical Psychology	£19,000 Fees for funded places are paid by Health Education East of England	£25000 Fee includes £5000 bench fee.
School of Health and Social Care: Speech and Language Therapy (this course is only available to applicants from the UK or EU)	TBC	TBC
School of Health and Social Care: all other Prof Doctorates	TBC	TBC
School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences	TBC	TBC

2026-27

The tables below show full-time fees, for one year of study, for students in 2026-27.

PhD, MPhil, MAD and MSD

Department/Centre	Home fee	International fee
Life Sciences Psychology Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science	£5,238	£23,625
Art History Computational Finance and Economic Agents Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Economics Essex Business School Government Health & Social Care History Human Rights ISER Languages and Linguistics Law Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science Philosophy Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies Sociology	£5,238	£20,625

Professional Doctorates

Department	Home fee	International fee
Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies	£5,250	£9,825
School of Health and Social Care: Occupational Therapy	£2,619	£11,813
School of Health and Social Care: Clinical Psychology	£19,000 Fees for funded places are paid by Health Education East of England	£25,000 Fee includes £5,000 bench fee
School of Health and Social Care: Speech and Language Therapy (this course is only available to applicants from the UK or EU)	£2,619	£10,313
School of Health and Social Care: all other Prof Doctorates	£2,619	£10,313
School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences	£2,619	£11,813

Annual fee changes

For students commencing their studies at the University of Essex in 2026-27 academic year, your fees will increase by up to 5% for each academic year of study. This is subject to review for each subsequent academic year.

PhD, MPhil, MAD and MSD tuition fees for Home students are set by UK Research Council (UKRI). UKRI usually increase their fee levels in line with inflation.

We publish information on how we use your fees.

Completion, extension and other fees

The following fees apply to the courses listed above for all subject areas and all fee status categories for the academic year 2025-26 and 2026-27.

Completion, extension and other fees	Fee
Completion Period (up to three terms)	£250 per term
Further Completion for students first registered prior to 2008-2009 (up to three terms)	£500 per term
Exceptional extension to maximum period, following Completion period, for students first registered from 2008-2009	£500 per term
Extension fee for Doctorate in Clinical Psychology	Part-time fees per term
PGR re-examination or re-submission*	No charge for reassessment

You will also be liable for the appropriate registration fee for the referral period. In most cases, this will be the ‘exceptional extension to maximum period’ fee (per term). However, if you originally submitted your thesis without using the maximum three terms of ‘completion period’ available to you, you will first be registered for the remainder of your ‘completion period’ term(s) followed by the ‘exceptional extension to maximum period’ for the rest of your referral period. Details of the fees for these periods of study are outlined above.

Additional fees

Listed below are the potential additional costs that Postgraduate Research Students may have to pay in addition to the standard fee when undertaking a research degree with us.

In some Schools/Departments/Centres, please note that additional fees are charged to cover direct costs related to the project, such as bench fees and the costs of consumables.

Where a research project will attract such fees, these will be detailed in the formal University offer letter. In other cases, there may some costs associated with your studies that are required in order for you to progress, alongside other costs that are not required but which you may wish to cover on a voluntary basis in order to support your studies.

All additional costs vary by department and, sometimes, by research area. Your department will be able to advise you about all possible additional costs associated with your studies.

Bench Fees - dependent on Department and area of research
Submission of theses for examinations - cost per thesis approx. £30-40 depending on length and number of colour pages
Printing costs for poster presentations
Submission of theses for re-examination - cost per thesis approx. £30-40 depending on length and number of colour pages
Replacement student cards
Most submissions to monitor progress are completed electronically but if paper copies are required then there would be a cost for this
Books for study not available online or in the library- would vary by course
Costs associated with research (ie fieldwork, incentives, meetings, access to data, recording equipment)
Proofreading of thesis prior to submission for examination
IT equipment/ software/hardware
Conference Attendance (partially covered by Proficio)
Training costs (not covered by Proficio)
Subscription fees for online journals not available through the library
Membership fees for Professional Bodies or Learned Societies
Open Access publication charges