UCD Sutherland School of Law Doctoral Scholarships 2024

Closing date/time: Thursday 28^th March 2024, 5pm (Ireland)

The Sutherland School of Law is pleased to offer one new doctoral scholarship in law from 2024-2025. The scholarship is aimed at outstanding candidates who exceed the threshold criteria for admission to the PhD programme. In particular:

- Candidates should have a First-Class honours undergraduate degree (or equivalent), or a high 2.1 honours degree (or equivalent) supplemented by outstanding subsequent academic or professional accomplishments.

- Candidates should have either a Master’s degree or extensive and relevant professional experience.

The scholarship will provide tuition fees at up to the non-EU rate and a yearly stipend of €22,000. The scholarship is tenable for a maximum of four years, renewable each year subject to satisfactory progress. The scholarship is available to full time students commencing their doctoral studies in the Sutherland School of Law in September 2024 or January 2025. A limited amount of teaching and related duties will be required of scholarship holder.

The Sutherland School of Law has a diverse international community of doctoral students from Europe, Asia and America and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

How to apply:

1. Please complete an on-line University Graduate application for PhD in Law FT/B142 available at https://www.ucd.ie/registry/prospectivestudents/admissions/graduateapplicants/applying/

By the deadline

2. Please also send a covering letter explaining why you wish to undertake a PhD, and in particular, why you wish to undertake a PhD at UCD Sutherland School of Law. If known, please include the name of the academic who you would like to supervise your research. This letter should be no more than 2 sides of A4 single-spaced and can be sent as an email attachment to Ms. Niamh McCabe, Graduate Programme Manager at (opens in a new window)niamh.mccabe@ucd.ie

You must also submit the following documents online as part of the online application:

1. A research proposal, there is no maximum length for a research proposal. Normally, it would be at least three or four pages long. This must include:
   • a statement of the research question the candidate proposes to examine;
   • an outline of the proposed methodology (in other words, an outline of how the applicant proposes to go about their research); and
   • a brief literature review. (The idea of this is to place the research within the current state of knowledge in the field in question. It should include a short, indicative, bibliography of works in the field).
2. Two academic references: Please note that it is your responsibility to contact your referees to ensure that references are received by the school before the closing date/time for this scholarship. The school will not contact your referees.
3. All academic transcripts.
4. Applicants whose first language is not English must submit satisfactory evidence of competence in written and spoken English, i.e. overall IELTS score of 7.5 (including a minimum of 7 in all bands) or a score of 109 overall in the TOEFL iBT, 27/30 in reading and writing and 23/30 in speaking and listening. The test results must be less than 2 years old.

If you have queries on the scholarships, please contact Ms. McCabe at the above email address.

Late applications will not be accepted for the scholarship.

All applicants will be notified of the decision of the Scholarship Committee. The Committee’s decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into about the committee’s decisions. The School of Law reserves the right to decline to offer scholarships to candidates who meet the criteria for admission to the PhD programme but do not, in the judgement of the Scholarship Committee, meet the scholarship award criteria set out above. Applicants not awarded a scholarship may nevertheless be offered a place on the PhD programme.

Note: if an international applicant is offered a scholarship covering tuition fees at less than the non-EU rate, any such offer will be conditional on the applicant demonstrating at the time of accepting the offer that s/he has sufficient funds to cover the difference between the EU and non-EU tuition fees and, in the case of all international applicants, that the applicant has sufficient funds to supplement the stipend to cover the cost of living in Dublin. Information for international students contemplating studying at UCD is available at UCD Global | International Students University in Dublin

School of Law Masters Bursaries

UCD Sutherland School of Law is pleased to offer bursaries of €4000 to fund full time study in the LLM, MSc (Criminology and Criminal Justice), the MSc in International Law and Business and MSc Environmental and Climate Law.  In addition, there will be a bursary available for the MCL programme - 25% fee reduction in year 1 and 2 of the programme.  Details of the Programmes are available here.

All successful EU applications (for any of the School of Law masters programmes) received before May 31^st will be considered for the bursaries. Applicants should hold at least an upper second class honours degree at undergraduate or graduate level or be in the final year of their degree with an upper second class honours average to date. The scholarship is available to candidates commencing their studies next September.

• Please direct any queries regarding the scholarships and bursaries to Justine McCann by email to (opens in a new window)Justine.mccann@ucd.ieor by telephone to + 353 1 716 4109
• The closing date to be included in the Scholarship and bursary competition is May 31st
• All successful applicants will be notified of the outcome of the decision of the scholarship committee.  No correspondence will be entered into about the committee’s decision.
• All applicants should provide two academic referees names, if they wish to be included in the scholarship competition.

Please note that a number of scholarships will be offered for Non-EU students through the UCD Global Office  See here for further information.

James Healy Masters Scholarship in Law

UCD Sutherland School of Law, with the generous support of James Healy, is pleased to offer a scholarship to fund full-time study in the Masters of Laws (LLM) Programmes in the School of Law. Details of the Programmes are available here (applies to the LLM only).

All successful EU applications for the LLM received before May 31st  will be considered for the scholarship. Applicants should hold at least an upper second class honours law degree at undergraduate or graduate level or be in the final year of their degree with an upper second class honours average to date. The scholarship is available to candidates commencing their studies next September.

The scholarship will be in the amount of €5,000 plus a fee waiver (to the value of EU Fees). 

The Doreen FitzGerald Caprani Masters Scholarship in Law

UCD Sutherland School of Law, with the generous support of Craig Nethercott (BCL 1991), is pleased to offer a scholarship, in memory of the donor’s grandmother, to fund full or part-time study in any of the following four Masters programmes in the School:

• LLM (Master of Laws)
• MCL (Masters in Common Law)
• MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• MSc in International Law and Business
• MSc in Environmental and Climate Law

Students proposing to undertake any of the four Masters programmes listed above in UCD Sutherland School of Law, for either one year on a full-time basis or part-time over two years, are eligible for consideration for the scholarship.  

A scholarship, to the value of €12,000 will be awarded annually.  The scholarship will comprise €9,000 towards the programme fees and a stipend of €3,000 for the recipient scholar.  Where fee differences occur between the four Masters programmes (see above), the School will waive the difference between the fee and the €9,000 scholarship. 

Candidates may be a UCD undergraduate, or a graduate from another university within the EU.  Applications will also be considered from those students outside the EU, where the school will waive the fee difference between the scholarship amount and applicable fee.   

Eligible candidates will be considered, by the School’s Scholarship Committee, on the basis of the completed application for the relevant master’s programme – including the personal statement, academic references and academic achievements submitted as part of the application for the programme.   Applicants must have achieved a Grade Point Average of 3.08 or higher or equivalent in an approved University degree programme.

Students must have completed the application for the programme by no later than 31 May prior to the start of the relevant academic sessions - 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 - in which they are undertaking the programme. 

International Graduate Scholarships

There are a range of scholarships available for international students studying graduate law programmes at UCD. Before applying for a scholarship, you must first apply online to your chosen law programmes at www.ucd.ie/apply.  When you have been offered a place you can then apply for the scholarship of your choice.

UCD Global also offers international students a number of 50% and 100% Global Excellence Scholarships.  Full details of scholarships for your country of residence can be found here: https://www.ucd.ie/global/scholarships/.

Undergraduates students who were eligible for government SUSI funding should note that they may be eligible for postgraduate funding under the scheme. To check your eligibility please see the SUSI eligibility indicator tool available at this (opens in a new window)weblink

Further information about SUSI grants and funding is available at this(opens in a new window) weblink.