UKRI’s London PhD weighting has effectively been frozen at £2000 per year for decades.
The earliest official mention we can find is from 2006, but anecdotal evidence suggests it has been this way in some research councils since at least 1994.
While base stipends have risen, the extra cost of living in London compared with the rest of the UK has grown sharply. Many, if not most, of the PhD students I represent at Imperial College weren’t even born when this rate was set.
Research we conducted collaboratively as London Russell Group students’ unions over the past year highlights the severity of the issue and its impact on students and the accessibility of studying at PhD level.
Over 1200 survey responses were collected from students at Imperial, King’s College London, and University College London.
The findings – 90.8 per cent of students struggle to cover their additional living expenses, 78.0 per cent have had their mental health affected by their finances, and 89.8 per cent are dissatisfied with their funder’s response to the cost-of-living crisis.
It’s clear that the cost of doing a PhD in London isn’t just financial – there’s a real impact on wellbeing, with many students balancing extra paid work opportunities just to continue their studies, which are funded because their research is a real benefit to society.
What students are saying:
I am worried every day, I go to sleep worried, I wake up worried”
Yes, it makes me feel restless and incapable of doing my PhD work. This is especially true during term/summer break when there are no teaching duties. I am trying to get a part-time job to help with this, but my supervisor was already unhappy with me pursuing teaching duties, so I will probably not let them know about this.”
Mind the gaps
As illustrated in our proposal, while the minimum UKRI stipend adjusted for 2025-26 measures 1.2 per cent higher than the CPIH-adjusted value, the set stipend of £22,780 for London stipend is roughly 10 per cent less than the CPIH-adjusted equivalent of £25,320.
This comparison between CPIH-adjusted values for the minimal national and London stipends suggests the London weighting would have to be £4,540 per annum to account for the current cost of living.
Housing costs are, as one could expect, one of the major drivers of this gap. According to the Office for National Statistics, average rent in London (£1625 per month) is significantly higher than the national average of (£850), and £575, or £6900 annually, more than the second most expensive region, South-East England.
One student captured its impact:
Rent is ridiculously high but moving further out is not an option because that would increase travel costs. I knew these things would be an issue before, but I did not grasp the full scope of the impact. I would still go through with the program all over again because I love my subject and my lab group but it is objectively a bad life choice to do a PhD in London, at least if there is no financial support available in addition to the usual ~22k. Sometimes it feels like I can’t breathe.
The gap is also clear when comparing PhD support with undergraduate funding. The maximum maintenance loan for London undergraduates is £3218 higher than for students outside London, 61 per cent more than the £2000 London weighting for PhD students.
It’s worth noting this inconsistency as there’s no apparent justification, highlighting the under-supported experience of postgraduate researchers relative to undergraduates.
The real cost of doing a PhD in London
As shown above, respondents were given the opportunity to leave free text comments, and 1165 responded. A diverse selection of responses was chosen, but they speak for themselves.
I have had days where I have to choose between travelling in to do my PhD work or eating”
When I needed dental treatment I was not able comfortably pay for it, as the stipend did not allow me to build up an emergency fund after covering basic expenses. I ended up having to opt for a cheaper, more temporary option and spread the cost across multiple credit cards.”
I actually put off doing a PhD to work and save up money because I wasn’t sure that I could afford to do it without that, as the stipend (even with London weighting) did not look enough to survive on in the city. I budget extremely careful and scrape by every money, using my savings to pay for rent. At the end of last month (March 2025), I was down to 5p before the stipend was paid out. I find myself thinking about money all the time, and there are so many things I turn down doing, as I know I can’t afford them.”
I have often worried that I will graduate when I am 28 with no savings or anything to my name because I live paycheck to paycheck”
PhD students are contributing directly to the UK’s research, innovation, and industrial strategy, as well as producing work whose impact extends beyond national borders, to benefit society in ways we can’t imagine or fully understand yet. If UKRI is funding these PhDs, it’s because there is value to the wider public.
Some months ago we welcomed the UKRI’s increase of 8 per cent on the national stipend, and recognise their broader investments alongside the tight financial environment across the sector. However, these increase don’t address the significant gap in support for London-based students.
We propose that UKRI:
- Reviews and implements a step increase to the London weighting, to better reflect the true cost of living in London.
- Indexes the weighting to an appropriate measure of inflation to maintain its real value.
- Works with relevant stakeholders, including universities and student representatives, to gather data on the financial circumstances of PhD students in London to inform future adjustments.
This is aligned with the recommendation that funding bodies should look at the experience of London students, as reported in the UKRI commissioned research led by SQW in 2024. We hope this change would set a standard and other funders would also increase their London weighting.
Our proposal reflects feedback from multiple universities’ stakeholders, who explained that it would be impractical for them to fund this increase themselves, as this would lead to a significant reduction in the number of PhD studentships available. Limiting university contributions this way would undermine the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, which relies on a steady pipeline of skilled researchers.
The current funding model risks excluding those best suited to research, it’s skewing access toward those who can absorb the financial hit. PhD positions should be awarded to candidates of best fit, not those limited by their ability to cover costs, as mentioned by one of the respondents:
I believe that unless something changes, undertaking a PhD in London will become the preserve of independently wealthy individuals or those who are as lucky as I am to have a working partner. This will only serve to widen the existing inequities in access to doctoral education experienced by working class and ‘non-traditional’ students.
