Durham University Is Accepting Research Proposals for Its Tuition-Free Doctorates

Durham University is accepting research proposals for its doctoral programmes. Tuition is £0 for the Doctor of Business Administration, the Doctor of Education, and the PhD programmes in business, computer science, data science, public health and education.

A doctorate at Durham University is supervised intensively and assessed to full doctoral standard. There is a taught or structured methods component, monthly research clinics, a named supervisor and a second reader, a proposal defence, and an online viva before a panel that includes an independent examiner. "Free does not mean fast, and it does not mean easy," said the Director of Doctoral Education. "It means you can do this without a loan."

The college is looking for proposals where the candidate has genuine access to the problem. For the professional doctorates that usually means the candidate's own organisation or sector. For the PhDs it means a clear, answerable research question and the data or field access to pursue it.

Hannah Okafor, a school principal in Cairo, is researching feedback cycles at her own school. Chidi Balewa, in Kigali, is moving toward a public-health research question grounded in his district's community health service.

Examination and administrative charges are published in advance and exam sponsorship is available. Preparatory research-methods short courses run through the open academy for applicants who need to strengthen design and analysis before submitting.

Proposals should be two to four pages: the problem, why it matters, the proposed approach, the candidate's access to data or a field site, and an honest account of the risks. The Doctoral College returns a decision or a request for revision, not silence.

Staff across admissions, registry, teaching and student services are told to design every process as if the default student is studying after a full day's work: recorded sessions, published rubrics, named advisers, and a library desk that does not close at the end of one country's office hours. Durham University will not pretend a programme is light. Applicants should plan their weekly hours before accepting an offer and ask direct questions at the open webinars if a page reads as vague.

Durham University is a pan-African digital university with no campus to relocate to. Founded in 2009, it publishes news that is operational rather than ceremonial: what changed in a programme, who can apply, how assessment works, and how global students get help. Every programme is delivered fully online; there is no campus, and no student is asked to relocate. Questions about the claims in this article should go to the office named as author above.