How to get a PhD without a (full-priced) master’s

If you want to pursue a PhD in the UK and don’t have the means to support yourself financially, you are likely to encounter a roadblock. 

To have a good chance of getting into one of the highly competitive funded PhD programmes, you will typically need a master’s degree. The problem is that, unlike at undergraduate level, postgraduate loans tend to cover course fees only. 

For example, if you wanted to do an MSc in the computing department at Imperial College London, it would cost you £22,600, about £10k over the maximum postgraduate loan entitlement. 

Although it is possible to work for several years while living with your parents to save enough money to do a master’s, or work during your master’s to cover living costs, the graduate job market is currently bleak and these approaches are not the easiest.

Although it’s unusual to get a funded PhD without a master’s, I and many other students have managed it, and I hope to show the ways you could too:

Get research experience during your undergraduate degree

If you want to do a PhD, the more research experience and interest in research you can demonstrate, the better. Societies, such as the Royal Society of Biology, fund summer research placements, particularly for students in their second year. 

Some supervisors are also happy to take on undergraduate students in their lab/group part-time during term time. Another great way to get research experience is to become involved in academic publishing. During my undergraduate degree, I ran the biggest undergraduate scientific journal – the Journal of Young Investigators, which gave me invaluable editorial skills that serve me to this day. 

Do a year in industry/research

Increasingly, many programmes (particularly in the biological sciences) advertise optional years in industry or research as part of the undergraduate degree, and many more universities will allow it if you ask.

These positions are typically paid and offer an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on research experience. I took a year out of my studies to work at a biotech start-up, which then hired me on graduation to work in their newly formed lab. 

Do an integrated master’s

In recent years, MSci courses (and their equivalents) have gained popularity. These four-year programmes typically include a final year, during which you are placed in a lab, as in an MRes master’s degree. 

Technically, you remain an undergraduate throughout, so you remain eligible for the full tuition and maintenance loan for your fourth year.  

Apply for an integrated master’s/PhD programme 

These are rare, but there are a few funded PhD programmes with a paid master’s degree built in. These are usually advertised as “funded MRes/PhDs” and usually include a full UK Research and Innovation PhD stipend (currently about £20k) for the full duration of the programme. 

Do a research-based master’s

These programmes are often much cheaper than taught master’s – the University of Exeter charges £5,006 for its research master’s in biological sciences. At some universities, these students are allowed to do some undergraduate teaching. For example, at Royal Holloway, University of London, master’s students earn approximately £18 an hour doing this.

Increasingly, master’s are not explicitly required by PhD schemes. If you have experience that a potential supervisor would consider equivalent to or greater than a master’s, you need not let the financial hurdle of a master’s prevent you gaining a PhD.