Clarendon Fund - Clarendon Partnership award

Clarendon Partnership award

You will receive your full course fees covered as well as a living costs allowance of at least £20,780 per year (about 24,000 EUR) if you are studying full-time. The allowance is paid for the entire period during which you are liable for tuition fees. A ‘Partnership Award’ is not a scholarship that you can apply for separately. It forms part of the University of Oxford’s Clarendon Fund. Once you have been awarded a Clarendon Scholarship, the Fund will allocate one or more ‘Partnership Awards’ to you. These are paid by an Oxford college, a department or an external organisation, and your award will bear the name of that partner. For 2025–26, there were approximately 240 ‘Partnership Awards’, meaning that most Clarendon scholars receive such a grant in addition to their basic funding. You will also become part of a large international community of PhD students.

Who can apply

• The route: You must first be awarded a Clarendon Scholarship at Oxford. There is no separate application form for the Partnership Award; the fund awards it automatically.
• Degree level: You are applying for a new full-time or part-time Master’s programme or a DPhil (PhD) programme at the University of Oxford.
• New students only: You are just starting your degree programme, are not yet halfway through your studies, and have not yet received conditional admission.
• Field of study: Any topic is fine.
• Nationality and residence: Applicants of all nationalities and from all countries are welcome to apply. Some individual scholarships are linked to a specific country, subject area or higher education institution, but this only affects which scholarships you are eligible for, not whether you can receive funding.
• Grades: You have an excellent academic record, equivalent to a First Class Honours degree or an equivalent qualification.

How to apply

Apply for your Master’s or DPhil programme at Oxford by the application deadline in December or January, as stated on the programme page. You will then be automatically considered for the Clarendon Scholarship. The academic departments will assess and nominate candidates, and successful applicants will receive a response in around February or March. From April onwards, the team will allocate scholarship holders to the Partnership Awards, so you do not need to take any further action.

How realistic are your chances?

The Clarendon Scholarship is open to all disciplines and nationalities, making it one of the best-known and most sought-after postgraduate scholarships at Oxford. Selection is based solely on academic excellence, so applicants who stand out significantly in their field have a genuine chance of success, whilst a merely good academic record is not sufficient. If you are awarded the Clarendon Scholarship, a ‘Partnership Award’ is more of a given than an additional hurdle, as most scholarship holders are assigned one.