World-Leading Scholarship in English

Project

This research project investigates the powerful residual appeal of the British empire at the very point of its collapse. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Britain continued to invest in its overseas territories, and actively encouraged emigration by the white middle-classes to the newly imagined Commonwealth. In fiction and film, this global ‘new’ world was conceived as a space in which an exhausted nation could be revived, most commonly through tropes of man-making struggle. From the repair of wounded veterans to the training of cadets, the Commonwealth offered an antidote to austerity and a set of tests though which new forms of white masculinity might be forged. Narratives imagining outbound Commonwealth migration proliferated throughout the period. They were popular, influential, and numerous, and have received almost no scholarly attention. This project will address that gap, exploring the narrative fiction of an overlooked period – 1945-1965 – better to understand the stories of self and nation that shaped modern Britain.

The successful applicant will have considerable scope to determine the final focus of their research thesis, but it is anticipated that the project will embrace narratives across multiple media, examining (for instance) historical fiction that uses the past to access former colonies, as in John Masters’ popular India-set novels; fictions of development and extraction, such as Hammond Innes’s bestselling Campbell’s Kingdom (1952), in which the conquest of the Canadian wilderness is also the conquest, and resurrection, of the wounded male self; or cinematic attempts to refigure empire through ‘neutral’ plots – as in Where No Vultures Fly (1951), an Ealing Studios adventure reimagining the white colonial settler as a game warden. The investigation will be designed to interrogate the process and the consequences of storytelling: how the plotting of risk and reward, often in counterintuitive situations, facilitated the construction of acceptable masculinities and fantasies of post-war British identity.

Value of award (per year)

The scholarship will comprise a full tuition fee award and an annual stipend paid at a rate set by the University of St Andrews. For 2025-2026, the stipend is £19,775 p.a., with an annual uplift published by the University each academic year.

The stipend will be paid pro-rata to part-time students.

The scholarships do not cover any continuation, extension, or resubmission period/fees, Visa fees, Immigration Health Surcharge, IELTS fees, costs for travel to and from the UK or research training grant or another equivalent award for research expenses.

Duration of award

Up to 3.5 years (full-time) or 7.0 years (part-time). Scholarship holders will be expected to have submitted their thesis for examination by the end of that period. The award term excludes the continuation period and any extension periods.

At what stage of my course application can I apply for this scholarship?

Please apply for the scholarship after you have submitted your application for a place at St Andrews.  You do not need to wait until you have received an offer of a place before applying for the scholarship.

Additional criteria

You must have applied for a PhD programme at St Andrews.

You must not already (i) hold a doctoral degree; or (ii) be matriculated for a doctoral degree at the University of St Andrews or another institution.

As part of the scholarship application you will be required to upload a personal statement. This should serve as a cover letter for the research project application as a whole, and should include:

• An outline of your suitability for the project (project criteria can be found in the "Eligibility" and "Project Description" sections above).
• Why the project interests you.
• What you would bring to the project in terms of previous skills and expertise.
• Any ideas that you may have for the realisation of the project.

How to apply

1. Apply for your chosen course at the University St Andrews: Postgraduate research. Select English as the academic school. After submitting your course application, you must allow up to three working days to receive login details for the My Application portal.
2. When you have received your login details, apply for the scholarship:
   • Log into My Application and follow the links to Scholarships and Funding
   • Select 2026/7 as the Academic Year and click Refresh list.
   • Find the specific World-Leading St Andrews Doctoral Scholarship that you wish to apply for in the list of scholarships (using the filter box if necessary), click Apply and complete the application form.

You can also use the catalogue to search and apply for other scholarships for which you are eligible. 

Scholarship application form guidance

If you are a current student at St Andrews, you can access Scholarships and Funding through MySaint. However, you should wait until after you have applied for your intended postgraduate programme before doing so, to ensure that the scholarship application is linked to that course.

Terms and conditions

Please read the University of St Andrews scholarships terms and conditions

If you apply to this scholarship, details from your course application may be passed to the selection panel solely for the purpose of merit-based assessment. 

When will I know the outcome?

The outcome of your scholarship application will be available on View or continue my funding applications in the Scholarships and Funding section of My Application within two months of the application deadline.