Support for UKRI Studentship Holders

If you are funded by a UKRI Training Grant, you should receive a number of standard benefits. This page gives an overview of these. Your first port of call should generally be your scheme's website or SharePoint, or contacting your funding administrator, however.

Contents

1. Funding Scheme Websites
2. Queries and Useful Contacts
3. JeS Accounts
4. UKRI Terms and Conditions
5. Confirmation of Status
6. Holidays
7. Suspension of Award and Intermission of Studies
8. Paid Sick Leave
9. Parental Leave
10. Compassionate Leave
11. Withdrawal
12. Change of Full/Part-Time Status and Flexible Working
13. Early Submission
14. Submitting Late
15. Disabled Students' Allowances
16. Data Retention

Funding Scheme Websites

UKRI funding schemes at the University of Cambridge include:

• AHRC OOC DTP
• BBSRC Cambridge Biosciences DTP
• EPSRC DTP and CDTs
• ESRC CAM DTP
• MRC DTP and its associate partners
• NERC C-CLEAR DTP
• STFC departmental grants at Astronomy, DAMTP and Physics
• STFC CDT-DIS

Queries and Useful Contacts

Your funding scheme (ie DTP, CDT or similar) should provide you with contact email addresses at the start of your studentship. They should be able to answer questions about the payment of your stipend, discretionary funding entitlements, and other payments to you. Please check your award letter and the scheme’s website for these contacts.

Different funding schemes divide staff responsibilities in different ways – depending on the scheme the person you contact may be a departmental postgraduate administrator, or someone specific to the DTP, or someone central. This page uses the "Funding Administrator" for consistency.

You should not need to contact the UKRI or your individual research council directly during the lifetime of your award. All administration is carried out via your Funding Administrator and other scheme or department contacts.

JeS Accounts

Your scheme or department may ask you to create a JeS account to aid them in setting up your Studentship Details Document on JeS. Please go to the JeS homepage, and click “Create an Account” in the “New Users” section of the sidebar. Once you’ve accepted the Ts&Cs, enter the email you’d like to associate the account with into the box provided, then click “Account Check”. At this point, chose the “Skip ORCID Identifier” option, select “The Student” option on the next page, then proceed through the rest of account setup. JeS prompts you again at the end about ORCID Identifiers – again chose the option to proceed without one.

UKRI Terms and Conditions

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) publish the terms and conditions of training grant funding on their website, plus a guidance document explaining them further. Your scheme may be subject to additional terms. These documents are designed more for funding schemes to follow, than for you as a student, but they do govern how the scheme will interact with you.

If you are unsure, check your original award letter or ask your Funding Administrator.

Confirmation of Status

Your scheme cannot confirm your student status for a council tax exemption. Please see the Student Registry page on Confirmation of Study instead.

Your scheme can confirm your current stipend level and funding end date. This is particularly common when arranging rental accommodation. Please contact your Funding Administrator to request this.

A Research Passport is the mechanism for non-NHS staff to obtain an Honorary Research Contract or Letter of Access when they wish to carry out research in the NHS. University guidance on the application process can be found here.

Holidays

Postgraduate Research students are entitled to take up to 8 weeks of holiday per year, at times agreed with their supervisor.

Suspension of Award and Intermission of Studies

Please see the Student Registry Changes to Your Student Status pages for information about medical and non-medical intermission. If you wish to intermit, please apply via your CamSIS self-service page.

If you want to intermit, please discuss the financial consequences with your Funding Administrator as soon as possible. Your Funding Administrator is best placed to advise on the financial consequences of intermission. Do not solely rely on information from Supervisors and College Tutors as they may not be familiar with your funding scheme's specific terms, or have out of date information.

By default, intermission will result in suspension of your award: you are not eligible for a maintenance stipend whilst your studies are paused and will not be paid. UKRI maintenance stipends are paid in advance, so by intermitting you may become ineligible for a period for which you have already been paid. You would have to repay that money. You should not receive less funding overall due to its temporary suspension.

There are several reasons (paid sick leave, parental leave, funded internships and similar) you can continue to receive funding, but this needs to be arranged with your Funding Administrator.

Paid Sick Leave

UKRI students are eligible for thirteen weeks of paid sick leave within any twelve-month period. You are eligible for paid sick leave from the first funded day of your PhD until the end of your funded period. You are not eligible for paid sick leave in any unfunded writing up period.

You must contact your Funding Administrator notifying them of your medical absence, submit medical evidence (generally in the form of a Doctor’s Note), and request sick pay. You must also apply to the Student Registry for a medical intermission on CamSIS, no matter how short a period of sick pay claimed. Please also see Student Registry guidance on returning from medical intermission.

Claims should be made as soon as possible - either during or very shortly after the period of absence. More retrospective claims for paid sick leave may be considered in exceptional circumstances, but you must still claim before the end of your funded period. If you apply for paid sick leave after the end of your funded period, it will unfortunately be denied, even if the theoretical new funding end date would be in the future, as UKRI Terms do not allow this.

The allowance is calculated on a rolling basis, looking at amount of paid sick leave already taken in the year immediately prior to the date on which the new period of potential paid sick leave begins. The allowance is not calculated per academic year or per calendar year.

Note that occasionally (for example a large number of short periods of medical absence all related to each other due to the same chronic illness) the Student Registry may decide it is more appropriate to give an extension to your registration at the University, rather than medical intermission. This should not affect the payment of your paid sick leave, or any other entitlements under UKRI Terms.

As of November 2024, there remains provision for additional paid sick leave (up to 28 weeks total leave per year) in cases of COVID.

Parental Leave

Students funded from UKRI training grants have no statutory entitlement to maternity, paternity or adoption leave. However, UKRI provides funding for similar leave.

Maternity and Adoption Leave

UKRI funded students are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave if the expected week of childbirth (or actual date of birth) falls inside their funded period. The first 26 weeks are paid at full stipend rate, pro-rated as necessary for part-time students. The following 13 weeks are paid at a level commensurate with statutory maternity pay. The final 13 weeks are not paid. The end date of the studentship will be extended to reflect any period of leave.

"A level commensurate with statutory maternity pay" in UKRI Terms means the pay described in the second bullet point of the gov.uk maternity pay and leave page.

Maternity leave can start no earlier than 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth, unless the birth itself is earlier than that. There is no qualifying period for maternity or adoption leave, so you can claim as soon as you start your studentship. However, UKRI require the University to reclaim the money if you do not return to study afterwards.

You must notify your Funding Administrator and include evidence of the expected week of childbirth (eg form MatB1) or the date of adoption placement. You must also complete an application to the University to intermit your studies. If possible, please give notice 15 weeks before the expected birth, or within seven days of being matched with a child in the case of adoption leave.

Paternity and Parental Leave

Partners are entitled to up to two weeks paid Ordinary Paternity Leave on full stipend. Partners are also entitled to up to 50 weeks unpaid parental leave, with their studentship extended accordingly.

Ordinary Paternity Leave cannot start before the birth and must end within 56 days of the birth. Unpaid parental leave must be completed within 12 months of birth. This leave may be taken in one to three blocks. In all cases studentship end dates will be updated to reflect the period of leave. If possible, please give notice three weeks before the expected birth.

UKRI do not allow paid shared parental leave.

A summary of the allowances can be found below:

Compassionate Leave

UKRI funded students are entitled to unpaid (and limited amounts of paid) leave in the case of emergencies or bereavement. You should discuss this with your Funding Administrator.

Please note that in cases of extended compassionate leave involving mental health absences, paid sick leave provisions may be more appropriate.

Withdrawal

Please also see the University's guidance on withdrawal and discuss the matter with your tutor, supervisor and Funding Administrator before starting an application.

Withdrawing will terminate your studentship. Once a UKRI studentship is terminated it is not possible to reinstate the award. Please note that UKRI does not distinguish between temporary and permanent withdrawal; even if you successfully apply to be reinstated to the University, you will not regain your studentship funding.

If you do decide to withdraw, you must email your Funding Administrator immediately.

Your Funding Administrator will discuss the implications with you, in particular maintenance repayments, as stipends are paid in advance. For example, if you were paid a stipend instalment on 25^th August (to cover 1^st - 30^th of September) and withdrew on 16^th September, you would have to pay back half of that instalment. Please note that University payment systems have a lead time between setup of a payment and its arrival in your account, and so if you withdraw shortly before an instalment is paid to you, its payment may have already been ordered, resulting in you having to repay the whole amount as soon as it arrives. Therefore, it is critical to let your Funding Administrator know about your planned withdrawal as soon as possible.

Change of Full/Part-Time Status and Flexible Working

UKRI generally only allows one change from full- to part-time status (or vice versa) during a studentship. You must discuss any change with your Funding Administrator before you apply. To apply, please see the Student Registry Changing Your Mode of Study page.

Please note that students are also entitled to reasonable flexible working arrangements (that do not need changes from full- to part-time). Please discuss these arrangements with your supervisor.

Submitting Your Thesis Early

Please tell your Funding Administrator if you plan to submit your thesis before your award end date, so that they can advise you on any implications this may have on your stipend. Remember that you must keep a minimum number of terms before you submit your thesis. You will not be able to submit early if you have not met that requirement.

Please note you are generally not eligible for a maintenance stipend after you have submitted your thesis. If you submit part-way through a period for which you have already been paid, you will have to return the portion of your stipend covering the time after submission of your thesis.

However, if you will be continuing to undertake work related to your thesis you may be granted permission to continue to receive (or retain, if it has already been paid to you) your stipend. This permission would be valid until the end quarter in which you submitted, or your funding end date, whichever is earlier. You must discuss this with your supervisor and Funding Administrator. Approval from senior staff within your funding scheme will be required. Preparing a work for publication or a conference often are valid reasons, but preparation for your viva or thesis corrections are not.

Submitting Late

UKRI require you to submit your thesis before their Expected Submission Date - this is something you agreed to when accepting the studentship.

Your funder-expected submission date is not currently displayed in CamSIS. The date shown there is the end date of your registration with the University, and may be the same, sooner or later. If you are ever unsure as to what your funder-expected submission date is, contact your Funding Administrator.

If for any reason you are unable to meet this deadline, please discuss this with your Funding Administrator and supervisor as soon as possible. It may be possible to apply for an extension to your submission deadline, but this is usually only granted in exceptional circumstances.

There is also guidance on extending your registration at the University of Cambridge. If you are submitting late by your registration date (as opposed to by your funder-expected submission date) you will need to apply for reinstatement.

Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA)

UKRI funded disabled students are eligible to apply for support, in addition to their usual stipend payments.

These payments will generally not be made directly to you, but instead to your department to support the purchasing of specific equipment or training to support you. Please contact the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre (ADRC) to discuss your needs.

Please note that you do not need to wait until you start your studies to start this process; if you believe DSA may be helpful for you, please do contact the ADRC before you arrive in Cambridge.

Data Retention

Please see the University of Cambridge's data protection for students page. Please note UKRI require us to retain data relating to your studentship for seven years after the closure of the grant funding it, for financial audit purposes.

Page last updated 26/11/24