Studentship Information

PhD Studentships

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is inviting applications for the PhD topic: Responsible AI and Technology for Safer Online Spaces for Women. Please send queries about this opportunity to protecting-women-online@open.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 28 March 2025 at 09:00 (GMT).

Applications for fully funded PhD studentships based at The Open University in Milton Keynes starting on 1st October 2025 are now closed. Studentships starting on 1st October 2026 will be advertised in November 2025. If you are interested in applying for a PhD with us, please have a look at the guidelines below.

Applicants are required to develop a project proposal as part of the application process and should contact the named supervisor(s) for their topic of interest to get more information and guidance on developing their application. Visit our FAQs for more helpful information about our PhD studentships. Further details on the application process are available on the 'How to Apply' and 'Writing a PhD Proposal' pages.

A list of available PhD topics, grouped by research area, can be found on the vacancies page: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/studentships/vacancies

About KMi

The Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) is an interdisciplinary and international research environment. We are globally recognised for our expertise in artificial intelligence, data science, cognitive science, educational multimedia, human-centred computing, human-computer interaction, machine learning, and semantic technologies.

The success of our vibrant PhD student programme is due to a comprehensive support infrastructure and training provision that operates throughout our students’ PhD journey. This includes a strong focus on community building and peer learning, weekly research forums, seminars, funding to participate in conferences, and an annual PhD student conference. Our PhD students have received best paper and distinguished dissertation awards at prestigious international conferences and have taken up research positions world-wide in academia, private companies (such as Google and the BBC) and non-profit organisations.

We are very proud of our genuine commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. We welcome and value diversity in all aspects.

PhDs at The Open University