FAQs of PGR Applications

No. All applicants for a postgraduate research programme must submit their applications and supporting documents on Application HUB. 

If you apply for a PhD programme, you will generally need to hold an honours bachelor degree at second class upper division and/or a master degree at merit level or above in a relevant subject from a British university.  

Or international equivalent to the above, e.g., a graduate of an approved US university holding a bachelor/master’s degree in a relevant subject (normally with a GPA 3.0/4.0 or above); or a graduate of an approved Chinese university holding a bachelor/master’s degree in a relevant subject (normally with a minimum average 78-83 depending on the university).

No. You cannot submit an application in the application system until we have received both of your reference letters. To allow referees sufficient time to provide reference letters, please make reference requests in the application system at least a few days2 weeks prior to the programme or scholarship deadline.  
Once you have made a reference request, referees will receive an email with a link sent from the online Application HUB. Your referees are expected to submit their reference letters via the link within 14 days (after which the link expires). Once reference letters are submitted, the application system will notify the applicant. 

Currently, the Faculty of Science and Engineering allows applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree with second-class upper division or above from a British university or a top global or Chinese university, such as a Double First Class Chinese university, to apply for a PhD programme. 

The Nottingham University Business School China and the School of Economics only consider extraordinarily outstanding applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree with first-class honours from one of Nottingham’s campuses and demonstrate a strong passion for research in a particular area. 

University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) PhD scholarships are only open to full-time PhD applicants who have a bachelor’s degree with first class honours or a master’s degree with Merit or above (average score no less than 65%) from a British university or its international equivalent. Applicants with a master’s degree also should hold a bachelor’s degree at upper second class or above level.

For some schools/departments that consider applicants holding a bachelor’s degree, an exceptional track record (i.e., first class honours or its international equivalent) obtained from one of the most prestigious universities is expected.

Yes. You should identify a potential supervisor from UNNC whose research interest aligns with yours. Even if you have identified a supervisor from a partner institution, you still must identify a UNNC supervisor before submitting your application. 

All PhD programmes provide both full-time and part-time study mode.

All MRes programmes provide full-time study mode but only one of MRes programmes, Master of Research in Sustainable Energy and Building Technologies provides part-time study mode.

You may consider either Spring or Autumn entry that better serves your study plan. However, you are strongly encouraged to consider September entry for when a majority of scholarships are open.

Please be noted that a few programmes are only open in September entry:

• All Master of Research programmes
• Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD)

No. Applicants can only apply for one PGR programme for an entry and can only submit another application if their applied PGR programme is not successful.

The English requirement can be waived should you have obtained a bachelor or master degree from an English speaking country that can be found from the list posted on the website.

However the university may still request you to provide an IELTS under certain circumstances, e.g. the instruction language is not English but others like French or Spanish. 

In the case where an admitted student lacks a usable IELTS score at the time of admission, the admission offer will be conditional, and a deadline for submitting a score will be set in the offer letter. For the 2024–2025 academic year, conditional offer holders for a Postgraduate Research programme must provide a satisfactory IELTS result by 15 July 2024 at the latest for September 2024 entry and 15 December 2024 at the latest for February 2025 entry.

Alternatively, admitted students can take the pre-sessional programme through the Centre for English Language Education to develop their academic and language skills before beginning their degree programme. If a student is successful in meeting the required marks in their final assessments for this programme, they will pass the pre-sessional course and can usually progress directly to the degree course without retaking the IELTS or equivalent. For details, please refer to the linked page on the Pre-sessional Programme.

We strongly encourage scholarship applicants to sit for an English language proficiency test as early as possible. In case of intense competition, we may give priority to applicants who have met both the academic and English requirements. Do not delay the English language test until after receiving an offer.

  Yes, please provide the certification.  

If you are a current UNNC staff member, please notify your line manager before submitting your PGR application. And please attach an email or letter from your line manager confirming that he or she is aware of your PGR application. If you are applying for a part-time PGR programme, please also attach an email or letter from HR Office confirming their support.

Please give at least one month notice to HR Office when you decide to quit your job at UNNC should your application for a Full-time PGR programme is successful.

Any further enquiries about the above requirements, please contact HR Office (HR@nottingham.edu.cn).

You can only request a deferral of your offer if there is another start date within the same academic year (the academic year runs from September to August). In other words, only students admitted to the September entry can apply to defer to the next entry in February. If you want to defer your offer to the next entry, please contact PGR Admissions at PGR@nottingham.edu.cn at least six weeks before the expected entry date.

Because there is no spring entry for MRes and EdD students, deferral is not applicable to them.

If you have been awarded a UNNC PhD scholarship, the scholarship will be automatically withdrawn. Deferment of a scholarship will only be on a case-by-case basis.

If you are in your final year of degree study, you can submit your application with a provisional transcript and a studying certificate. 
Should you are admitted, you are required to have fulfilled all conditions set in your offer normally by the middle of July or December for September or February entry respectively. If your current course will not be completed until later in the year and you will not be able to receive your final transcript and degree certificates before the September entry, your application will be assessed for the following entry in February. If the programme for which you applied does not have an entry in the spring, such as the Master of Research (MRes), you should wait and apply for the next intake.