Details of the Midlands4cities Residential Summer School programme, eligibility and how to apply are below:
Held from Monday 8th – Friday 12th September 2025 at the University of Warwick conference centre.
We are offering this event as a fully paid residential at the University of Warwick conference centre to enable a more extended and less formal engagement between participants and mentors. However, if your circumstances mean that a residential is not possible or appropriate for you, it is not compulsory, and you can attend daily. We will however expect in person attendance for the full duration of the summer school.
What is Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)?
Midlands4Cities is a partnership of eight universities in the Midlands funded by the Arts and Humanities Research council to offer funding and support PhD research:
https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/
What does the Summer School offer?
- The 2025 Midlands4Cities Summer School is able to offer 16 undergraduates from minoritized ethnic groups under-represented in post-graduate study the opportunity to join a small cohort for one week with the aim of exploring what arts and humanities research is and how research findings can be applied and communicated.
- The Summer School will be a one-week residential course at Warwick University from Monday 8 September until Friday 12 September. During the week, you will have the support of a mentor and hear from current students on the tools and skills required to work through the challenges of becoming a research student. There will be the opportunity to discuss different methods of research and how they can be applied alongside training and mentoring to enable you to design and develop a poster which you can present on the final day.
- Successful applicants will be paid the Living Wage for 35 hours for the week. You will be partnered with a mentor from the current M4C PhD community and have the opportunity to learn a range of research skills and design a poster to present at the final session. To enable as much engagement as possible, this event is offered as residential, although this is not compulsory if your circumstances do not allow for it and you can attend daily.
Closing date for applications is 12:00 noon Monday 30th June 2025.
Application details
Eligibility
Before you apply, please ensure you are eligible and meet the criteria here:
- You should be registered as a UK (United Kingdom) (home) student on an arts or humanities undergraduate course at one of the Midlands4Cities universities: University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, University of Warwick, Coventry University, De Montfort University, University of Leicester, Nottingham Trent University, or University of Nottingham.
- You should be entering your final year of Undergraduate study or about to start Masters level study in autumn 2025.
- Identify as being from a Black, Asian, or from a minoritized ethnic group.
You will not be eligible if you:
- Are registered on your undergraduate University course on a ‘Student Visa’
The deadline for application is
12:00 noon Monday 30th June 2025 It will not be possible to submit your application after the deadline.
Post application details:
All applications will be read by a small panel and shortlisted for interview.
All outcomes will be communicated to you by email from
enquiries@midlands4cities.ac.uk
Interviews will be held online via Teams and will take no more than 20 minutes. The interview panel will be no more than 3 people.
Interview questions will be circulated to shortlisted candidates before the interview. The interviews are intended to give you more space to talk about your interest in Arts and Humanities research and the Summer School and to answer any questions you might have.
Timeline:
Application Deadline: 12 noon
Monday 30th June 2025
Shortlisting for interviews: By 11 July 2025
Unsuccessful candidates informed: w/c 14 July 2025
Interviews to take place: w/c 14 July 2025
Successful candidates informed: w/c 21 July 2025
Your data will be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act (2018). After you have applied, all information from your application will be stored securely and access limited to university employees essential to administering the scholarship. All your responses will be deleted from our records in line with the M4C University’s published records and information retention schedules.
What our previous attendees have said about their Summer School experience:
Zhakiya Sowah who has moved on from the University of Warwick to study for an MA Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London
Megan Sharma-Bradley who has continued at the University of Nottingham to study for an
MA in Film, Television and Screen Industries
