PhD Student Expenses

PhD Student Travel

The Department sets aside some funds specifically for the support of research student travel with priority given to students who are presenting papers at international conferences and workshops. These funds are not for RAs who are employees of the College, nor are they for students on Interruption of Studies.

Each PhD student will have a travel allowance of maximum £3,500 over the course of his or her studies

• From 1^st registration until they stop paying fees.
• The maximum claim for any one trip will be £1,250 and £2,000 for any 12 month period.
• The PhD Tutor will approve the maximum amount that may be claimed. The approved amount may be lowered if items on the claim are excessive or inappropriate (Note: the £3,500 allowance is not guaranteed and may be removed or changed in the future).
• If the trip amount exceeds the allowable limit set by the PhD Tutor, the student will need to ask the supervisor if they are willing to cover the additional costs

Approval for a trip must be obtained before the trip by completing a Travel Form and submitted to the Postgraduate Administrator. The form can be found at the Departmental PhD webpage (https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/research/phd/phdmatters/Forms/travel_form.pdf). Ensure that you include sufficient information to justify the calculation of the main costs (e.g. justify travel fares and accommodation) and that you have your supervisor’s approval (signature on the form also). After the trip, complete a College expenses form available from the Postgraduate Administrator along with the travel request form and all receipts to the Departmental Finance Officer.

PhD Student Viva

A viva is the PhD oral examination which takes place along with the submission of the thesis, and as these expenditures are PhD related, both the college and department has set an allowance. 

The viva is conducted by college appointed examiners, both internal and external, based on the completed examination paperwork. As the examiners may incur expenses during the journey, below are the limits to what can be claimed:

• Registry will cover a maximum of up to £300 for the examiners expenses
• Department has a maximum allowance of up to £100 for lunch/dinner for a maximum of 4 people (this would normally include external examiner, internal examiner, main supervisor, second supervisor)
• All other additional costs would require the academic to fund directly from his/her staff account or privately