PhD Study : Investigating the United Kingdom’s Role in Kleptocracy and Grand Corruption

Summary

The United Kingdom and its overseas territories are a central conduit for the facilitation, and initiation of grand corruption schemes. Its financial sector is a nodal point for money laundering, its offshore territories are a conduit for secrecy and tax evasion, its service industry construct the conduits for warehousing illicit funds, its legal sector dilutes civic and public accountability, and its reputation launderers help clean the images of oligarchs, kleptocrats and organised criminals.

In addition to being a hub for facilitation services, the United Kingdom is a jurisdiction where traditional and emerging forms of grand corruption take place. Examples include the increasingly significant role of dark money in national political life, incidences of systemic cronyism (explicitly witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic), and state capture in the taxation arena by a professional services class that are instrumental in facilitating grand-scale tax avoidance/evasion.

The School of Applied and Social Sciences invites PhD research proposals that will generate a novel data-set that will illuminate an under-researched aspect of the UK’s role in grand corruption schemes. The proposal should include a feasible methodology for collecting data that will help interrogate the core research questions, and create the anticipated novel data-set. We welcome a wide range of disciplinary and theoretical standpoints, and strongly encourage research that can support evidence-based anti-corruption strategies.

The successful candidate will be supported by a supervision team that have pioneered a range of investigative methods for uncovering and systematically documenting grand corruption, and other modalities of state crime. They will benefit from the resources and expertise housed in the International State Crime Initiative, a research centre co-managed by Ulster University, Queen Mary University of London, and Northumbria University.  Alongside traditional academic publications, there will be an opportunity to work with editors at openDemocracy in order to submit research findings as feature articles for potential publication.

Essential criteria

Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree in a subject relevant to the proposed area of study.

We may also consider applications from those who hold equivalent qualifications, for example, a Lower Second Class Honours Degree plus a Master’s Degree with Distinction.

In exceptional circumstances, the University may consider a portfolio of evidence from applicants who have appropriate professional experience which is equivalent to the learning outcomes of an Honours degree in lieu of academic qualifications.

Funding and eligibility

The University offers the following levels of support:

Vice Chancellors Research Studentship (VCRS)

The following scholarship options are available to applicants worldwide:

• Full Award: (full-time tuition fees + £19,000 (tbc))
• Part Award: (full-time tuition fees + £9,500)
• Fees Only Award: (full-time tuition fees)

These scholarships will cover full-time PhD tuition fees for three years (subject to satisfactory academic performance) and will provide a £900 per annum research training support grant (RTSG) to help support the PhD researcher.

Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year (or part-time equivalent) are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Please note: you will automatically be entered into the competition for the Full Award, unless you state otherwise in your application.

Department for the Economy (DFE)

The scholarship will cover tuition fees at the Home rate and a maintenance allowance of £19,000 (tbc) per annum for three years (subject to satisfactory academic performance).

This scholarship also comes with £900 per annum for three years as a research training support grant (RTSG) allocation to help support the PhD researcher.

• Candidates with pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, who also satisfy a three year residency requirement in the UK prior to the start of the course for which a Studentship is held MAY receive a Studentship covering fees and maintenance.
• Republic of Ireland (ROI) nationals who satisfy three years’ residency in the UK prior to the start of the course MAY receive a Studentship covering fees and maintenance (ROI nationals don’t need to have pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme to qualify).
• Other non-ROI EU applicants are ‘International’ are not eligible for this source of funding.
• Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year (or part-time equivalent) are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Due consideration should be given to financing your studies. Further information on cost of living