Clarendon Funding: Full Fees, a UKRI-Linked Living Grant, No Continuation Charges

What the package covers

Fees are covered for both full-time and part-time scholars. Continuation charges are not. Here is the package side by side.

• Awards are normally for the period of fee liability only.
• Continuation charges are not covered by the Clarendon Fund.

Full fees and a UKRI-linked living grant

Clarendon scholarships cover course fees in full. Official pages state that this applies to both Home and Overseas fee-status students. That is the headline that makes the award “fully funded” in Oxford’s own language: the University fee is paid, and a living (or study-support) grant sits beside it.

Full-time scholars receive an annual grant for living expenses of at least the UKRI minimum doctoral stipend rate, described as normally sufficient for a single student living in Oxford. The last figure published on the official Clarendon applicants page is for 2025–26: at least £20,780.

UKRI has set its minimum doctoral stipend at £21,805 from 1 October 2026, so by the Fund’s own rule 2026–27 full-time scholars receive at least that. The figure for scholars starting in 2027–28 has not been published yet; UKRI and Oxford update stipend floors each year. Before you budget rent or a visa maintenance figure, re-read the Clarendon information for applicants page and the UKRI stipend page.

How long the money lasts

Awards are normally offered for the scholar’s period of fee liability — the period you are liable to pay course fees to the University. That is usually the standard length of the course. Oxford’s fee-liability pages are the definitive explanation of how many terms you pay.

Continuation charges are not covered by the Clarendon Fund. After fee liability ends, many DPhil students pay a University continuation charge and often a college continuation charge while they finish the thesis. Official Clarendon wording is that those charges are not paid. At the discretion of academic divisions, some scholarships cover an additional period of study beyond fee liability; in that extra period only a living grant is paid. Scholars are told the exact duration in their offer letters.

Part-time courses with a modular fee structure follow a separate official rule. The scholarship pays the compulsory academic fees: an annual award fee for up to two years, the registration and dissertation fees in full, and the minimum number of modules needed to finish. Extra modules you choose are not covered. If your course is modular, read the Clarendon applicants page and the course page together.

Part-time packages

Part-time scholars also have course fees covered (Home and Overseas). Instead of the full living grant they receive a study support grant to assist with non-fee costs. Official wording: the grant may be a sixth, a third, or half of the UKRI minimum doctoral stipend rate, influenced by the nature and/or duration of the course. The offer letter states the amount. Do not assume a part-time award is half of the full-time figure unless the letter says so.

Many Clarendon packages are built with college or other partnership awards. Official timeline: from April into the summer, bespoke packages are assembled. No further information is required from offer holders at that stage. When the package is confirmed you receive a CB2 funding-breakdown letter, and final college placements are confirmed alongside the partnership awards.

Oxford’s About the Clarendon Fund page puts numbers on this. For the 2025–26 cohort, Clarendon worked with about 240 partnership awards, and just over half of scholars received College Partnership Awards. Some scholars must transfer college to take up a partnership award; Oxford says the transfer is not optional.

The earlier CB1 is the scholarship offer itself. Official wording: if you are offered and accept a Clarendon scholarship, funding is secure as long as you meet the conditions of your offer of a place to study. Read both letters. Do not advertise a college or a partner fund until the CB2 names them.

What “fully funded” still leaves with you

• The living grant is calibrated to a single student in Oxford, not a family. Dependants are your budget, not Clarendon’s published promise.
• Arrival travel, deposits, and the Immigration Health Surcharge are not listed as Clarendon entitlements on the pages cited here. Confirm the current Student visa maintenance rules separately.
• College living costs vary. A partnership award may later attach you to a college; it does not erase the fact that Oxford is expensive relative to the UKRI floor in some years.

Fee numbers and stipend floors move. Use the official full-time value, not a screenshot of this handbook.