PhD Studentship: Social Care, Social Work, Social Policy: ESRC Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) Social Care, Social Work and Social PolicyUniversity

Social Policy sits within the School of Social Sciences, and the Department of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy. The Department is also home to the Centre for Social Change, which hosts regular seminars by both Swansea academics, collaborators and other academics across the globe. Swansea University hosts the ESRC Administrative Data Research Centre (Wales), which facilitates access to linked, de-identified administrative data in a secure environment.

Social Care and Social Work sits within the School of Health and Social Care, and is home to the award-winning DEEP initiative, devoted to devising new forms of participatory evidence-gathering, in ways suited to informing policy.

The Social Policy and Social Work teams are interested in supervising PhD work across the domains of the subjects. Particular areas of research expertise include:

Inequalities and social justice

Poverty

The politics of social welfare

Relations between the state and civil society

Advocacy

Ageing

Disability studies

Devolution

Ethical issues in social policy

Children and children’s right

The family

Communities and social care

The social policy roles of the third sector

Co-production

Service outcomes for children, young people and families

The rights of excluded groups (e.g. asylum seekers, Romanai and Traveller families)

Inclusive practices in social care research

Experiences of the care system

Experiences of care-leavers

Sexuality and social care

Safeguarding and child protection

Older people

Funding Details

The studentship funded by the ESRC covers tuition fees and an annual tax-free living stipend in line with UKRI minimum rates (currently £21,805 for 2026/27).