Creative Writing | University of Manchester

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Course summary

Our PhD Creative Writing programme gives you the opportunity to work on a significant piece of creative writing while developing your research skills.

You will benefit from creative supervision by an experienced poet or fiction writer and draw on the range of expertise within the University to find a supervisor for your critical element.

There are two elements to the programme. The first is a creative element that can be a novel or a collection of short stories of up to 100,000 words, or a book-length collection of poetry of up to 60 poems.

The PhD also has a critical element, which is a piece of literary or cultural criticism of 30,000 to 50,000 words maximum.

Open days

University of Manchester - virtual open day (online only)
20 Apr 2026, 15:00
Manchester
University of Manchester - open day (in person/on campus)
27 Jun 2026, 08:15
Manchester
University of Manchester - open day (in person/on campus)
4 Jul 2026, 08:15
Manchester
University of Manchester - virtual open day (online only)
6 Jul 2026, 15:00
Manchester
University of Manchester - open day (in person/on campus)
3 Oct 2026, 08:15
Manchester
University of Manchester - open day (in person/on campus)
10 Oct 2026, 08:15
Manchester
University of Manchester - virtual open day (online only)
16 Nov 2026, 16:00
Manchester

Fees and funding

Choose a specific option to see funding information.

Course options

Sponsorship information

There are a range of scholarships, studentships and awards to support both UK and overseas postgraduate researchers, details of which can be found via the links below.

To apply for University of Manchester funding, you must indicate in your application the competitions for which you wish to be considered. The deadline for most internal competitions, including AHRC NWCDTP and School of Arts, Languages and Cultures studentships is 13 January 2025.

All external funding competitions have a specified deadline for submitting the funding application form and a separate (earlier) deadline for submitting the online programme application form, both of which will be stated in the funding competition details below.

You will need to be nominated by your proposed supervisor for a number of our scholarships. Therefore, we highly recommend you discuss these funding opportunities with your supervisor first, so they can advise on your suitability and ensure you meet nomination deadlines.

For more funding information, visit our funding page or use our funding database to search for scholarships, studentships and awards you may be eligible for.