Hi. If an international student have applied for a PhD studentship, which both international and home students are eligible for, would priority be given to the home student. That is, would the international student only be given the studentship if there is no suitable home student? OR A shortlist is made of both sets, and after the interview either is awarded? Could you please address the question for a UK university and an Ireland university.

I remember reading for a particular funding body) that indeed priority is given to home students (i.e. funding body encourages the supervisor to prefer home students) However, the supervisor can do what he wants really. May be different depending on the funding body in question.

In most cases there is no pressure on supervisors on what nationality of student that they appoint. However the funding is not always available equally. Most funding in the UK comes from the UK research councils. They provide a maintenance grant plus fees to UK students, fees only to other EU students and nothing to anybody else. As the fees are much greater for students from outside the EU some charity research funders will stipulate that all are eligible for funding but they will only pay fees up to the home and EU student level - if a student from outside the EU applies they must be able to pay the extra fees themselves.