Stipends for PhD students in London need to increase by at least £2,500 to prevent doctoral study becoming “accessible only to the most privileged”, students’ unions have urged.

Drawing attention to the diminished real-terms value of the London weighting set by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – which has remained at £2,000 a year since at least 2006 – students’ unions representing the UK capital’s largest research universities have called on the funder to massively increase the allowance provided to PhD students studying in the capital.

With the London allowance, PhD students supported by UKRI are paid a tax-free stipend of £22,780 overall, following a record 8 per cent rise in the basic stipend in October (now standing at £20,780, up from £19,237).

In a joint statement published on 19 November, however, students’ unions representing Imperial College London, UCL, King’s College London, the London School of Economics and Queen Mary University of London said the London weighting “would need to be £4,540 per annum to account for the current cost of living”.

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“Without this change, PhD study in London risks becoming accessible only to the most privileged,” it said, urging UKRI and MPs to tackle the issue.

The failure to uprate the London allowance since the 2000s meant PhD students in the capital are about 10 per cent worse off than those in other parts of the country despite recent stipend rises, said Nico Henry, president of Imperial College Union.

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“Leaving this unchanged risks excluding research towards those who are most financially privileged – in direct opposition to efforts to diversify the research pipeline elsewhere,” said Henry.

“It also poses a risk nationally as PhD students’ research outputs play a big role in contributing towards society, as outlined in the government’s Industrial Strategy,” he added.

The call was accompanied by the results of a survey of 1,203 PhD students in London – half of whom were UKRI-funded –  in which 78 per cent said financial pressures had affected their mental health. Almost 90 per cent were dissatisfied with their funder’s response to the cost-of-living crisis, adds the report carried out by the students’ unions.

Doctoral funding was highlighted in last month’s , in which ministers noted that the financial barriers to undertaking a PhD were “still too high” for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The “proportion of home PhDs is declining”, it added.

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Committing to “explore the challenges that lead to disparities in access to PhD programmes and the declining proportion of UK doctoral student applicants in some fields”, the White Paper notes that the 8 per cent stipend increase for 2025-26 was “the largest real-terms increase since 2003”.

While welcoming that increase in the basic stipend, however, Henry said it “doesn’t acknowledge the disproportionate cost of living in London and gap in funding for London students”.

“Office for National Statistics data shows the average rent in London to be £1,625 per month. The next most expensive region is the south-east at £1,050, which is a difference of £6,900 per annum compared to London,” he said, adding: “The increase is welcomed but it doesn’t solve the problem for London PhD students.”

A UKRI spokesperson said its “focus in recent years has been on increasing stipends of its students of all backgrounds from across the whole country. From October this year we increased the minimum stipend paid to UKRI-funded students by 8 per cent to £20,780 and updated our doctoral training grant terms and conditions. This was the largest real terms increase in the stipend for UKRI funded students since 2003.”

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“These changes reflect our ongoing commitment to attracting, retaining and developing people,” they added.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com