Visiting research students

We welcome applications from PhD students who would like to work with Royal Holloway academics on areas of mutual interest.

If you’d like to join us as a research student, here’s our step-by-step guide on how to apply:

To become one of our research students, you need an invitation from a Royal Holloway academic.
This academic must be willing to supervise you and must have agreed the length of your stay with the head of their department.
If you don’t have an invitation, look at our departmental research pages to identify an appropriate person to approach e.g. an academic working in an area of mutual interest.
Contact the relevant academic directly and ask them for an invitation.

Once one of our academic departments has agreed to accept you as a PhD student, we’ll then send you an invite with a unique link to our application form for Guest Research students (this is NOT the same as our Postgraduate Research application form)
Complete and Submit this form. If you’ve got any queries, email us using our contact form. We’re here to help.
As soon as we’ve processed your application, you’ll then be able to access our student support services.

Visiting Research students coming for 3 months or less will not be charged a fee
For those intending to study for more than 3 months the full period is chargeable at the following rates:
- The fee for visiting research students in 2024-25 is £440 a month (September 2024 to August 2025).
- The fee for visiting research students in 2025-26 is £480 a month (September 2025 to August 2026).
If you believe that you should not be personally liable for these fees, please discuss this with the academic department you will be visiting.

We don’t normally offer campus accommodation to visiting research students, however please contact the Student Services Centre at studentservices@royalholloway.ac.uk to discuss possible options.
Alternatively, our Students’ Union will be happy to advise you on how to use our House Search portal to find local accommodation. Please contact them directly at HouseSearch@su.rhul.ac.uk.