[Full tuition fees and a tax-free maintenance stipend of £20,780 per year for UK and international applicants, funded by the ESRC North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership.]

The CASS Research Centre at Lancaster University is offering a fully funded PhD studentship for both UK and international candidates, commencing in October 2026. This prestigious opportunity is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP). The project, delivered in collaboration with Trinity College London, focuses on communicative competence in English language tests, examining fairness, accessibility, and social mobility in assessment contexts.

The research will employ large-scale corpus methods and discourse analysis to investigate successful communication in spoken and written English across informal, semi-formal, and academic settings. Key research questions include identifying linguistic and discourse features that characterize effective communication, determining which test tasks elicit the richest range of these features, and exploring how linguistic patterns correlate with candidates’ social backgrounds to assess fairness and accessibility.

Applicants should have a strong background in corpus linguistics, language testing, or quantitative applied linguistics, with demonstrable analytical skills in corpus design, statistical analysis, and familiarity with tools such as R, Python, or #LancsBox X. The successful candidate will join the CASS team, working regularly on campus and benefiting from advanced training in both quantitative and qualitative research methods relevant to high-stakes assessment contexts.

Supervision will be provided by Professor Vaclav Brezina and Dr Dana Gablasova, both experts in applied linguistics and corpus-based research. The studentship includes full tuition fees and a tax-free maintenance stipend of £20,780 per year, making it accessible to candidates from around the world.

To apply, candidates must submit a PhD application to Lancaster University, naming Prof. Brezina and Dr Gablasova as proposed supervisors. Instead of a full project proposal, applicants should describe their experience with corpus linguistics and quantitative methods, provide practical examples of their skills, and clearly state that the application is for the NWSSDTP studentship on ‘Communicative competence in action’. Completion of a motivation form is also required as part of the funding application process.

The application deadline is 10th April 2026, with interviews expected on 24th April 2026 and the start date set for 28 September 2026. For informal enquiries, contact Prof Vaclav Brezina at [email protected]. For further details and to access the application form, visit the CASS Research Centre website.