Skip to main content

Information for Applicants - 2024-2025

*** The UK Knox Fellowship competition for 2024-2025 has closed. The 2024-25 Information for Applicants is retained below as a guide to future competitions.***

Information for Applicants - 2024-25 Frank Knox Fellowships

1.The President and Fellows of Harvard College have announced that Fellowships provided by Mrs Annie Reid Knox for the Frank Knox Memorial will be made available to enable students from the United Kingdom to study at Harvard University. Applications for Frank Knox Fellowships tenable in 2024-25 will open on Wednesday August 9th, 2023 and close on Wednesday October 18th, 2023.  

The value of each Fellowship is at least $35,000 plus tuition and health insurance fee per annum. This should be adequate for the expenses and support of a single student who, it is hoped, will secure housing in one of the university dormitories or halls.

Recipients who are admitted to a Harvard degree program requiring multiple years of study are guaranteed two years of Knox funding, provided they remain in good academic standing. Degree candidates in their third year and beyond are eligible to apply for additional support. Recipients who are admitted to one-year degree programs or as Special Students or Visiting Fellows will receive funding for one year.

2.Frank Knox Fellows must apply for and gain admission to one of the full-time degree programs offered by the graduate or professional schools at Harvard University, or apply for non-degree status as a Special Student or Visiting Fellow.

Applicants should note that preference will be given to degree candidates. Non-degree status is offered to full-time Special Students or Visiting Fellows with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences only. Visiting Fellows pursue their doctoral degree research with faculty and materials that are available within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Special Students are preparing for the next phase of their academic careers. For a list of eligible program/department affiliations for Special Students and Visiting Fellows, please consult the Programs of Study list available here.

Frank Knox Fellowships do not support medical research or any other research appointment. Frank Knox Fellows must be in residence in the Cambridge/Boston area for the entire academic year(s) during the first two years of their degree program. (The fellowships will not support students whose programs require extensive fieldwork during this period.) Frank Knox Fellowships are not available for part-time programs, online programs, or Executive Education programs. It is not possible to combine study on a Knox-eligible course with other part-time programs and fellowships.

3.Candidates seeking admission to the Law School should note that the School requires students to have completed their resident university education and have graduated from their basic degree in Law by the time they would begin their studies on an advanced (Master of Laws) degree program.

4.Fellows must be enrolled in full-time, in-residence degree programs which run during the regular academic year, or as Special Students/Visiting Fellows. Students in part-time, summer, or online programs are not eligible for consideration.

5.UK-registered PhD students who will apply for a Visiting Fellowship should not have written up or submitted their PhD by the end of their year at Harvard.

6.Knox Fellowships are not awarded for postdoctoral or undergraduate study at Harvard.

7.It is absolutely vital that, in the same application season as applying for a Knox Fellowship, each candidate file an ADMISSIONS APPLICATION directly with the Graduate School of his/her choice at Harvard University; and each candidate must meet the admission requirements and timetable of the School concerned. Candidates are urged to begin correspondence with the particular School at the earliest possible date. Admission to a School is a prior condition of the award of a Knox Fellowship. Awards made at interview in January are therefore provisional, pending admission to the chosen School and programme in the Spring. Contact addresses for the various Graduate Schools are listed below:

Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Admissions Office, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center 350, Cambridge MA 02138
www.gsas.harvard.edu

Special Student and Visiting Fellow Office
1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center 350, Cambridge MA 02138
Email: gsasvisitingstudent@fas.harvard.edu  https://gsas.harvard.edu/program/special-students

Harvard Business School
MBA Admissions Office, Dillon House, Soldiers Field Road, Boston MA 02163
www.hbs.edu

Harvard Divinity School
Admissions Office, 45 Francis Ave, Cambridge MA 02138
www.hds.harvard.edu

Harvard Kennedy School
Admissions Office, 79 John F Kennedy Street, Cambridge MA 02138
www.hks.harvard.edu

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Admissions Office, 158 Longwood Avenue, Boston MA 02115
www.hsph.harvard.edu

Graduate School of Design
Admissions Office, 422 Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA 02138
www.gsd.harvard.edu

Graduate School of Education
Admissions Office, 118 Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge MA 02138
www.gse.harvard.edu

Harvard Law School
Graduate Program Office, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138
www.law.harvard.edu

Main Harvard websitewww.harvard.edu

Candidates should submit applications for admission to the appropriate School at the earliest possible time and need not wait for the deadline. This application is separate from your Frank Knox Fellowship application.

  

Qualifications

8.The Fellowships advertised in the United Kingdom for 2024-25 are open to:

men and women who are British citizens at the time of application, normally resident in the United Kingdom, who:
(a) are studying for a first or higher degree at a UK university and will graduate in the academic year 2023-24; OR
(b) are a UK-registered PhD student hoping for an additional year as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard; OR
(c) have completed a first or higher degree at a UK university and graduated most recently no earlier than 2019.

Please note that persons who graduated before 2019 will not be eligible to apply.

9.No application will be considered from any student already in the United States.

10.In accordance with the Deed of Gift, special regard will be given to personal qualities. The following is an extract from the Deed:

“Candidates will be selected on the basis of future promise of leadership. Strength of character, keen mind, a balanced judgment, and devotion to the democratic ideal will be the qualities borne in mind in making the final selection. The Frank Knox Memorial Fellowships were established in the conviction that co-operation between the British Commonwealth and the United States of America based on an informed and understanding contact of the peoples of these two great countries is an essential to international peace.”

11.Mrs Knox expressed the hope that holders of the Fellowships, after gaining knowledge and experience from study away from the United Kingdom, would return to their homes to become leaders in their chosen fields.

Applications

12.Frank Knox Fellowship applications are to be submitted online at www.frankknoxfellowships.org.uk. Applications will go live on Wednesday August 9th, 2023 and close on Wednesday October 18th, 2023.

To begin an online application you must first register on the website (see top right of the navigation bar when applications are live) and then go to "My Applications". You are advised to submit your application well ahead of the deadline so as to avoid any technical problems that may arise with last-minute submissions and to ensure that your referees have sufficient time to submit their references.

13.In addition to completing an online form, applicants are asked to write a short essay (which must not exceed 1,000 words) giving an account of their academic pursuits, general activities and intellectual interests, plus reasons for wishing to study in the United States and for the choice of course and institution, along with their plans for the future.

14.Applicants will be asked to give the names and professional email addresses of two referees. The first should have supervised some aspect of the applicant's academic work at university. The second may be non-academic but should be familiar with the applicant's performance at university and afterwards.

15.Applicants should submit a completed online application by 23.59 UK time on Wednesday October 18th, 2023.

References must be submitted online by 23.59 UK time on Wednesday October 26th 2022, and referees will only be contacted automatically once a complete application is submitted.
16.Applicants will be updated re their progress in late November and informed whether they have been selected for interview before the Christmas holiday. The interviews of shortlisted applicants will be held in London on Friday January 19th, 2024 and candidates will be responsible for ensuring they attend in person if requested.

To download the above Information for Applicants, click here.

Frank Knox Memorial Fellowships
3 Birdcage Walk
Westminster
London SW1H 9JJ
020 7222 1151