Funded PhD Studentship with Queen Ethelburga's School - Supporting the student-athlete within sport schools

About the Project

Queen Ethelburga’s sponsored PhD studentship in collaboration with the Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University

Queen Ethelburga’s School and the Carnegie School of Sport are seeking to appoint a highly motivated individual to a prestigious PhD studentship. This is a unique opportunity for an enthusiastic and high-achieving individual looking to undertake a PhD in a vibrant research and athletic development environment. The successful candidate will deliver strength and conditioning and sport science support within Queen Ethelburga’s School alongside their PhD project.

About Queen Ethelburga’s School

Queen Ethelburga’s school is an award-winning independent day and boarding school in North Yorkshire, recognised for combining academic excellence with outstanding pastoral care and co-curricular opportunity. Educating pupils from infancy through to sixth form, the school offers a dynamic and ambitious environment in which students are encouraged to thrive academically, socially and personally. Its modern campus provides exceptional facilities and a strong community ethos, supporting the development of confident, well-rounded young people.

Sport is a central part of life at Queen Ethelburga’s, with a well-established reputation for excellence in performance sport and athlete development. The school’s Elite Performance Programme provides talented student-athletes with access to high-quality coaching, strength and conditioning, sport science support and first-class training facilities, enabling them to pursue sporting success alongside their education. With a strong commitment to long-term development, wellbeing and holistic success, Queen Ethelburga’s offers an innovative setting where education and high-performance sport are integrated to help young people reach their full potential.

Topic: Supporting the student-athlete within sport schools

As youth sport has become increasingly intensive and professionalised, there has been a growing recognition that young athletes must be supported to balance sporting ambitions with educational demands through well-designed dual career development environments (DCDEs; Morris et al., 2021). Sport schools are a prominent example of this model, integrating education and high-performance sport through structured training programmes, expert coaching, sport science and medical support, and academic flexibility. Frameworks for dual career development highlight that progression during adolescence is shaped through a holistic approach including physical, psychological, psychosocial and educational factors (Wylleman et al., 2013).

Recent longitudinal and mixed-methods research suggests that sport schools can support positive outcomes including stable academic attainment, physical development, sustained sport motivation and transferable life skills (Thompson et al., 2022; Thompson et al., 2024). However, these environments are also highly demanding. Student-athletes must manage intensive training and competition schedules, organisational pressures and competing academic and sporting priorities. Periods of stress, fatigue, injury risk and recovery challenges are common, with experiences influenced by factors such as sex, external sport involvement and sport-specific demands.

These findings position sport schools as complex systems in which outcomes are strongly influenced by how support is structured, delivered and experienced over time. While previous research has improved the understanding of what happens to student-athletes in these settings, less is known about how support systems (e.g., school policies, student-athlete monitoring, athletic development support) shape developmental trajectories in practice. Existing evidence also highlights substantial individual variability in how student-athletes respond to sport school demands (Thompson et al., 2022; Thompson et al., 2024). Despite this, many school-based systems remain group-based and timetable-driven with limited evidence available for student-athlete education strategies and individualised support programmes.

This project offers an opportunity to build on this emerging evidence base to enhance the dual career development of student-athletes within sport schools and help inform and shape future practice for enhancing DCDEs.

For further information on how to apply please go to thislink

Funding Notes

Type of Funding Available: Home (UK) Fees and Stipend

Stipend Value: £20,780

International candidates will be required to pay the international fee top up and are advised to contact our Research Admissions team researchadmissions@leedsbeckett.ac.uk