Water Governance Legal Frameworks and Regional Outcomes

With public trust at an all-time low, following regular spills of raw sewage into rivers and waterways, England and Wales face a deepening crisis in their water systems rooted in decades of policy choices, regulatory failure, and the structural tensions of a privatised industry.

Following the Independent Water Commission's final report in July 2025, the government has committed to a major overhaul of the regulatory architecture in England, including a single integrated water regulator. Wales is considering parallel reforms, while Scotland continues with a publicly owned model. This moment of institutional change creates an opportunity to examine how legal and regulatory design shapes outcomes for regions, communities, and the wider stakeholders involved.

The UK's three jurisdictions, operating within broadly comparable physical and economic environments, offer meaningfully different combinations of ownership, regulation and governance philosophy. The reform underway enables comparison between the emerging English architecture and the longer-established Scottish and Welsh models.

The studentship invites research into questions such as:

• whether ownership structure explains differences in investment, environmental performance, and the spatial distribution of costs and benefits.
• whether embedding water governance within wider statutory frameworks, such as the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, shapes outcomes.
• whether integrated regulation, as England is now developing, alters capacity to address cross-cutting challenges including catchment management, agricultural pollution, and climate adaptation.
• whether legal innovation like the recognition of rights of nature holds a transformative potential, and how governance arrangements generally distribute costs and benefits across regions, communities, and stakeholders as climate pressures intensify.

For an informal discussion about the studentship, please email Dr Pawel Capik at pawel.capik@uwe.ac.uk.

For an informal discussion about the project, please email Dr Armagan Gezici at armagan.gezici@uwe.ac.uk.

This fully-funded studentship is available from 1 October 2026 for a period of three years, subject to satisfactory progress and includes a tax-exempt stipend, which is currently £21,805 (2025/26) per annum.

In addition, full-time tuition fees will be covered for up to three years (Home/International).

Applicants must have (or be on track to obtain) a first-class or upper second-class honours degree (2.1) or a masters degree (with average programme mark of no less than 65%, UK grading scale or international equivalent) in environmental management or economics, sustainability studies, environmental law or a cognate discipline.

 A recognised English language qualification is required. IELTS score of 7.0 overall, or equivalent.

Please submit your application online via the Postgraduate Research: Bristol Business School course. When prompted use the reference number 2627-OCT-CBL01. 

Application deadline

The closing date for applications is 9 August 2026.

Apply now

Supporting documentation

You will need to upload your research proposal, all your degree certificates and transcripts and your proof of English language proficiency.

You will need to provide details of two referees as part of your application. A least one referee must be an academic referee from the institution that conferred your highest degree. Your referee will be asked for a reference at the time you submit your application, so please ensure that your nominated referees are willing and able to provide references within 14 days of your application being submitted.

Interview dates

It is expected that interviews will take place in late-August. If you have not heard from us by the 25 August 2026, we thank you for your application but on this occasion you have not been successful.