I've been told by my Uni that my funding will be quarterly, I was hoping it would be monthly but I don't think I have a choice. My funding if from a Research Council (NERC) but I'm not sure if it's up to them or the Uni how often you get paid.

Hi Curlyread,

I think Exeter Uni does a lot of work in Africa but from their Cornwall campus see below.  Perhaps you could contact potential supervisors there?

http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/cornwall/

I'm not sure many universities will have advertised PhD's for African projects but check on findaphd.com regularly. I think your best bet is coming up with your own proposal and taking it to supervisors you think could be interested, you can look at university websites as most tell you all their Professors research interests I'm sure there will be a few with African Conservation interests. 

Good luck!

Caro

Yeah it's usually written, sometimes in physical form i.e. a papter form but usually it's an email form nowadays. I'm sure your professors would have a good idea what to expect anyway!

Good luck!

I think you've asked too specific questions for a general forum such as this, however I think if you already know you want to work at Strathclyde university you will know the Professer you want to work with? You can just contact them by email to note your interest and see if they would be willing to supervise. With scholarships, they are difficult to find at the moment, and a lot more difficult if you are not a UK national although some are available to students from EU countries, you would need to speak to the potential supervisor to ask if you want to design your own project.

Hope this helps a little, I'm not in your research area so I don't know much more than that I'm afraid.

Caro

Hi again Robbie,

I'm not entirely sure how GPA translates into British universities grades, but as most Universities ask for at least a 2:1 here you would need whatever the equivalent to that is and you would have to state that on your CV. 

I would start looking at the projects available as soon as you can, as you never know when the perfect project may come along! The PhD I got was advertised in October 2010, I applied in December the closing date for applications was February, I was interviewed in March but it doesn't start until October 2011!

I've heard of others being asked to start straight away, but again this is dependent on funding, if you are self-funding you could probably have a lot more freedom in starting times!

I wouldn't assume it was down to your technique that you're not being successful, it is just so competitive at the moment that there may just be one person that they already know or has slightly more experience than you, but hopefully you will get the next one!

Is there anything you remember from the interviews that could be improved on? Have you asked for feedback from them? It could just be a confidence thing, maybe you just don't sell yourself enough? Just be enthusiastic and research the project a lot to make sure you give your best!

Good Luck!

Hi Robbi,

The world of PhD applications in the UK was alien to me too and I'm from the UK! There are no hard and fast rules!

1) Some projects are advertised and filled within a few months and others (like mine) are advertised almost a year before the project starts, it depends on lots of things. Most projects start in September/October but you can find some that are available to start at other times.

2)Findaphd.com is the best website that I know of, but there are other ways to get a PhD here, for example contacting individual supervisors directly with your ideas and then submitting a proposal for a project. It does depend however on how you are funding the project? If you want a funded project it is more difficult to find and they are generally less flexible with start dates etc.


3) For your final question it again depends on the project, most will say what they require, but yes I would include a CV (tailored towards the project) and cover letter, University Certificates are generally not needed until you are accepted as a student unless they ask for one up front.

Hope this is some help!

Caro

This forum is mainly used by students in the UK so I'm not sure that such a specific question can be answered here I'm afraid! Perhaps you can ask your University or the Universities that you are planning on applying to?

There are different requirements depending on the project and university but in UK terms you need at least a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree. Have a look at this website it answers most of the common questions for PhD study!
http://www.findaphd.com/student/study/study-1.asp

Hope that helps!

Are you getting sponsorship from your own country?  From what I can gather it's quite difficult getting sponsorship as a foreign student in the UK, I think there are opportunities out there, they are just harder to come across! 

Good luck again!

No not everything is grades based but you need a minimum of a 2:1 pass at Undergraduate level (again I'm not sure how this matches your grades but it is over 60% if that helps). And you have a masters too so you should be fine with entry requirements (although some universities are stricter than others). Each position advertised will tell you the exact requirments for that project and if they require something else, i.e. work experience or whatever. But I think the main thing you need is enthusiasm and drive to convince the supervisors that you are serious about wanting to work in research and make them want to work with you!

Are you looking for a PhD in the UK? This forum is mostly UK based but there are people from elsewhere on here too. The website findaphd.com advertises positions and so could be your starting point! If you are looking at preparing your own PhD topic then you can search University Websites for potential supervisors and email them asking if they are willing to supervise you.

Good Luck!

This forum is mostly people in the UK, is it a UK university you would like to go to? I'm not sure how your grades transfer into ours but it sounds like you have good grades and so a good chance of PhD entry, few people have journal publications before they enter a PhD!

Good luck!

I'm not a chemist and so don't know very much about which Universities would be good for you, and I'm not sure many people would.  I think you need to go through all the Universities Websites and read about what the research themes are for each before contacting potential supervisors. It's a very lengthily process but I can't see another way of doing it sufficiently!  Good Luck!

Before considering a PhD I applied for quite a few jobs at my local universities (technician jobs etc), and had a few interviews. They all took so long to contact me that I always lost hope! Usually about a month after the closing date, and they contacted me by letter or email with only a few days notice for the interviews. I think a lot of it is down to their HR departments, they have to put all communications through them and that usually delays everything by at least couple of days! I've even had to wait about a month after an interview to find out the outcome, and I've heard the same about people who actually got the job having to wait that long! No harm in calling them up or emailing though!