Hiya,

Iam thinking about undertaking a PhD but am struggling to work out whichorder and how to get funding. I will need to either work part time orget funding to cover not working due to bills etc. What is the bestprocess for this - I have some ideas about a PhD topic but am not sureif I develop these, present them to someone and then search forfunding, or look around (and if so where?) for PhD's in my area ofinterest (dementia/Mental Health).

I am really confused and don't know where to start - can anyone help?????

Thanks

Rachel

I would imagine part time working to self-fund would be difficult unless you have some savings. Tuition fees cost a few £k per year and then you have to think about living costs.

the best thing to do is approach a potential supervisor. Then there are several options. a) the sup might have enough budget to fund you b) the university might offer studentships - although this is usually through a competition c) get research council funding - this requires putting in a grant application to research councils such as ESRC or EPSRC.

You can also try charities, there are some who offer grants to women graduates for example.

Hey! My PhD is in clinical psychology, in the field of dementia. From my experiences, and the places that we tend to collaborate with, universities big on dementia stuff include Bangor, Oxford, UCL, Bradford, and I think Cardiff and Swansea as well. There are probably others, but these seem to be the biggies from what I know. Best thing to do would probably be to look at the staff pages of these universities, see if their interests overlap with your own, and then think about approaching one or more of them with your ideas to see if they are interested in taking you on. In terms of funding, people on the same team as me doing dementia PhDs are funded by ESRC X 2, external scholarships X 2, and School-funded X 2. If you can find someone who is interested in your project and willing to take you on, they will help you look for funding from various sources. You could also look at funding from the Alzheimer's Society- they fund PhDs too, although I was a bit hacked off with them because they 'lost' my application! Hope that helps a bit! KB