The problem arose in that internal applications have to be in towards the end of next week so they encouraged me to rattle something off before then. After doing some initial reading it became apparent that to develop a meaningful and interesting proposal it would take a good bit longer than a few days [more like 3 weeks]. When I pointed this out to them [they are still adverting nationally with 4 working days to go] they dropped me like a hot potato. I personally think it unrealistic to advertise a studentship [in fact there are 9] the week before applications close, certainly where applicants are unlikely to have any previous scholastic background. Interested to see what others think.