Hi, I'm about to go into my final year of an MEng Civil Engineering course and the possibility of undertaking a PhD has come to my attention. However, I don't really know how one goes about getting accepted onto a PhD scheme and would appreciate it if some of you could shed some light on the subject.

Do universities have PhD schemes that they want people to do? i.e. research into a particular field. Or is it up to the student to find an area that they want to investigate and then pitch it to the university? I have an idea something I would like to do if I were to be given the chance.

Hello there, Bradleyperks. Universities usually advertise specific projects that are attached to a stipend and fees payment - try FindaPhD to see if there are any that may interest you, or match your expertise. Sometimes, you can have a look around for graduate teaching assistantships on university websites - they often have broad fields in mind and you can design you own project within those limits and submit and application (this usually involves a proposal and statement of interest). More unusually, you can actually design your own project from scratch, after approaching a potentially interested supervisor) and then submit an application to a research council for funding - this can be very difficult to get. I'm sure others will be along with more lucid suggestions.:-)

I'm in Social Sciences, but checking abstracts from recent conferences is a good way of checking who is doing what.

======= Date Modified 03 Aug 2012 12:14:02 =======
Within Engineering in the UK much of the funding is now at Doctoral training centres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctoral_Training_Centre has a list of them. These places generally have a one year taught section before you choose your topic within the field they teach. Though this takes a year longer it can be really useful, especially if you are not sure of exactly what topic you want to do.

Edit to add: You apply through the university web sites, you would want to apply around spring time to get on the course in time.

The reason DTCs have started up is that it is easier to get the funding when you do it as a large group. This does mean however that there is less funding for smaller universities outside of a group.