I've just sent my applications off for a handful of PhDs in Developmental Biology. Only one is directly funded, the others are competitively funded. Does anyone know how the University decides which student is awarded funding?

Since no-one has replied yet, I'll jump in. You should ask the unis about this, and your potential supervisor, as I might depend on the discipline you're in. I'm not in the UK and am in social sciences, so my knowledge might be completely irrelevant, but here it is, for what it's worth. At my uni, there are different scholarships - ones awarded through a national government funded body and then the faculties also offer scholarships. The faculty ones are awarded on points - you get points for your grades, how many/types of degrees you have, work experience, umm, and I'm not sure what else - possibly references? potential? How hard you beg?;-)

Anyone else help? Obviously I've run out of steam!

I was just coming on here to ask exactly the same question!

The other question I had related to this is, if you don't get awarded the funding, what then happens? Do you have to try to arrange your own and if you can't, you don't get to do the PhD? How else could you go about getting funding? I know that I definitely couldn't afford to put myself through!

From what Ive looked into myself and what Ive heard from advice given to me is that competitive studentships are awarded to the 'best' candidate. So the applicant with the highest mark (a first I expect), who impresses at the interview, shows genuine passion and interest for their subject and someone who the potential supervisor is willing to invest in as they see the potential.

Hope this helps

In my experience, it's based on the quality of your research proposal, your academic qualifications, and getting yourself known (ie. a faceless application will probably not win a studentship).

I know my in just awards the 'competitive' funding on a first come first serve basis - provided you meet the criteria. It usually comes down to the supervisor convincing the big cheese that you (the applicant) are worth the stipend. Then the supervisor can take the money and forget about you.... erm I mean give you a fulfilling Ph.D. experience.

So what happens if you do not get the funding? Would you then have to attempt to obtain your own through other research bodies?

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I remember a couple of years ago it was decided among the AHRC applicants that a group of faceless beings would sacrifice a black rooster and then examine its entrails in order to reach a decision on who to fund - then they would send out the monkeys with a bag of random letters to distribute in any fashion they saw fit to the applicants - I wonder now if we were a little cynical....



From what I understand, (and I'm in the humanities so it may be different - probably) the funding is given to the best applicant who ticks as many of the boxes as possible and who has the best research proposal (all important), grades at BA/BSc and masters and references. It is something of a lottery though - I'm not funded by a council, my proposal although it made it to the final two, was considered slightly too quantitative for AHRC but too qualitative for ESRC - hmmmm lol. They have their 'sexy' 'in' topics and if you aren't doing one of them then ermmm tough.... its brutal - we have to be frank here.



As for if you don't get funding, well, there are uni scholarships (arguably more competitive than the RCs), they don't tend to pay as much - I have two which combine to roughly half a RC scholarship + fees, and there are numerous small bursary funding opportunities out there - its a case of search for them, apply and wait. For most people though its simply a question of having to self fund.