Hi, I hope some gentle souls out there can take a few minutes to help me. In short, I am thinking about a PhD but I know nothing on how to go about it. I am a professional journalist. I have been worked in Southeast Asia for years. I am planning to eventually make the jump to academia and I believe a PhD is the best way to go about it. But I have been outside university for years and never really looked at PhD. For a start, I am not sure how you propose a PhD. Do you submit an idea to a University? If so, how do you choose the University? How long should the proposal letter be? Can I submit to more than one universities... and so on. The topic I have in mind is linked to politics and radical Islam in Southeast Asia. Thanks for your time.

Well I don't know how receptive people may be knowing your lack of Academic experience, have you done any degrees of any sort?

I would imagine your best bet is to seek out possible supervisors from a University which lie within your area of interest and expertise, (politics and radical islam in southeast Asia). Because I would imagine your first major hurdle would be to convice a suitable supervisor that you are capable of completing a PhD.

Can you fund the PhD personally or are you seeking funding?

All this will depend on how you approach a supervisor or topic. Funded places will be advertised generally, with instructions on how to apply, generally a CV and a cover letter to begin with, + some references. It will probably all depend on a good cover letter to open the chance for an interview I would feel, but funded places are hard to get and even moreso if you don't have the qualifications.

If you are funding yourself, then seek a suitable supervisor in a University that you are comfortable with (may not be easy), prepare a short brief statement of intent, who you are, why you chose him, what PhD topic you want to research / look into and try. Hopefully this will catch his interest and he may reply back asking for more information.

Oh and yes apply to as many places as possible :).

Regards Wolfe

The OP comments are not very helpful.
For a social science PhD, which is what yours sounds like, you generally have to submit a proposal (rather than applying for advertised PhDs which are extremely rare).
You'll generally be expected to hold a first degree and a masters degree, preferably in a field that is very relevant to your topic, though professional experience may be taken into account.
Start by looking at university politics departments websites and looking for academics with suitable research interests at places you'd be interested in studying. Explain who you are what you're interested in etc... and they should help 'hand hold' you through the process to some extent, though it would be worth cluing yourself up via the Uni website, on application procedures, etc...
If you require funding this is very difficult to get, the (usually limited) places you can apply will again usually be on uni websites. See also 'funding councils' e.g. AHRC, ESRC etc... for where your subject area falls. If you can self fund the procedure will be more straightforward.... but expensive....
HTH

The OP comments are not very helpful.
For a social science PhD, which is what yours sounds like, you generally have to submit a proposal (rather than applying for advertised PhDs which are extremely rare).
You'll generally be expected to hold a first degree and a masters degree, preferably in a field that is very relevant to your topic, though professional experience may be taken into account.
Start by looking at university politics departments websites and looking for academics with suitable research interests at places you'd be interested in studying. Explain who you are what you're interested in etc... and they should help 'hand hold' you through the process to some extent, though it would be worth cluing yourself up via the Uni website, on application procedures, etc...
If you require funding this is very difficult to get, the (usually limited) places you can apply will again usually be on uni websites. See also 'funding councils' e.g. AHRC, ESRC etc... for where your subject area falls. If you can self fund the procedure will be more straightforward.... but expensive....
HTH