Hi all,
I would like to ask from succesful applicants or others that might know how things work with Phd funding. I have asked a friend who is a lecturer and he said that unfortuntely the decision is taken by the pople who have the budget. I was lucky enough to find a supervisor that my research interests aligns well with his and I approached him with my research proposal. He liked it a lot and he encouraged me to apply for a funded Phd at his department where he is the leading supervisor, a last minute thing as it was only 3 day until the deadline. He helped me with the restructure of the proposal and I finally applied for a scholarship. I asked after that if possible to tell me about the number of applications just to know my chances. He said he would be able to tell me when he would have all the applications and he replied after a week by a formal email saying I had been shortlisted and he invited me to a skype interview with the supervisory team. It was a really short interview why I want to do a Phd and similar things. I think it went really well. They said that they would send out the papers at the end of March and the university would give out the results in the mid of April. I decided to emal him asking about feedback for the interview he said he couldn't tell me at this point still the process continues and he sent me another mail after a few hours saying that he should have said not to worry, that they have read the paperwork and the university will decide based on the papers. I have read several stories here and I am wondering is the commitee of the university that decides? Does he have any word on that?

This massively varies depending on all sorts of things and criteria.... I'll give you a couple of examples.

I know of one department who has 3 fully funded (at UK/EU/Home rate) PhD places each year. The funding comes from the EPSRC, but it is at the department's discretion as to who they give it to and for what. The department will interview all potential PhD students and decide on who gets the funding based on a) the ability of the student, b) the strategic direction of the department's research profile, c) the stage of the supervising academic (priority is being given to early career academics), and d) whether they have any other funded PhD students in the same research group from the same source for that year - i.e. research groups are limited to a max of 1 student per year using this funding source.

Alternatively, I know of another funding source for overseas-rates of funding which is allocated at a university level. The university committee compares all relevant funding applications and then considers a) which department the student is in and whether it is one that has received this funding source in the previous year, b) the strength of the student application, c) the ability of the student and all sorts of other strategic criteria.

Basically, departments and universities all have very varying priorities. The best way to get funding is to make sure you are a strong student making a strong application based on research that is interesting and relevant to the department and university - massive bonus points if you're proposal is likely to produce REFable research outputs and if it fits within the University's strategic directions.

But frankly, you are never going to know why one student gets funded over another. And your supervisor is unlikely to have any influence at all.

Hi IntoTheSpiral and thank you for your response. I forgot to say this is a funded project and with my proposal I suggested a way to examine it. I have an upper second class and an Msc in Research. So, I guess is not just a matter of academic merit alone...

Is it funded in the sense that the project itself has received funding and that you have applied for the position to be the PhD student who gets the funding?

If it is the latter, then you are likely to be competing with other possible students who are wanting that particular block of money. In which case, you can consider the funding situation like a job interview - the funding is guaranteed and it is either you or someone else will get the money. In which case, it's typically up to the supervisor to choose who they want to work with - this might relate to academic merit, but it might also could be to do with the proposal itself. It really depends on what the funding is for.

The project is funded itself and they are going to chose someone to get a studentship from the university covering fees+14.000 a year to do her/his phd on this project. If it's up to him I am confused because he helped me greatly and then said good luck...which doesn't make much sense...He is the leading supervisor of a supervisory team of 3.