Good morning all,

I am currently looking into doing a PhD in Europe, and I have contacted a potential PhD supervisor expressing my interest in her work and giving a bit of background on myself and my qualifications. She replied quickly and stated that she was interested in my ideas, but there are no scholarships currently available in her department. She also invited me to speak with her further over Skype.

Do any of you have any suggestions on what my aims should be when speaking with her over Skype? I mean obviously I'd love to have a scholarship, but that aside, what should I be emphasizing when speaking with her?

Cheers,

Leanne

well first off, you need to decide if you can manage to pursue a PhD without any financial aid. I wouldn't really advise that route.

There is the possibility that scholarship positions will open at her Uni in the next year, so waiting for that is a possibility. Or there are, in most European Countries, government funded scholarships available. These are very competitive, but for most, you don't need to be registered as PhD student to apply, but you do need to have potential supervisor on board..You could ask if she is aware ( and she should be) of any of these types of scholarship and if she is willing to work on an application with you.

Apart from funding, other things to consider are what resources, lab equipment, samples, funding available for research expenses. And if there is the opportunity to teach available.

Also if there is finding for attending conferences.

Other things to suss out, with out directly asking (maybe by looking at their online profile) is how many PhD students they have supervised to completion. I would read some of their articles to get a sense of both the standard of their work and also if it is a good fit for you.

I would also see what training is available, so depending on your research it could stats training or qualitative research training ect. and the availability and funding of these types of thing.

other than that I can't think of anything else to ask.

I agree - funding as the main thing. You could ask if there are any opportunities coming up in the foreseeable future.