Hello guys,

I was wondering if any of you could shed any light on my fears. I would really like to undertake a PhD when I finish my master's degree. I am studying the master's degree part-time so I will not complete it until 2011. By then whoever wins the next election will have started to make some serious spending cuts and I fear funding for PhD students will be an easy cut for the government to make over something like schools for example. I am a social policy master's student with an undergrad degree in economics. The government has stated it wants to incentivise the study of science, I'm guessing this means more money will be directed at science and less at the social sciences. Does anybody have any idea how hard it will be to get funding in 2 years time? Also as a matter of interest does anybody have any rough idea what proportion of students, out of those that apply, are successful in getting funding in general for PhDs, be it from universities, research councils, CASE studentships etc?

The gov't are looking to put more money into 'proper' science at the mo - the key themes for the future seem to be knowledge transfer, showing that your research has impact etc. So although there will be less for social sciences, things like CASE studentships will probably increase if anything. I don't know about success rates for funding, but if you know a supervisor who puts in a bid for something like a CASE award, you are much more likely to get it than just cold call applications.

Wal is probably the best person for this because of his Anti Mandy campaign - I've just made that up, but he does not like Peter Mandelson and his crazed ideas for HE!

I would pitch your proposal as a Economics one - they get the most funding of the social sciences because the ESRC (created, in its current format, by Thatcher) loves Quant. work and anything that doesn't actually involve theoretical reflection or discussion. They'll give you funding if you say you keep a copies of Hayek and Friedman by your bed and have a picture of Thatcher on your ceiling.




I don't like the ESRC.

hmm that is true, I think they just put a call out for specifically economics quantitative stuff, althought that could have been for postdoc funding

I'm actually stronger at Social policy and don't really fancy quantitative research too much! Very annoying! The ESRC actually pay economics quantitative researchers £3000 more a year as they have a massive shortage of academic economists

you could always apply for a quant economics project and then actually do what you want when you have the cash!