Applying for doctoral research
The following advice is offered in response to regular requests from potential students (please note, now that I have retired from teaching I am not taking on further supervision) based on my time teaching at Cambridge, including when I acted as the admissions officer for the Science, Technology and Mathematics Education academic group.
This advice reflects my experience working in the English education system and in a particular (and in some ways idiosyncratic) university (and is published here simply to avoid me writing much the same response to many correspondents).
Key advice
Carefully check the current information given on the websites of universities and/or departments where you may wish to work, particularly in regard to any applications deadlines and procedures, expected qualifications and experience, and financial arrangements.
Important note about financing a PhD
The way a PhD is financed may vary depending on the national context, institution, and even subject area. In the system where I worked PhD candidates are admitted as graduate students and are not employed by the university or considered employees. [This may be different elsewhere – e.g. in some European Universities professors have funds from which they can employ Ph.D. students to work on their projects]
Students pay fees for their programme, and these fees may be paid personally, or may be covered by a sponsor such as a funding council. At Cambridge full-time students are only allowed to work a limited number of hours with the approval of their supervisor on work related to their project (and such opportunities that are available may be limited [this is different to some other places, such as some U.S. Universities which will employ their doctoral candidates fro the duration of their studies as teaching or research assistants]) – the expectation is that graduate students are working full-time on their studies/research.
Occasionally, studentships may be advertised in relation to existing funded projects, and open to competitive interview. While that approach is common in some science departments, it is relatively rare in departments of education, where students are usually expected to propose their own projects.
The University of Cambridge manages a wide range of funded studentships, which are not linked to specific project topics, but may have various legibility criteria (some, but not all, of which are linked to particular disciplines). However, there are not sufficient of these to cover all graduate students admitted to the university.* Students may have support from external agencies (home government's funding bodies, employer, charities, etc.), or may pay their own fees from sources such as personal savings. Students are only admitted if the University can be assured the student has funds to cover both their fees and their living expenses for the period of the PhD (three years full time study).
(Part-time Ph.D. or Ed.D. students study over 5 years, and may fund their fees from their earnings. Whereas full-time students live in Cambridge (except if carrying out field work elsewhere), part-time students need to live close enough to Cambridge to attend when required.)
* Where a student applies for a Ph.D. programme and for funding there are three possible outcomes:
- the applicant is offered admission (possibly conditional, e.g., on completing a previous qualification that is in progress), and offered a funding award;
- the applicant is offered admission (possibly conditional, e.g., on completing a previous qualification that is in progress), but not offered a funding award (so admission is conditional on the applicant finding other funding);
- the applicant is not offered admission.
(Applications far exceed the number of funded places available.)
Most funding competitions managed by the university are tied to the applications process so that the applicant only completes one application to cover both admission, and funding. The application is effectively entered into two distinct processes, first to see if the department wants to offer admission as a Ph.D. student, and then, where recommended for admission, to be considered for funding.
So, a decision to offer admission may be sent out before a decision on offering funding is made.
Application
Application is made through the central university system. Formally, all admission decisions are made at University level. Applications from qualified candidates are passed to the relevant faculty/department for consideration by potential supervisors (and, in the first instance, a supervisor requested by the applicant).
The university will make an application to a qualified applicant on the recommendation of the department/faculty. That recommendation will depend upon a suitable teaching officer being available to take on the supervision of the student/project.
It is usually sensible to contact a potential supervisor in advance to be sure they are interested in supervising the project you are proposing.
Criteria
Your application is likely to be considered in terms of:
- Potential for academic excellence (based on prior academic achievement and strong references from suitable academic referees – also considering prior publications and research experience where appropriate). Note that a good undergraduate degree or a master's degree in a relevant area is usually a minimum requirement;
- The potential of the proposal for development into a viable research project;
- The relevance of the proposal to the active research interests within the Research Group/department;
- Quality of written and spoken English (which is essential to effective study in the UK);
- Eligibility to study in the UK (where appropriate, a student visa will need to be obtained);
- Ability to fund studies (whether from personal funds, winning a Cambridge based scholarship; or funding by another sponsor);
- Ability to meet residence requirements (full-time students must normally live in Cambridge for most of their course; part-time students must live close enough to attend regularly and take part in the intellectual life of the University).
- [Funding: any offer for admission will be conditional on a source of funding being available]
- At Cambridge you will also have to be accepted by one of the colleges which act as the foci for much social, sporting and cultural activity (and also for much undergraduate teaching), and often provide or help find accommodation. However, where a department/faculty wishes to recommend admission, they will usually support the candidate in finding a college place. Applicants are invited to nominate their preferred colleges on application, but the choice of college is not relevant to the evaluation of the application. (A different system operates for undergraduate admissions at Cambridge, where colleges take the lead role in admission decisions.)
Proposals
An application to undertake a research degree includes a proposal for the study to be undertaken. (This is a different tradition to some other national contexts where academics expect research students to follow projects assigned to them).
It is expected that a proposal:
- is clearly related to the areas of work of the research group/potential supervisor;
- identifies provisional research questions or a research focus that is of clear intellectual interest suggesting potential for worthwhile enquiry;
- demonstrates that the applicant already has a basic knowledge and understanding of the research area, based upon reading of relevant scholarly works;
- offers an outline research design for how the research may proceed (and at doctoral level this should be informed by prior learning about suitable research methodologies for educational research ** ).
** Note: research training in other disciplinary areas – such as the natural sciences – will be noted and valued, BUT cannot be considered sufficient preparation for research in science education (which is basically a social science).
[Find out: Why do natural scientists tend to make poor social scientists?]
Supervision – and prior contact with faculty
Applicants at doctoral level are invited to name a potential supervisor on their application.
Potential doctoral students should:
- view the personal webpages of academic staff and identify the most likely supervisor(s) for their work;
- make prior contact with the most suitable person before completing an application;
- seek to conform whether that member of staff might be interested in supervising the planned project, and whether they would wish to offer guidance and feedback on a draft proposal (they may; they may not!).
It is not considered inappropriate ('cheating') to seek feedback on a potential research topic or proposal prior to making an application – but applicants should not expect input to necessarily be forthcoming.
Staff will generally be pleased to indicate whether they would welcome being named as potential supervisor on a particular project, and may wish to offer guidance and feedback on your proposal (they may wish to suggest how to better align your project with their research and other work going on in the department/faculty), but are extremely busy and cannot commit much time to supporting possible applicants.
(An applicant who seems to need a lot of support in putting together their proposal will likely be viewed by a potential supervisor as not ready to start a Ph.D. )
