PhD funding - advice needed!

himou13

Hi there everyone (first time poster)

Does anyone have any handy tips (other than those on the site) for someone looking to do a PhD in Film/Media. Am looking for how to go about finding funding and all the ins/outs of what to do!

Thanks,

Alice

Piggles12345

Are you an MA student? Do you need to do an MA before your PhD?

Funding Options
Usually university departments have quota awards and open competition places for research council studentships. A quota award is money that the university owns (which was given to them by the research council) that they can give to whomever they choose from the applicants. An open competition place is where the university department has the right to nominate a certain number (usually 1 or 2) of students for open competition funding. This is where the research council decides which students to dole out funding to from all of those in the country who are nominated for open competition. Both of these options are very very competitive and the latter usually involves meeting some kind of research council priority (for example this year the research council might concentrate on a particular area of British film making and applicants whose proposals cover this area are more likely to be awarded funding that those that do not meet this criteria).
If you are not yet an MA student but you need to do an MA, quota awards are often either +3 (PhD funding only) or 1+3 (PhD and MA funding) and you should apply for the 1+3 to try and get your MA year funded as well!

I'm not sure who the relevant funding councils would be for film/media- probably the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This can always be found out through your university department or quick search online.

You can also apply to other sources for funding, such as private companies, charities and government. Often these institutions will partly fund you and research councils often have a system in place where they can 'top-up' the funding that these institutions award you to the annual going rate for PhD study (usually around £13,000-£13,500).

All funding sources are extremely competitive and you need to make sure that you have a good proposal and supportive supervisor behind you. You also need to make sure that you are prepared for rejections!

Have a chat with your PhD co-ordinator in your department about the possible funding sources that are out there for you.

Proposal
It is vital to have a solid proposal to submit for funding consideration. This proposal is your way of telling the university department/ research council/ private institution that you are capable of doing and PhD and that it is worth them funding you!

You should structure your proposal like this;

Aims; Just say a few lines about what you aim to do
Context; Give some background to the research area- why is it interesting? what has/ hasn't been examined before? Why does the research that you are proposing need doing? What theories have been generated in this area? Are they problematic? Are you testing them out? Do you agree with these theories? What perspective will you be coming from with your research?
Research Questions; Just reiterate exactly what questions you are going to answer- you can write these in the form of questions. E.g. "This research will question to what extent American action films of the 1980s can be understood as a way for American men to reclaim their masculinity? To what extent is this a result of the emergence of the 'new man'?"
Methdodology; Write here HOW you are going to go about doing this research and what perspective you will be coming from.
Ethics; I have no idea whether this is appropriate in film/media studies. If it is and your course had a code of ethics, then state how your research will fit in with this code and how you will resolve any ethical issues that may arise.
Timetable; Detail what you will do each year of the PhD. Eg. "Year one: Literature review, Year Two: Research (detail your method), Year three: Write-up findings and disseminate".
Utility; Here you should write a paragraph about how your PhD will make a unique contribution to the field that you are studying.

In reality, your whole proposal should be aiming to answer the question why does the research that you are proposing need doing? and should be making clear what unique contribution you will be making to your field. As such you might want to focus on outlining what research is missing or what method has been neglected in previous research. If you can find a quote which also says that this is the case or that more research needs doing in a particular area then all the better, keep reiterating it throughout the proposal, particularly if it was said by someone quite eminent!

Draw up a draft proposal and keep handing in redrafts to your supervisor and get there opinion on it. They will have read loads of PhD proposals and will know what needs to go into it.

Networking
I'm not sure how much this really helps, but it doesn't hurt to get yourself known around your department or the department to which you are applying. Start going to guest lectures and seminars to show that you are interested and keen (even if your not). This will only give the powers that be a good impression of you and can't hurt your chances.

If you are applying for a quota award in a department, try and find out who is on the deciding panel for that and make yourself known to them. Perhaps you could drop by and just ask them a couple of questions about doing a PhD or funding opportunities- anything to show that you are keen and dedicated can only be good.

Bascially, the most important thing is that you get a really solid proposal behind you and have a supervisor that is willing to see loads of drafts and help you to get it just right. Make sure that your proposal emphasises why the department/ research council/ private institution should fund you and your research over someone else and their research!

Once you have handed in all of your proposals to all of the possible places and impressed the decision makers all you can without seeming like a brown-nose, all you can do is sit back and cross your fingers!!

(Sorry for the epic post, I hope it helps. You might want to take a look at postgraduateforum.com as well)

Voyager2002

The short answer is, ask advice from the person who would be your supervisor and from senior members of that department.

As well as the studentship funded by the research councils (discussed in #2), some departments have their own money for studentships, while some universities have money for studentships that can be held in any department. For example, Exeter has a film studies department, and I know people doing PhD study with on money awarded from the university's own central funds.

Competition is fierce, of course. The advice on your proposal in #2 is very important for this kind of situation. And remember that the people deciding whose work is most worthy of support are going to be specialists in different subjects, so you need to produce a proposal that will convince a generalist audience that your work is outstanding.

Good luck!

Piggles12345

Voyager2002 wrote: »

some universities have money for studentships that can be held in any department. For example, Exeter has a film studies department, and I know people doing PhD study with on money awarded from the university's own central funds.

This is very true. However, these studentships usually tend to dole out less money than those awarded by departments or research councils and will normally only cover fees and sometimes basic living expenses (around £4,000 per year).

If this is okay for you, then you should still go for it! Any funding has got to be better than none right?! But be prepared to be only have your fees covered or to only be paid a small amount.

It is worth spending a day or two just digging around online and finding out all of your possible funding options!!

bitsandpieces

Speaking to appropriate staff in your department - and then potential supervisors - is definitely a good idea. Have you done an MA yet, or would you consider doing one before doing the PhD? (v hard to get funding if going straight from BA to PhD). You have a strong academic record, if you don't mind me asking?

Funding is very competitive, generally. Good luck with applying - someone has to get funding! However, worth applying for multiple options if possible - if you can make multiple funding applications, you increase your odds of succeeding in one. Also worth considering what you will do if you don't get funding - self-fund? Study part-time? Get a job? You could also get some funding from things like teaching assistant and research work, after starting your PhD. This is v unlikely to even cover all living costs, though.

As far as funding provided by individual universities - some do pay the research council rate, some much less. Some also ask that you do at least some teaching or research work for them, in return for the money.

Voyager2002

Piggles12345 wrote: »

This is very true. However, these studentships usually tend to dole out less money than those awarded by departments or research councils and will normally only cover fees and sometimes basic living expenses (around £4,000 per year).

It varies. I knew university-funded students at Exeter receiving sums between 9,000 and 13,000 (at the time 13,000 was the research council rate). OTOH my PhD studentship was funded by the Open University out of its own funds (I had zero chance of research council support) and was at research council rates, including all the add-ons for dependants and work experience, and some other allowances that would not have been available to research council-supported students.

All of these figures are in addition to tuition fees. The good thing about Exeter studentships is that they automatically cover international tuition fees if the successful candidate is an overseas student.