Help with application for a PhD Bursary - Humanities

janine22

Hi there I graduated in 2005 and was due to return to Uni part time to complete a research Masters (MPhil), hopefully leading to a PhD. The subject area is Law.

Now I've recently bought a house with OH and so need a full time income during my studies. I've recently been told by my supervisor that there is one Bursary available for Social Science and Law students (this covers a number of subjects).

Has anyone completed a similar application and if so could you offer me any advice? there's lots of competition and therefore I want to get the application right.

There is also a note on the application - "informal enquiries strongly recommended" - any ideas?

Sorry for the long post but this bursary would solve most of my problems in relation to postgraduate study and I would love outside imput.

Thanks in advance. :beer:

janine22

Anyone? Please?

melancholly

In a lot of cases you will need to write a research proposal to submit for the funding application. And in most cases this will have a lot of involvement from your supervisor (to write the kind of proposal to be good enough, you'll be past phd level in that area!). You really need to ask your supervisor how to go about this - they should be willing to help and will know the procedure so will be able to give the most specific advice.

janine22

I have spoken to my supervisor who advised that I fill out the initial application form, which includes a research proposal and take it from there. I'm stuggling, however, with making a decision regarding the exact research I intend to carry out. I was about to enrol on the MPhil with the aim of proceeding to PhD level in due course. I'm therefore not au fait with the research process and am certainly not "past phd level" where a research propoosal is concerned.

Just to state that my Uni have not offered a bursary in this subject area before and therefore the staff with whom I've spoken don't seem to know that much about the criteria, etc. That's why I'm struggling.

melancholly

well as long as you get your money, they won't really care if you change what you said you were going to do. research over 3 years can rarely be planned anyway because what you find out determines what you should do next!

as long as it sounds sensible, vaguely important and achievable, that should be the main thing. try and get an idea of what the word limit is too. perhaps that's what you could ask about in an informal enquiry?

janine22

Thanks a lot for your help, I'm sorry I sound so naive, I've just not got much idea about the actual processes for these things. I'll just have to give it a go and see what happens, I doubt that my subject area is "sexy" enough at present.

aurora_borealis_2

Is it an ESRC scholarship?
I was awarded one of these a few years ago. I remeber an Easter deadline and lots of help from my supervisor

Voyager2002

I've been through this process, but a long time ago. Anyway:

First, remember that M.Phil generally means "failed PhD". At this stage your ambition should be to get a PhD. (Unless you are talking about Oxford or Cambridge, who use M.Phil for degrees that elsewhere are called MA or MSc.)

Next, please indicate whether you already have some kind of Master's degree. Most research students have an MA or MSc near completion when they start applying for PhD funding. Some universities offer what is called 1 plus 3 (funded by ESRC), whereby you are funded for one year for the appropriate MA, and then three years for the PhD. There is also a qualification called M.Res. (Master of Research) that you can earn on the way to a PhD by undergoing training in research methods.

Anyway, if you only have a BA/BSc/LL.B. you are unlikely to be successful in obtaining this bursary. Very few people can go straight from undergraduate work to research work, and only an exceptional scholar would be able to produce a satisfactory research proposal before studying at MA/MSc level.

However, your best way to approach this bursary is to talk with your prospective superviser(s). Jot down, on about one page, your ideas for a research project. Be sure that it is something that really interests you: if you are successful you will have to live with the topic for a good few years to come. Discuss your ideas with academics and refine them: good PhD topics are jointly developed by student and superviser. And be sure to think about research methods: the main reason why proposals fail is a lack of an adequate discussion of methods, and of the validity and appropriateness (methodology) of the proposed methods. Ideally you will summarise some recent literature to demonstrate that your work would fill a gap in existing knowledge, and provide convincing reasons why your proposed work is significant. (This is what PhD students need to do at the end of their first year, so don't worry if you can't do it yet. But if you can get some way towards doing so you will impress the decision makers.)

Anyway, be prepared to finance yourself for an MA or LL.M., after which you will be in a much stronger position.

Voyager2002

I've been through this process, but a long time ago. Anyway:

First, remember that M.Phil generally means "failed PhD". At this stage your ambition should be to get a PhD. (Unless you are talking about Oxford or Cambridge, who use M.Phil for degrees that elsewhere are called MA or MSc.)

Next, please indicate whether you already have some kind of Master's degree. Most research students have an MA or MSc near completion when they start applying for PhD funding. Some universities offer what is called 1 plus 3 (funded by ESRC), whereby you are funded for one year for the appropriate MA, and then three years for the PhD. There is also a qualification called M.Res. (Master of Research) that you can earn on the way to a PhD by undergoing training in research methods.

Anyway, if you only have a BA/BSc/LL.B. you are unlikely to be successful in obtaining this bursary. Very few people can go straight from undergraduate work to research work, and only an exceptional scholar would be able to produce a satisfactory research proposal before studying at MA/MSc level.

However, your best way to approach this bursary is to talk with your prospective superviser(s). Jot down, on about one page, your ideas for a research project. Be sure that it is something that really interests you: if you are successful you will have to live with the topic for a good few years to come. Discuss your ideas with academics and refine them: good PhD topics are jointly developed by student and superviser. And be sure to think about research methods: the main reason why proposals fail is a lack of an adequate discussion of methods, and of the validity and appropriateness (methodology) of the proposed methods. Ideally you will summarise some recent literature to demonstrate that your work would fill a gap in existing knowledge, and provide convincing reasons why your proposed work is significant. (This is what PhD students need to do at the end of their first year, so don't worry if you can't do it yet. But if you can get some way towards doing so you will impress the decision makers.)

Anyway, be prepared to finance yourself for an MA or LL.M., after which you will be in a much stronger position.

janine22

The bursary itself is offered through Uni and I'm not sure whether it is associated with a scheme, or what scheme this might be.

I only have an LLB not an MA/LLM. According to my supervisor I don't need a Masters to commence the MPhil/PhD course, I can go straight into it now (there are other students in Law who have done this too and been successful).

It has been suggested to me that the normal (self funded) route is to enrol/complete the first year of the MPhil and then progress onto the PhD (following satisfactory progress).

I do have an area of research and a rough proposal mapped out, but at this stage I'm not sure exactly what method of independant research to use, as I was enrolling on the MPhil initially and the plan was to develop/alter my ideas as I went along.

Sorry, now I'm even more confused!

Voyager2002

janine22 wrote:

The bursary itself is offered through Uni and I'm not sure whether it is associated with a scheme, or what scheme this might be.

I only have an LLB not an MA/LLM. According to my supervisor I don't need a Masters to commence the MPhil/PhD course, I can go straight into it now (there are other students in Law who have done this too and been successful).

It has been suggested to me that the normal (self funded) route is to enrol/complete the first year of the MPhil and then progress onto the PhD (following satisfactory progress).

I do have an area of research and a rough proposal mapped out, but at this stage I'm not sure exactly what method of independant research to use, as I was enrolling on the MPhil initially and the plan was to develop/alter my ideas as I went along.

Sorry, now I'm even more confused!

Sorry to confuse you.

Even enrolling for a PhD is quite an honour, so what generally happens is that a new research student is initially registered for an MPhil. Assuming s/he makes satisfactory progress, s/he transfers to being registered for a PhD at the end of the first year.

Assuming your tutor/prospective supervisor knows you and supports your application, the crucial element will be your research proposal. This really should begin with an idea from you, but will require development jointly with your supervisor. Most people write something like "I want to do research into such and such". You will do better than most of the competition if you can narrow it down to specific, testable hypotheses; if you can give some indication of the research methods you will use, and some evidence that you have reflected on the validity and appropriateness of those methods; and if you have demonstrated that your proposed research would fill an important gap in the literature. Obviously this is a lot to ask: it is what most research students achieve at the end of their first year in order to register for a PhD. But if you approach this standard your application will stand out as the one to get the bursary.