If you have your own funding, then finding somewhere to study should be no problem. Use the internet to fin the names of French research groups working in your area of interest and then write to the explaining your situation. You will soon have a number of offers.

Both UMIST and Manchester University have excellent reputations. Check the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) rating of the department you are applying to for a more specific rating. Most important of all is the quality of the individual research group you are joining.

You really need to start looking for sources of funding yourself. Very few PhD programmes in the UK offer funding to international students. Start by contacting the British Council in your home country for advice on which schemes may be available to you. For further information see our Funding section

You really need to start looking for sources of funding yourself. Very few PhD programmes in the UK offer funding to international students. Start by contacting the British Council in your home country for advice on which schemes may be available to you. For further information see our Funding section

A very small number of scholarships are available for Masters degrees. Many of these are vocational and you should contact the British Medical Association to see what training options are available to you.

There's some information on interviews in the PhDs Explained section of this site.

No - you may find it difficult to get a place (particularly with the same funding body), but it is not a rule. For most UK research councils if you give up before the end of your first year, the supervisor is allowed to re-advertise the studentship. If you give up after this your supervisor will be unable to get a new student to complete the work, without applying for new funding.

If you are half way through an unsatisfactory PhD (and most students will find their PhD unsatisfactory at some point) it may be worth sticking with it. Another 12 months work could see you with a completed thesis and then you can move into whatever new field of research you are currently being tempted by.

A part time Masters degree is just as good as a full time one.

The NewRoutePhD™ scheme is a four year PhD, which includes taught elements and professional training alongside the research project. NewRoutePhD™ fees are in the region of £8,000 per year for Arts and Social Sciences and £10,000 for lab-based subjects. Students may be eligible for financial assistance and should contact the local British Council office for further information. NewRoutePhD™ scholarships are being offered at a number of Participating Universities - please contact individual Universities for full details. UK students can obtain information on research council studentships from Participating Universities. You can get more information on the New Route PhD scheme from the web site.

In the next few months we'll be adding a 'Course Review' section, where students can submit reviews of the courses featured on this site. In the mean time please feel free to use this forum for recomedations.

You can't qualify for a loan form the Student Loans Co. 'Career Development' or 'Graduate' loans available from high street banks aren't as good, but as 'Mr Big' points out they do provide deferred payment options and good interest rates. More information on the finance and funding of Masters degrees will be available on this site very soon.

Universities pay annually for spaces on FindAPhD for their academics. Password access allows the supervisors to update their projects and remove them if they do not wish to receive speculative applications. Recent changes to the site mean that projects disappear from the public area of the site once the application date has passed.

At any point during the working day somebody is logged in to FindAPhD and editing their entry. Remember to look at the project status flags which indicate whether funding may be available for projects or whether the suppervisor is only looking for self funded students.

Visit our Funding pages for links and information.

A link out to DAAD and other relevant sites can be found in our funding pages. If you're looking for PhDs in other countries then I'm afraid we don't know of any equivalent sites, it's probably best to search for subject specific sites. There's nothing stopping non-UK universities advertising on FindAPhD and if there are any young German or American marketing genius's out there with an in depth knowledge of postgraduate education in their home country we'd love to here from them.

It all depends on the nature of your research. If you are in a laboratory based subject you will need to find a lab in the UK and one in Greece who are both working in a similar, highly specific area (and are preferably already collaborating). If you're in a subject where you don't need to see too much of your supervisor, then you can probably work anywhere, so long as your research material is close at hand (eg a library, historical records, survey groups, etc).