Hi all, I just stumbled across this website and figured what the heck!

Basically I just finished an MSc in Forensic and Biological Anthropology and I'm looking to study a Phd. I have a topic I would love to put forward for my research but i'm not quite sure on how I go about approaching universities as most seem to have pre-arranged topics and titles.

So anyways my question is...since I have an idea of what I would like to research, how do i go about finding a place to study or do I have to apply for a pre-designed research topic.

Zoe
xx

Hi Zoe, presumably you've got an idea of what unis offer your subject at masters level as you've just finished one. You could check their websites to see whether they offer PhD supervision in that area as well. Are there particular academics who dovetail with your research idea who you think would be suitable to supervise your potential PhD, in terms of their expertise?

Maybe there are a few academics you used a lot for your masters dissertation who might be interested in supervising a research degree, you could google them to find out what institutions they are based at, whether they supervise PhDs and what subjects they're interested in taking on. This sort of info is often on the uni websites, along with general information about procedures for applying for PhDs. When you've narrowed it down, you could contact the individual uni research departments to see how best to pursue a potential application.

You could also speak to your masters dissertation tutor about the possibilities for pursing a PhD and see what advice they could give you. Do students stay on to do PhDs after their masters at your college? I did that myself as I already knew the staff and what I wanted to study, and my uni is actively trying to recruit good masters students for research degrees, so it worked out nicely!

Well the problem is, the university I studied at made my masters a living hell! I was so glad to just finish it at the time, so I'm looking to stretch my wings a little and find somewhere near, I live on the South Coast.

It's a shame really because I would happily have stayed on where I was, but there was a huge mess up with many aspects and I don't want to risk heading back somewhere i was unhappy with.

Zoe
x

Ooh, I don't blame you for wanting to get away in that case!

As you know what you want to study already, why don't you make a sort of 'wish list' of academics in your field who you admire, and/or universities that do your subject where you'd like to study, then narrow those down and investigate further? I did that. I knew what I wanted to develop from my MA dissertation, I knew which the best colleges were for my subject as I liked the work they did and I wanted to study under those staff, and I thought I knew who the most appropriate academics might be for my PhD proposal. Top of my wish list was ok, as that's where I did my MA and the academic I was keen to get as supervisor liked my dissertation and my proposal and wanted to take on research students. For my second supervisor, I ended up emailing someone from another uni, outlining what I was doing and why I thought he'd be great for my project; we had a meeting and he agreed to become my second supervisor. I don't think I could have chosen better academics or college for my PhD in retrospect, so it definitely doesn't seem to do any harm to have an ideal scenario in mind, it might work out!

Hey there Zoe! I am in a different discipline to you (Psychology) but I have some comments that probably extend to other disciplines too! If you know fairly specifically what you want to study for your PhD, I would look for the best people to supervise it, and contact them to see if they would be willing to. This way, you get to research exactly what you want and hopefully with some researchers who are at the top of the field. The difficulty with this type of approach is that you then need to find the funding for it. If you can find people who are keen to supervise you, then they should be able to help you out- after all, it's in their best interests to have a good phd student on board too. There might be funding going within their department or you might have to apply to an external funding body, although this can take quite a while to sort out. Alternatively, you can look at advertised projects, some of which may already have funding. Whilst it is probably easier to get onto one of these PhDs, be aware that you may have very little say in exactly what you do and how you go about it. So if you go for this type of project, make sure that it really is on exactly what you want to do. On the plus side, if you go for an advertised one, a lot of the background to it (defining research questions and methodolgy etc) may already have been sorted out, meaning you can get started much more quickly than if you had to go through all that yourself. Hope this makes some sort of sense!

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