I am looking for a phD place for next year. Can someone please tell me when is the entry for next year, is it every sep/oct or it varies with university? When is the best time I should start looking?
I need a funding but I am not sure how to apply for that? Should I choose those advertised phD course with funding attached or can I apply directly from the funding provider?
If I apply directly from the provider, how does it work? Should I have in mind what I plan to do in this coming three years? Then after I got the funding, only then I approach the professor? I really do not know how the whole process work , can someone please help me out, so that I can get started.
Thanks a lot for your help
:p:-)

Hi there

There are different ways you could go about this. What are you studying, what's your area of interest? For some specialist degrees like the Clinical Doctorate for instance, there will be a set time of the year that you can apply so in this instance the closing date for applications is December 2010 for a place starting in Sept 2011. In other areas the best time to apply is between Sept to March time. Alternatively you could look on here for advertised PhDs which usually indicate what the start of the project will be and these could be throughout the year. Most of the time unis prefer a Spring or Autumn start date because it means candidates can graduate in the Summer or Winter.

Re funding - I think it would be very difficult to get funding without a supervisor. Research Councils and other charities and organisations like to see established individuals and departments on their application forms. It would be better to find out which uni does research in your area and approach a supervisor by emailing/phoning them to express your interest. If the supervisor decides to take you on then you would submit the application together. You will need to complete a research proposal which indicates what you will be looking at and why and whether it's feasible as a research project. After that you have to wait for the outcome.

The sooner you get started into looking at unis and potential projects the better as applying for funding can be a very lengthy process.

Best of luck with your search!