you wouldn't necessarily lose the scholarship - see section 8 of the guide:

http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Support/postgraduate_students/Studentship_Handbook/

research councils ask for a 65 or over in dissertations so I wouldn't say it's spoiling your chances, more like boosting them! - good luck.

If you are interested in Research Council funding (ESRC, AHRC etc.) then yes, you would need to have lived in the UK for three years prior to your application and have an EU country citizenship.

However - many other scholarships do not have a residency requirement and in fact many universities try to balance out the Research council funding offering their own scholarships that are usually free of a residency requirement.

Hope this helps!

Universities in London usually claim that living costs for students are approx £1000/month, i.e. 12K per annum. Now of course that's a completely subjective matter and depends on what kind of lifestyle one lives in London, but it's a pretty good average.

Housing is very expensive, particularly in West London, where Imperial is - depends on location, room size etc. of course, but you would be looking at anything between £90-150/week. Transport is approx. £25/week, though cycling is of course free

All in all, you could if you really stretch it, bring your living costs down to around £700 (I know quite a few people who live on less), though around £1000 should be enough to worry less about bills.

Good luck!

shani: unfortunately, that's not exactly the case. Research councils will only fund EU students, not non-EU. However, some departments allocate funding to non-EU students to rectify this - if I were you, lostkate, I would look at departmental funding first.

Hey people,

Here's what it says in this year's ESRC funding guide

For the new student intake for 2007 the ESRC will no longer be offering or confirming awards direct to students. Institutions will be notified of studentship application results including confirmation of student nominations for all schemes. Institutions will then take over responsibility for the awards. They will be required to inform all students of the outcome of ESRC applications and quota nominations and to advise new students on the payment arrangements within their institution. The ESRC would expect all students to have been contacted by universities no later than 7 August. For quota nominees this
should be possible well in advance of 7 August.

So your wait should soon be over. Good luck!

2.39 EU Residents Please Note:
Following the Bidar Judgement in 2005
(http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/studenteligibility.pdf ), EU nationals who are resident in the UK only need to follow criteria A from the above list (EU nationals who have been resident in the UK for 3 years immediately preceding the date of an award for the purpose of full time education are now eligible for a full grant.)

Established UK Residency

2.37 All candidates are required to have established UK residency:

2.38 Part IV, Regulation 12 of the Education (Fees and Awards) Regulations 1983, and subsequent amendments, require that candidates for awards have a relevant connection with the United Kingdom. A relevant connection may be established if, at the date of application/nomination:
a) the candidate has been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the 3-year period immediately preceding the date of an award, and
b) has not been resident in the UK, during any part of that 3-year period, wholly or mainly for the purposes of full time education, and
c) has settled status in the UK within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 (i.e. is not subject to any restriction on the period for which he/she may stay).

Elrisa - not sure if you still need clarification on this as it's an old post, but here's what the ESRC has to say (i'm c&c'ing their text below). Basically: EU nationals living in the UK three years qualify for established UK residency, i.e. fees and maintenance. EU nationals living in other EU countries qualify for EU residency, i.e. fees only. Hope this helps!

lol gizmo

that won't be that hard now will it

This is a Phd forum, this is a phd forum, not a football one (slaps himself)

photography! I recently bought a digital camera though I'm still not 100% persuaded it beats my ol ' good medium format one

I upload some stuff here http://forgetphotography.com/blog

Now if only I could convince the admissions tutors that photography *can* blend in with social sciences!

...and i'm a bit embarrassed to say i'm a leeds fan

That's a very good point Claudia, I was talking from a social science perspective... In either case, good luck terencechung122

Hey terencechung122,

How come you're paying international student fees when you're a UK Passport holder?

Students are rarely admitted directly from an undergrad to a PhD program and even if so, schools usually ask for a distinction in the bachelors. Are you considering doing an MSc first? That would definitely boost your chances...

PhD proposals, on the other hand, are closer to academic papers both in their length and format: intro--> lit review --> main issues --> but crucially, instead of reaching a definite conclusion you have to explain why the proposed question is of merit and how you intend to tackle it.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Hey Joyce,

That specific department asked for "one to two" sides of an A4 sheet. Each dept/supervisor asks for something different so, like Ann said, the safest thing to do is ask them directly what they are looking for.

In the statement of purpose I'm working on at the mo I describe how I got interested in my subject, what I have done so far, what I want to achieve with the PhD research and how I can use that knowledge in the future. It's a personal statement so nope, no references/bibliography here - there's hardly any space for that anyway

However, I also prepared PhD proposal a few weeks ago (for a different application) and that was much closer to a course paper format-wise and it did include references.

My personal rule of thumb is that statements of intent/purpose resemble the idea (and length) of a CV: They describe what you have done so far (plus what you intend to do in the future).