Hi, I'm about to go into my final year of an MEng Civil Engineering course and the possibility of undertaking a PhD has come to my attention. However, I don't really know how one goes about getting accepted onto a PhD scheme and would appreciate it if some of you could shed some light on the subject.

Do universities have PhD schemes that they want people to do? i.e. research into a particular field. Or is it up to the student to find an area that they want to investigate and then pitch it to the university? I have an idea something I would like to do if I were to be given the chance.