You might have better luck asking on thestudentroom forum. Better yet, try emailing Cambridge physics PhD admissions team directly to ask if they have a preference for students to have an MSci or a Bsc and MSc :)

These supervisors sound awful - surely they're not allowed to get away with such low standards of supervision and dodgy behaviour. It would be logical to have some sort of penalty for supervisors who fail to see their students to completion, to encourage them to actually do a decent job...

I doubt they're conspiring to get you to give up but they are obviously showing very little interest and care. I think you need to speak to someone like the Postgraduate Research Director, or someone who oversees the PhDs, and honestly tell them your experience with these supervisors and how it's affecting your work/ability to do the work to a high standard.

Is this in the UK?

May sound obvious, but to strengthen your application, make sure your research proposal and personal statement sound as passionate, enthusiastic and confident as possible :) really play up on your past research experience too.

I can only speak for social science subjects under ESRC funding, where every subject seems to be available for +3.5 structure of provision as well as +3 and 1+3 :)

The funding is for the set number of years agreed at the start; they won't extend funding if you need more time.

Yep - I have a Masters degree and I'm wondering if I need a second Masters (in Research Methods) in order to satisfy the ESRC requirements for a funded PhD.

Ahh that does make sense that the uni would prefer 1+3 since it's more money in their pot!
Is it actually possible to just tick both +3.5 and 1+3 and let them choose for me..?



Your insight is really helpful bewildered, thank you. I've found a studentships email for the uni I'm applying to, so I'll ask them if they'd insist on 1+3 or not for my situation. Seems a bit strange to have this inconsistency amongst the DTPs/unis.

For the 3.5 track your uni offers, is it literally 3 and a half years of study? Or are those 60 credits of methods modules undertaken as an 'extra' in the first year so that you still finish at the same time as self-funders at the end of year three?

I hadn't thought about that, the fact that a full year of methods training would maximise my employabillity and could help me out post-PhD (and would be quite interesting to learn in its own right). For that reason I'm actually starting to lean towards 1+3...

Thank you both! I appreciate the responses.

My uncertainty lies in the +3.5 scheme requirement to have undertaken a Masters degree with modules that cover 2 of the ESRC research areas, the research areas being Philosophy of Social Science Research; Research Design, Practice and Ethics; Quantitative Research Methods; and Qualitative Research Methods.

My research skills module covered methodologies and ethics at a superficial level, and I am intending to use qualitative interviewing methods (and potentially also quantitative questionnaires) in my PhD. The module leader even stated that the module is very basic and not designed as a research skills program that would satsify the ESRC.

Yet another tutor in charge of PGR admissions at that uni has suggested I can apply for the +3.5 scheme too. I'm confused as the Masters module clearly didn't cover these topics in much depth, or at all in the case of Quantitative and Qualitative methods!
But then surely very few people have had thorough research skills training at Masters level... And don't unis supply all their PhD students with research skills training in the first term anyway (like a PgCert in Research)??



Do you know if a slight preference is given to those who select +3.5 since it means less funding is required? i.e. would I be decreasing my chances at all by selecting 1+3?

Say I apply for +3.5 but the Research Council find that my Masters hasn't covered enough of the research skill areas, would the Research Council outright reject me or just require that I do 1+3 instead?


One last question. I understand that the 1+3 scheme involves a full Masters year before the PhD. What does the +3.5 scheme actually involve? How many modules? Is it literally half a Masters year without a dissertation element?

If you have completed a Masters degree which included a module on research skills and methods along with the dissertation, which Research Council PhD Funding scheme should you apply for?