I know that in the UK, there's a choice of pursuing a supervisor's research idea or one's own.

But what is the situation in New Zealand?

Is one or the other more likely to attract the New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship - or any other source of funding available to a Brit studying in NZ?

What are you talking about?? Who said there is a choice?

"I know that in the UK, there's a choice of pursuing a supervisor's research idea or one's own."

I'm referring to approaching a uni with one's own idea (and often one's own funding), or going for a funded PhD which has been thought of by someone else.

the supervisor will influence your topic and research either way, so one can usually not pursue ones' own ideas.

Actually Jouri - if you have your own individual funding it is possible to pursue your own project if it fits into your chosen supervisor's genreal remit. When I was applying, I had a short chat with my supervisor and suggested some project ideas that intersted me. (It had been made very clear that I would be responsible for coming up with my own project.) He had a definite preference for one, so I expanded that into a funding proposal, which he signed as the potential supervisor. This is not that uncommon, especially in fields that don't require a lot of research costs.

Please can anyone clarify the situation in New Zealand, as per my question above?

I've been contacting NZ universities to ask, but keep getting standard replies with PhD application forms but not answering my question

Well in the Uk this is something you would need to sort out with your chosen potential supervisor - it's not some sort of policy decision made by the institution or even the dept. I expect it's similar in NZ. Surely if you are thinking of proposing your own project you must know who your appropriate potential supervisor(s) in NZ would be. I would have thought that would be the first thing to sort out and then approach them directly.

smilodon - i know what you mean, but when i thought of that, it seemed a bit lazy to be approaching a potential supervisor with such a basic question about doing an NZ PhD! but if i can't get an answer anywhere, i may have to do that with one of them (i've got a list of about 20 potentials)