Hi
I have an interview via Skype for a phd studentship soon, and am wondering how much information one needs to know about the study is there a need to do background reading on the topic area. The phd studentship is working on a study that's already been set up etc.
thank you

An enthusiam for the subject and the project is perhaps the most important thing in a PhD Studentship interview. Whilst you should do the normal for any interview, in that you should say why you are best suited for the position and what you can bring to it. You are expected to have a grasp of that base subject material, for example, if it's an Engineering PhD then you are expected to show basic Engineering knowledge.

You are not expected to show knowhow specific to the PhD and unless the supervisor has some Masters candidate lined up for the PhD, no supervisor would expect you to have such knowledge. You will be asked why you want to do a PhD (example answer along the lines of: "The chance to undertake a research project where I can discover something new and contribute to Engineering knowledge.") and where you expect to be in five yeasr time (example answer: "I see myself undertaking groundbreaking research with also a view to passing on the knowledge and skills gained to the generation of Engineers / Scientists that will follow me.").

That said, when I interviewed for my Phd I did do some background research into the area I was expected to study. Whilst I was able to argue my case quite strongly, I'm not sure to this day whether it gave me the edge over another candidate who was being interviewed. I was aiming at showing initiative in having done some relevant basic research as well as show enthusiasm. I guess I ticked the enthusiasm box (as suggested at the beginning) if nothing else!!!

Ian

I have to disagree slightly with Ian. My supervisors said I showed specific subject knowledge in the interview, and that was one of the reasons they gave me the PhD (the other was my enthusiasm). They only thing I did to get this knowledge was to read about 5 recent papers published from the lab on the subject background and techniques, and memorise key details. This only took a couple of days so its achievable.