Hi,

Need some advice please....I started a PhD back in Oct 2008 but withdrew after a few months due to ill health. I have been trying to decide ever since whether I wanted to re-enrol and finally decided last month that I did. My supervisor is happy for me to return but I have left it too late for an Oct start so going to begin in January. However, my plan was to start part-time, apply for AHRC funding in March in the hope of securing it for next October. But I just heard that you can't apply for AHRC funding retrospectively - have the rules changed? My department is saying unless I postpone my studies until next October I will at no stage be able to apply for funding. Dilemma because I have literally wasted years of study due to ill health and really really want to start in Jan - don't think I can wait another whole year. Also if I wait there is no guarantee that a) the department will get ANY funding and b) if they do that I would get it (plus my supervisor said I would have a good chance if `i applied) AARGHHH! What to do - advice please.......
:-s

What do you mean by retrospectively? I don't think you ever could apply retrospectively for AHRC funding. You can only apply for a future date. But when I applied, back in 2004, it was possible to start a PhD, self-funding, and apply for AHRC funding to cover the remaining years.

That's what I did. I self-funded my first year, applied to AHRC part-way through, and won funding for the rest of my PhD.

Maybe you should contact AHRC to see what they say? You can find their contact details at their website http://www.ahrc.ac.uk

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply,

That is exactly what I intended to do - self-fund now and apply for funding next year, but I have been told that as soon as you physically start the PhD, if you haven't already applied for funding then you will completely rule yourself out in the future. Seems harsh to be honest - my uni seems to have a policy to only offer funding to new students and not current students who may have self-funded like yourself and then wanted to apply for funding later on. Think I will check with the AHRC but if it's a university policy then I don't think I'm going to get anywhere..

Whoever told you that was misinformed... I failed to get funding for my first year, but have now been awarded an AHRC studentship by my dept. for this year onwards. Some institutions aren't keen on funding current students (I have been told) because the money is seen as a lure for new research students; others take the opposing view that it is better to fund someone who has demonstrated a capacity for research and a sold project proposal for the preceding year. However, I don't think universities can actually institute a blanket ban on continuing students - it's not in the spirit of the competition, which is to encourage the 'best' research, regardless of who is doing it. Good luck.