Hi all,

Basically I am currently part way through my Masters and have applied for a PhD at the same university I am at now. As I am close to the lecturer who would be my supervisor (if I were successful), she has helped me greatly with writing my thesis proposal.

I am have been accepted at this university, however I am still waiting to hear regarding funding. Due to my circumstances, if I do not get chosen for funding then I will not be able to study there.

This has got me thinking that I should really apply to multiple universities to increase my chances of being given funding somewhere. However, I am unsure if the protocol is to use the same research proposal for all applications? And is this acceptable considering my potential supervisor here has helped me re-write some areas and given advice?

Also my potential supervisor here would be a key person to list as a referee, but I'm not even sure how to go about asking if she'll be a referee for other applications?

I'm concerned this comes off disrespectful, essentially taking the proposal she has helped me with to apply to other uni's, then asking her for a reference too?

Any advice would be massively appreciated, as I have little knowledge of how these things typically work!

Many thanks!

You need to discuss this with your supervisor before doing anything. They will tell you whether they are ok with your submitting this proposal elsewhere.

I'd say approach it sensitively, as you have done in this thread.

Mine wrote me a reference for a different university application, as I explained the situation and asked if she would be OK with that.

I can imagine some would have issues/get funny.

Normally I would strongly advise anyone against following this sort of advice when approaching more than one employer for a job because quite frankly it is none of their business who else you are applying to. In this case however it can clearly cause some problems and an open chat probably is the only way forwards.