I applied for a studentship. How long it takes for the department to reply? How long do departments take on average to decide about studentships?
I applied last month.

You should have received an acknowledgement of your application by now. If you are not eligible for the studentship concerned because of your qualifications or nationality then the institution concerned may have a policy of not replying to such enquiries. Sadly, as some people try to use bulk email techniques to find a studentship, UK universities receive very large numbers of such emails and have no time to respond and this can sometime effect genuine applicants.

Write to the university concerned, attaching your original application, to check if they have received it.

I did receive an acknowledgement at the time of application. The supervisor told me that he will give my application serious consideration. There is no problem with nationality and the topic is directly related to my previous studies. I did not use bulk mail technique.
I have not heard anything since then.

maybe they are checking your references and people haven't replied yet? Or it might be that they are waiting for the closing date for applications before they do interviews. It must take age to look through all the applicantsn for a position!

FindAPhD Team, Please comment. I am a bit worried.
regards
BJ

Write directly to the supervisor to ask when you can expect to hear the result of your application. Be polite, don't sound pushy or as if you're panicking. There may be genuine reasons why they have taken so long - they may not yet have secured guaranteed funding or may even be still be accepting applications. Some departments allocate studentships by competition (academics submit projects and find a student - the ones with the best projects and the best students get the funding), this can also slow things up.

In the mean time keep applying for any projects that catch your eye.

Thanks for the reply. I will follow your advice.