updates

phd_app_advice.md

@@ -10,13 +10,14 @@ First a few salient details about our context here (in the UK at large research-
 
 - A British PhD is generally expected to take 3 years, with an additional fourth or (in rare cases) fifth year to write-up a final draft of your work. In spite of how that sounds, this is a rather brief window of time, particularly in contrast to the USA where PhD students are expected to engage in further generalist preparatory coursework for 1-3 years before taking some sort of comprehensive examination which can validate that they have sufficient general knowledge of the discipline and research methods to conduct research at a doctoral level, leading to a programme of research that can take 5 years or more. Given that this is the case, students will be expected to have completed a strong masters degree *in the subject* they are applying to. If you do not have any previous degrees in religious studies or theology, regardless of how smart you seem to be, I will probably invite you to apply first to complete a 1 year Masters by Research degree under my supervision, ideally exploring some aspect of your preferred research topic or something directly adjacent to it. No matter how many other degrees you have and how well you've done in them (and I include doctorate degrees in other subject areas) this will likely be my suggestion. In some (admittedly rare) cases, progress completed under an MA can be folded into a PhD, so that the candidate generally still completes in 3 years, with two degrees in hand at the end. My experience has shown that there is no substitute for discipline specific background knowledge and research experience and it is a disservice to expect a PhD candidate to cram all that extra work into what is already an accelerated programme.
 - Funding for doctoral studies here is rare, with often a maximum of a few partial tuition scholarships awarded in a department each year. Most PhD funding comes from external sources, and applications to these are usually driven by the PhD candidate themself. Unless your programme of work is very exceptional: being linked to specific forms of impact (e.g. changing something in the world out there, with meaningful partnerships and collaborations already in place), or commending dissemination at a high level (e.g. you have already published some forms of scholarly work) it is unlikely you will be able to secure funding for your PhD. You should expect to have some form of external funding secured which can support your work (e.g. savings, income support, or paid work). I am a very enthusiastic champion and will write references to support an infinite number of applications for funding should you be proactive enough to pursue it before and during your programme of research.
-- Cohort size is much less limited here, so that in contrast to the USA, where many supervisors complain that their departments prevent them from supervising more than one or two students at a time, a supervisor can have more than a dozen students they are working with at any given time. Universities provide us with a workload allocation commensurate with the number of PhD candidates we're supervising, so there are some protections in place to ensure that each candidate gets due attention during their programme, but I have also found that there is a natural limit that varies from person to person. I generally will only take on a maximum of 8 candidates at any one time. This means that I may be reluctant to take on new PhDs in a particular year, but I'm very happy to keep up correspondence and work with students to refine their proposals in the intervening period.
+- Cohort size is much less limited here, so that in contrast to the USA, where many supervisors complain that their departments prevent them from supervising more than one or two students at a time, a supervisor can have more than a dozen students they are working with at any given time. Universities provide us with a workload allocation commensurate with the number of PhD candidates we're supervising, so there are some protections in place to ensure that each candidate gets due attention during their programme, but I have also found that there is a natural limit that varies from person to person. I generally will only take on a maximum of 6 candidates at any one time. This means that I may be reluctant to take on new PhDs in a particular year, but I'm very happy to keep up correspondence and work with students to refine their proposals in the intervening period.
 - Given the short duration of the programme, PhD candidates undertaking work here are expected to work with a high level of independence. Even in the most colleagial and convivial departments, you will spend a great deal of time working alone, so this is something to bear in mind as you consider undertaking PhD study. 
-- I meet with my PhD students on a monthly basis, 10 times a year (it is important to take breaks!). I generally expect that you will have written or revised a substantial piece of work for 4-5 of those meetings, and at least one of them will be conducted in the form of a group "laboratory".
-- Given all the limits noted above, I provide special effort to "level the playing field" for PhD candidates with anxiety, depression, other mental health struggles or who are neuro-diverse. Happy to chat more about this if you have specific questions about how you can successfully complete a PhD if any of these are factors for you (short answer: you can!).
+- I meet with my PhD students on a monthly basis, 10 times a year (it is important to take breaks!). I generally expect that you will have written or revised a substantial piece of work for 4-5 of those meetings, and at least one of them will be conducted in the form of a group "laboratory" which will be a group supervision.
+- Given all the limits noted above, I provide special effort to "level the playing field" for PhD candidates with anxiety, depression, other mental health struggles or who are neuro-divergent. I am happy to chat more about this if you have specific questions about how you can successfully complete a PhD if any of these are factors for you (short answer: you can!).
 - You can matriculate for a PhD that is by "distance," e.g. you stay in your home country and we do supervision via videoconference on the same basis outlined above. I generally will expect you to have a good reason as to why remaining in your context will be an integral part of your research process and won't instead be a distraction.
-- You can also matriculate for a PhD that is part time, e.g. 5 supervisions a year on a bi-monthly basis over the course of 6-8 years. Again, I will expect you to indicate the specific reason why remaining part time is important to your PhD. Needing to work to support yourself or yourself and family is a very good reason, but we'll need to talk about how your PhD study won't jeopardise your financial security.
-- Generally, the first 6-9 months of your PhD will be some blend of exploratory and constructive inquiry. By the summer of your first year you will need to have written a long-form piece of writing (8k words or so) and an outline of your proposed PhD thesis which will be submitted for an impartial progress panel conducted by my colleagues. If your work is deemed insufficient, this panel can downgrade your degree to an MA or result in the termination of your programme of study, so this is an important milestone. In the second year, I expect most candidates to work on framing up chapters for their thesis and working on professional development (presenting at conferences, doing book reviews, networking, etc.). In the third year, you will be working to complete a final polished draft of your thesis, ideally for submission towards a viva voce examination by the end of Y3.
+- You can also matriculate for a PhD that is part time, e.g. 5 supervisions a year on a bi-monthly basis over the course of 6-8 years. Again, I will expect you to indicate the specific reason why remaining part time is important to your PhD. Needing to work to support yourself or yourself and family is a very good reason, but we'll need to talk about how your PhD study won't jeopardise your financial security. It's generally my preference to supervise full-time projects, so while I understand the benefits of a part time programme, I'll generally prefer full-time unless there is a specific and necessary reason for doing things otherwise.
+- Generally, the first 6-9 months of your PhD will be some blend of exploratory and constructive inquiry. By the summer of your first year you will need to have written a long-form piece of writing (8k words or so) and an outline of your proposed PhD thesis which will be submitted for a progress panel conducted by my colleagues. If your work is deemed insufficient, this panel can downgrade your degree to an MA or result in the termination of your programme of study, so this is an important milestone. In the second year, I expect most candidates to work on framing up chapters for their thesis and working on professional development (presenting at conferences, doing book reviews, networking, etc.). In the third year, you will be working to complete a final polished draft of your thesis, ideally for submission towards a viva voce examination by the end of Y3. The University of Birmingham does not provide any workload allocation for supervision beyond the third year, so whilst I will expect us to correspond and be in regular contact for the fourth year (if you have one), I will not provide regular supervisions and will need to book out time for reading drafts carefully, potentially avoiding periods which involve intensive teaching.
+- Finally it's worth emphasising that a PhD is a major undertaking and will truly take your full-time attention for three years. I know everyone has side-interests and various distractions, but it will be up to you to ensure that you have time available for regular meetings and are able to put in regular work reading, writing, and reflecting every week, most of the year.
 
 If you stil think you want to apply, read on!
 
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ You can demonstrate this primarily by writing a research proposal. Expectations
 Your research proposal should do the following:
 
 1. Explain why you’ve chosen this particular topic (this can and should be couched in personal narrative)
-2. Explain why this research might be significant or novel
+2. Explain why this research might be significant or novel in light of relevant extant scholarly literature
 3. Explain which streams of existing scholarship you might be interacting with (e.g. "these three scholars (citation 1, citation 2, citation 3) have suggested x, and I'd like to further test their claims...")
 
 All of this gets towards explaining also how this project might be viable to undertake within the space of a 3-year full time doctoral programme
@@ -70,5 +71,4 @@ You should do this via email, with a brief note of introduction, a summary of yo
 
 I may make suggestions for revision and ask you to return a revised proposal (no more than two drafts, and more  likely just one, depending on how things come together). Once we've reached a final form for your proposal and I've had time to review it (bear in mind this can be a few weeks at some points in the academic year) and if things seem to fit, I'll invite you to do an interview by phone or videoconference so we can chat about the details of your proposal and also so that I can answer questions you might have. You are welcome to choose not to make revisions to your proposal. If I make suggesions, my intent here is to help you to refine your research in order to make it more viable, with the expectation that this might strengthen your application to any number of universities. It's worth noting that this process isn’t any guarantee of a particular result with regards to your application for admission to the programme, but rather is meant to serve as part of the broader process of application.
 
-
 Based on the proposal and the interview, I'll make a reecommendation regarding your application which will go to our Head of Postgraduate studies for review.