Research PhD

TheNibbler

I graduated with a degree in Psychology last summer and after taking some time out I've decided to try and go back to college and do a PhD.

I've decided to go back to the college where I got my degree but I'm still a little bit anxious about the whole process of getting a supervisor. I'm interested in research in the area of Health Psychology but unfortunately I didn't do my final year project in that area so I can't really go back to my original supervisor.

Anyway, long story short, I don't have any solid ideas to present to the lecturer I've identified as a potential supervisor. I'm trying to do some reading in the areas of research within health psychology that she's interested in but I'm feeling the time pressure to get in touch with her as the deadlines for funding are approaching. The bottom line is that I'm more interested in conducting research in general and getting a 4th level qualification than in a particular topic.

Anyone have any opinions on how I should approach this potential supervisor?Is it possible to go to a lecturer, let them know you're interested in doing research in their area of expertise and go from there?

Any advice would be great!

Shadyladee

Hi,

If your main interest is to complete a phd my advice would be to try and apply for an existing phd post, there arent always many in the field of health psychology but they do start coming up in the next few months, for a start in September, check out all the universities job vacancy sections. I think this route is easier since the funding will already be there, and in the current climate getting funding from external bodies is going to be increasingly harder.

If you want to write your own proposal though, my advice would be to research as much as you can on the supervisors area, especially their own published work, put together a letter completely selling youself and why you are interested in pursuing a phd and why you would be good at it, and explain that you would love the opportunity to meet with them to discuss pursuing a possible phd with them in X area. They may already have a topic in mind that they want pursued.

yapster

www.jobs.ac.uk is really good for PhDs in the U.K. but also Ireland. It's especially good if your very flexible as to what you study. Starting a PhD within an established project/group can be a good idea