Research Program – Phd & Mres

UK universities offers a wide field of research study in science and technology, engineering, medicine, law, heath care and management related topics such as psychology, human resource, finance, marketing and many more. Hundreds of research topics are currently in progress as you read this.

The degree of doctorate is awarded for a research topic that has a discovery in an area unique to the findings that is worthy of being awarded a PhD. It is therefore not a taught subject and much of a researcher’s time can be a lonely journey. It is important that one understands fully the expectations of a PhD before deciding to do one. For some people, it could be a passion for a personal achievement to have a doctorate degree, for some it may be a deep desire for passion to discover for a large cause for humanity, for some it may be with the intention to build a career be it as an academic or as a corporate professional. Whatever may be the case, one cannot discount the fact that it requires a lot of dedication and passion in the chosen topic.

The application for a PhD is not straight forward. Please follow our guideline below as a step by step approach to understand about a PhD.

Step – 1

Know what a PhD is all about

We have a number of student enquiries from fresh graduates as well as working professionals for a PhD study. It is important that you understand the nuances of a research study in depth and read some useful books on the topic of How to get a PhD and what it entails. You should be mentally prepared on what to expect as a research scholar. Be warned that it can be a lonely and stressful experience on several occasions during the research study and this is normal. Therefore, you should have a strong perseverance and be prepared emotionally.

Step 2

Make a research proposal

Writing a research proposal is an important step that makes you put on the thinking hat. It may require weeks or months of preparation to get a proposal done for submitting to a potential supervisor who may wish to take up your research topic to supervise.

You may download the guideline for a research proposal. This belongs to Robert Gordon University and it is very comprehensive and covers all the ingredients of a good research proposal. It is very important that you go through this document in detail and prepare a research proposal following the guidelines.

Step 3

Choosing supervisors

It is important that you look at supervisors in the area of your research as the most important step and not the name of the university in mind. Many students make the decision to apply to the University given the reputation and ranking, which although on the onset may sound like a good idea, it may not bear fruits as there may not be a supervisor who may be willing to take up your research area. Therefore, unlike a taught degree, the research degree requires a different approach. Graduating from any of the Universities under the Royal Charter in the UK, gives you the same recognition. Therefore, it does not matter from which University you graduate from.

Communication with the supervisors is crucial before the application can be made. This may require a few emails being exchanged before a decision can be made to file an application. During this communication, it may also emerge that the supervisor(s) may suggest areas if there is a change in the shift of your focus they may be in a position to supervise. You may want to think through if you wish to look into the same and make changes to your research proposal to take a different angle, but only do so if you are ready for a modified research proposal.

Step 4

Making the application

You may now be in a position to make the application to the University. This as you can see is the last step in the PhD application process. The enormous work precedes this step.

It is important that to bear in mind that applications should be made only to those universities with whom there has been positive outcome from the emails changed in Step 3.

MRes – Masters in Research

In our experience in communication with a number of students, a passion to do a PhD exists in many of the enquires we have had, but not the area of research in specific. Many students have a broad area but a PhD study is all about being very specific. However, one never knows what one knows until one embarks on the research journey so in a way you are embarking on risky journey by taking up a research topic.

It also may be the case that you are not very clear until you wish to lay your hand in research to know if you truly want to be in this journey. If that is the case, there is good news. You may wish to embark on the Masters in Research (MRes) degree which is a one year non-taught, research based degree which does not have the expectations of a PhD but would give you a glimpse of an experience on what happens if you wish to proceed further into a PhD. The beauty about the MRes is that it is also an exit degree on its own and you can choose to go to the corporate world and continue your corporate work life with a rich experience of how you can conduct research in any given areas. You would now have the tool kit to make yourself an invaluable asset to the company.

Some universities expect you to have a research proposal before you can make an application for a MRes, some do not insist and they are fine with the idea of the research proposal emerging after you commence your study and post completion of research methodology modules.

If you wish to learn more about MRes or PhD please seek an appointment with us.

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Fees for PhD Applications

ScotsGrad does not charge fees for any undergraduate or masters level courses, however, if you are a direct PhD applicant, we have a service fee. This fee needs to be charged as it requires a lot of communication with supervisors before an application can be made. This service covers all the steps 1 to 4.

Phase 1– Rs 6,000 upfront payment for the services of Steps 1 to 4.
Phase 2 – Rs 4,000 when applications are made to a maximum of 4 universities.

We wish to inform that we cannot guarantee that an application would receive an offer, but what we would ensure we have the best services rendered to make this possible. We also wish to inform you that a university may make the decision to offer you a place on the MRes or MPhil instead of a direct PhD. This is becoming more and more the case as universities are keen to see success stories and decrease the drop out ratio of PhD scholars.

It is your responsibility to write a research proposal. It being your area of research, ScotsGrad shall not render support in the writing of your proposal. It is important that you remember it is your entire work since this is going to your research journey. A supervisor who is willing to look at your research topic may read your draft research proposal. Several email exchanges between you and the supervisor may take place before you arrive at the final version, so do not worry about having to produce best research proposal at the first go. It may require several iterations and discussions before a final one can be achieved.

The communication with the supervisors shall happen from our end at the initial stage and when they are open to look at it, we shall bring you into the communication. Post that it is between you and supervisor to arrive at a conclusion. With the decision to go ahead between the two of you, ScotsGrad responsibility comes in with the filing of application to the University.

Likewise, we are happy to communicate with 4 supervisors from different universities at any one time. If anyone falls apart, we shall move to another University, but we shall only speak to 4 Universities at any given point in time.

The fees payable is non-refundable as our work commences from the very moment you make the fee payment. However, should you not be accepted onto a PhD and you are given an MRes or MPhil offer and you have decided to accept it and proceed for study, this fee of Rs 10,000 is refunded in full.

Finally, we shall make an application to a maximum of 4 universities.

Fees for MRes Applications

MRes application does not have an application processing fee. However, if you are applying to Universities that require a research proposal before hand, then the fees payable are as below;

Phase 1– Rs 4,000 upfront payment for the services of Steps 1 to 4.
Phase 2 – Rs 2,000 when applications are made to a maximum of 4 universities.

Note: The expectations of a MRes research proposal is not as high as a PhD applicant. You would however be expected to give a detailed description of your research area.

The fees payable is non-refundable as our work commences from the very moment you make the fee payment. However, should you be given an offer from a University that does not expect you to prepare a research proposal and you accept it, this fee of Rs 6,000 is refunded in full.

If you wish to learn more about MRes or PhD please seek an appointment with us.