Advice for prospective research students

If you are interested in studying for a PhD with me, you are welcome to email me but
please note the following points first, which will save your time and mine.
Start date
I am not currently recruiting PhD students to start before Sept 2016
Funding
You will need funding to complete your PhD successfully (this includes tuition fees,
subsistence, research costs (field work, equipment, conference attendance, software
etc). Start by reading Bangors advice to prospective graduate students
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/corporate/informationfor/prospect.php.en. Please do not
contact me unless you already have a plan to obtain adequate funding.
English language.
If you are an international student you will need to meet the minimum English
requirements for the School and for a UK visa. However, while these minimum
standards may be appropriate for some PhD topics, for PhDs in the social sciences a
higher standard is required. This is requirement is based on first-hand experience of
supervising PhD and Masters students whose first language is not English.
All PhD students in the social sciences need a strong command of formal and
informal spoken and written English (which is not the same as being a native speaker,
some of whom have dreadful written English!) This can only really be assessed
through face-to-face discussions and by reading written work (see below). However,
in practical terms, unless you have lived and studied for a long (>1 year) period in
countries where English is the dominant language1 then you will need to have a recent
IELTs score of at least 7.0 in all four components (or an equivalent standard). Please
include evidence of English proficiency in your CV.
How to contact me
If you meet the above criteria, please email me! When emailing me please include in
the body of your email:
1. A statement that you have read these notes (otherwise I may simply reply
telling you to read them!)
2. A brief description of your experience, qualifications and proposed area of
research
3. Your proposed source(s) of funding (including application dates etc as
appropriate).
4. Your telephone number (including international dialling code) and preferably
skype name.
Please also attach:
5. A research proposal. This should demonstrate your ability to write good
formal scientific English (see note below), review the appropriate literature,
1

It is hard to define such countries objectively. Countries in the following table where at least 60% of
the population speak English AND the majority of those speakers speak it as a first language might be
a
good
first
approximation,
but
is
still
imperfect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

identify research questions that are interesting and answerable, and propose
feasible and rigorous methods that will address the research questions. It
should also include some estimate of the funding required.
6. An up to date CV, including grades obtained in previous degrees. If your
previous universities provided grades in a form other than percentages (e.g. 1st,
A+) please also provide percentages. Your rankings amongst your peers (i.e.
3rd/50 in cohort) are also very useful. Remember to include evidence of
English language proficiency.
Important Note all proposals should be written in your own words. Any direct
quotations must be identified with quote marks () and all sources must be
appropriately cited. All PhD proposals are checked for plagiarism both automatically
and manually, and any prospective students submitting plagiarised proposals will be
immediately and definitively rejected.
Neal Hockley
23/7/15