快猫短视频

YOU have sat through the lectures, slaved over the essays, slogged through the lab work and swotted for the exams. Now you are within sight of graduation and your escape into the 鈥渞eal鈥� world. Why would you want to stay a student for another three years?

The answer is simple. Doing a PhD is a million miles from the constraints of a first degree, and it鈥檚 a guaranteed way of getting stuck into some real science. You will be in charge of your own research project on a topic of your choice, perhaps gaining valuable experience by working with industry, and you will manage your own time.

It could do your career a world of good as well. Recruiters in pharmaceuticals, IT and other high-tech industries will be impressed by your extra qualification. 鈥淢any industries want someone with a doctorate who has shown that they can work independently, and that they can manage a project,鈥� says Mary Bownes, vice-principal of the graduate school at the University of Edinburgh. 鈥淭hey like the kind of skills that students develop in the course of a PhD.鈥�

Yet a doctorate is no guarantee of a better salary than a graduate degree when you enter the world of work. So why bother? The answer is simple, says Jamie Platts, who got his chemistry doctorate from Cardiff University in 1996 and now supervises his own PhD students in the same department. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e in it for the money, don鈥檛 do a PhD.鈥� It鈥檚 all about intellectual curiosity, not pounds and pence.

Money talks

But money on a studentship is not nearly as tight as it used to be. 鈥淲hen I was doing mine it was very financially challenging,鈥� says Platts. 鈥淭hings have got a lot better since then.鈥� Much of the impetus for improvement came from a damning report for the government in 2002 by Gareth Roberts, a professor and former director of research at Thorn EMI, which identified low stipends as one of the reasons fewer top graduates were applying for studentships.

Roberts recommended the research councils, the government bodies that fund research, raise stipends to the average graduate starting salary, with variations to attract students in areas where there is a shortfall, such as physics and chemistry. The councils have risen to the challenge, announcing inflation-busting stipends for 2004-05 of 拢10,500, rising to 拢12,000 in 2005-06, with an extra top-up for projects based in London. These are all tax-free. Students can supplement this income by working as a lab demonstrator in undergraduate practicals, and occasionally taking tutorials, for around 拢10 per hour, up to about 180 hours a year.

Cutting it

But how do you know if you are cut out for the life of a PhD student? Your undergraduate research project should give a flavour of what it will be like, but what really counts is being fired up by the idea of doing research and pushing back the boundaries of scientific knowledge. 鈥淚f you haven鈥檛 got enthusiasm and curiosity for your subject you won鈥檛 survive,鈥� says Bownes. 鈥淧eople need to be self-motivated to get through. They鈥檒l get a lot support and guidance, but ultimately the person doing it really has to want to do it.鈥�

And it won鈥檛 be the end of the world if after a few months you discover you have made the wrong decision. Doctoral students are often allowed to bail out before the end of their first year without any financial penalty. In your undergraduate coursework, if you do everything right then things usually turn out OK. As a postgrad, it鈥檚 different. 鈥淪ome very clever students find that in a real lab, experiments sometimes just don鈥檛 work,鈥� says Bownes. Provided the first year isn鈥檛 up, they can just walk away. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not considered a failure.鈥�

Paul Wood, graduate dean at the University of Bristol, reckons that between 5 and 10 per cent of PhD students drop out before the end of the first year at Bristol. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big change, and some find that it鈥檚 not what they are cut out for.鈥� But he points out that they needn鈥檛 go away empty-handed if they write up their research to get a master鈥檚 qualification instead.

The minimum entry requirement for a PhD studentship funded by a research council is an upper second class degree (a 2:1), or failing that a master鈥檚 in the appropriate subject (see 鈥淵our own master鈥檚鈥�). Some departments take graduates with a 2:2 who have a few years of laboratory experience, though they need to demonstrate exceptional promise.

Take the plunge

If you already know the field you want to investigate, then it鈥檚 a question of finding a university with a reputation and expertise in that area. Look at university departments鈥� websites to see what research they are doing and what projects are available before emailing the relevant researcher to make further enquiries.

PhD projects take many different forms. Some have a definite goal, such as to develop a particular product. Others are more open-ended 鈥� to explore the scientific foundations of a particular technology, for instance. Think about which approach would suit you best before applying. When you are ready to take the plunge, requests for application forms must be made to the university鈥檚 graduate admissions office, not to the body funding the project.

Now comes the tricky bit: the interview. Make sure you have read any relevant research papers beforehand. You are bound to be asked about your undergraduate project, so be ready to discuss that in depth too and explain how the techniques and lessons learned could be applied to a PhD. 鈥淚 would recommend having a set of intelligent questions to ask the panel at the end of the interview,鈥� says Laura-Anne Brown, a first-year PhD student at the University of Leeds. 鈥淎nd not just 鈥楬ow much money will I get?'鈥�

You will come across several different kinds of doctoral studentship. The standard is a three-year course with no industrial collaboration. Then there the two kinds of Cooperative Awards in Science and Engineering (CASE) studentships. Both involve working in partnership with a company and are supervised jointly by an academic and a company supervisor. With a Research CASE studentship it is the academic who comes up with the idea for the project. In Industrial CASE studentships, the company takes the initiative in determining the research topic and establishing a link with a particular university. In both cases, students spend at least three months working in the company鈥檚 labs, building up all-important industrial experience. In return, the company supplements the student鈥檚 stipend. These top-ups vary widely, with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council specifying a minimum of 拢1000 and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council specifying 拢2760.

Extra skills

The research councils allocate a quota of studentships to each university department, or earmark funding for a particular researcher. More recently, some councils have given departments greater flexibility to determine how many studentships they offer, the period of study and the level of stipend, by dishing out a single dollop of money known as a Doctoral Training Account. For example, some departments are using a DTA to offer the option of a four-year award, starting with a 鈥渢raining year鈥� of taught courses and research projects before the traditional three-year PhD project.

This kind of training in transferable skills has become very fashionable. In his 2002 report, Roberts criticised universities for failing to equip students with the skills they need for a career in business R&D. He identified this failure as one of the reasons some employers were paying newly qualified PhDs no more than they would a new graduate. The universities have taken the criticism on board and now offer courses in skills such as time management, computing, communication and writing. At the moment the courses are voluntary, but in future they may be made compulsory for students who need help in particular areas.

So universities seem to be taking more seriously their obligations to nurture postgrads. But supposing you end up with the supervisor from hell? 快猫短视频 heard of one student who complained that his supervisor was keen to help out with any research paper that would have his name on it but lost interest when it came to the student鈥檚 thesis. Another common complaint from students is that their supervisor is never around. For those who run into problems, most university departments now have formal complaints procedures. At Bristol, for example, each student is allocated a 鈥渃o-assessor鈥� in a different lab who they can turn to if there is a problem. Departments have a vested interest in ensuring that their students complete their PhDs because every two or three years the research councils take this into account when reassessing their funding. 鈥淚f we just abandon them and they don鈥檛 write up, then we won鈥檛 get any more students,鈥� says Paul Wood.

Writes and wrongs

鈥淲riting up鈥� is something else that scares off potential doctoral students. Supposing, through no fault of your own, your experiments go horribly wrong, or after three years of hard slog your hypothesis collapses? Welcome to the world of the research scientist. That鈥檚 how it works. But don鈥檛 despair 鈥� negative results can be just as valuable to the scientific enterprise as positive ones. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely an important part of a PhD to have some failures,鈥� says Kevin Shakesheff, professor of tissue engineering at the University of Nottingham. 鈥淚n fact, the worst thing than can happen during a PhD is for every experiment to give the results you expected.鈥� The good news is that you are not going to be denied a doctorate because the project did not go to plan.

Some bad luck in your PhD needn鈥檛 be the end of your research career either. When appointing postdoctoral researchers, Shakesheff says he is more interested in how students approached a problem, rather than the discoveries they made. 鈥淵ou can tell the people who set up a logical plan and saw that plan through,鈥� he says. But, he cautions, higher up the academic ladder a researcher will ultimately be judged on their output of scientific papers 鈥� a fact often forgotten when faced with the daunting task of writing a thesis.

If three more years behind the university gates sounds like an opportunity, not a life sentence, then what鈥檚 stopping you?