Info Scholarship - School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Postgraduate Studentships 2008-2009

School of Modern Languages and Cultures

Postgraduate Studentships 2008-09

The Studentship Awards

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures offers a variety of awards to financially support their postgraduate students in order to enable them to pursue and complete their doctoral research or masters programme. All studentships are competitive and are awarded on academic merit.

The maintenance awards are in line with the AHRC guidelines, which for 2007-08 are: £8800 (MA) and £12600 (PhD). Tuition fees covered are at the university UK/EU level, which for 2008-09 are: £3750 (MA) and £3300 (MA by Research, MPhil and PhD). International overseas students will have to top-up the difference between UK/EU and O/S rates.

Full fee and maintenance awards are available at both masters (1 year) and doctoral research level (3 years). Fee-waivers cover the UK/EU rate for period of study/research. Bursaries may be one-off or annual depending upon length of study/research and vary in amounts from £500 - £1500.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for an award, you must have been offered and have accepted a place to undertake a programme of study/research on one of the degrees within the School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

Application for studentship at Doctoral level

You will normally be expected to apply to the AHRC Doctoral Competition through the University of Nottingham. Suitably qualified OS students would be encouraged to apply to the ORS in parallel to the Studentship. You will either have, or will be studying for a Masters degree or equivalent qualification in an appropriate area: applicants who also apply to the AHRC or ORS will be given first consideration for a School Studentship.

Application for studentship at Masters level inc. Postgraduate Language Diplomas

You will normally be expected to apply to the AHRC for one of the Master’s Preparation awards through the University of Nottingham and will either have, or be expecting to achieve a good first degree (upper second or higher) in an appropriate area: applicants who also apply to the AHRC will be given first consideration for a School Studentship. There is also funding available from CRCEES for the PG Language Diplomas in Serbian/Croatian and Slovene (www.gla.ac.uk/crcees) but you need to have secured a place at Nottingham first.

Timetable for applying to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

2008 competition

The AHRC funds UK and EU students for Masters and Doctoral study. Those applying for AHRC funding do so through a University. The timetable on this page shows the dates by which your application, including references, need to be with the Department. Please note, applying is a lengthy process - common areas of delay are obtaining the references and the 'notification of degree results' - so you must allow plenty of time for yourself and your referees.

Please note that this year the AHRC is limiting the number of applications from Universities. This makes an already competitive process even more competitive. Normally, School Policy is to support applications from candidates who have or are expected to get a good first degree (upper second or higher) for the Master's scheme and an MA for the Doctoral Scheme. There is no guarantee that an application will be supported by the University but we would hope to support as many applications as possible.

Timetable

Date	Activity
As soon as possible	Contact the Department about the course or your proposed research area. Apply for a place to study at Nottingham – the AHRC will not accept your application unless you have an offer from the University. Identify the person in the Department who will help you with your AHRC application. (Dr Rosemary Chapman – French Studies, Professor Steve Giles – German, Professor Nick Hewitt – Cultural Studies, Professor Tony Kapcia - Hispanic and Latin American Studies, Professor Cynthia Marsh- Russian and Slavonic Studies)
As soon as possible	If applying for MPhil/PhD study, liaise with the Departmental contact (see above) and proposed supervisor (if known) to draft a description of proposed research
As soon as possible	Contact referees to check they can provide references, and that you have up-to-date contact details for them; warn them of the dates by which the references will need to be completed
Dec 2007	AHRC application documents published. Read carefully and ensure the correct competition is identified, and that you are eligible to apply
22 Jan 2008	Postgraduate Advisory Day
By 1 Feb 2008	Complete the AHRC application and send an electronic copy to each referee and one to SMLC postgraduate office (copying to departmental contact) ask him/her to complete the reference and return to SMLC as soon as possible, at the latest by 13 February 2008
18 Feb 2008	Deadline for receipt of completed applications to be emailed to pg-modlangs@nottingham.ac.uk
27 Feb 08	School PG Sifting Committee
29 Feb 08	Department sends applications selected by School PG Committee to Graduate School
w/c 3 March on	Graduate School admin process
End of April	Graduate School forwards applications to AHRC before 1 May deadline.
July, August, September	Applicants must ensure the AHRC can contact them between July and September

Timetable for applying to the Overseas Research Students award scheme (ORS)

Deadline for applications to the University: 29 February 2008. Further details to follow.

SMLC Studentships

Where possible interviews will be held at the School Postgraduate Advisory Day - 22 January 2008.

Info from www.nottingham.ac.uk