Loughborough University Doctoral Studentships, UK

The Centre for Research in Communication and Culture (CRCC) at Loughborough invites applications for a funded PhD studentship to start in January 2015 (or as soon thereafter as possible).

Loughborough University has an outstanding international reputation for its research and teaching in communication, media and cultural analysis. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, our submission to the D36 Unit of AssessmentCommunication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management was ranked 7th / 67 according to Grade Point Average and 2nd in both Research Power and Research Intensity. In October 2015, the QS World rankings rated the university among the top 50 Universities in the world for Communication and Media Studies, for the fourth year in succession.

The Centre is particularly well-known for world-leading research in:

·Social Interaction, Conversation Analysis and Social Psychology;

·Political Communication;

·Social, Cultural and Media Theory;

·Migration and Nationalism;

·Media and Communication History.

Departmental Admissions Procedure

The University is responsible for making formal offers of admission to postgraduate research students and uses the recommendations made by the Department to do so. 

Applications made direct to the University are passed to the Department for comment and all proposals are evaluated by subject specialists. In order to ensure that supervision is available and that your proposal falls into an area of established expertise, you are strongly advised to contact the postgraduate admissions tutor before making an application. See thecontact details on our staff page.

Colleagues are happy to provide feedback on draft proposals but owing to the volume of applications the Department receives, we cannot guarantee advice for applications made in connection with studentship awards.

The Department will ask applicants to provide necessary supporting documents and contact referees once a decision to recommend admission has been taken.  All non-native English speakers are asked to check carefully the University’s English language entry qualificationsbefore applying.

The admission process usually takes between four to six weeks.  Applicants are free to contact the Department to track the progress of their applications. 

Preparing a proposal

Although your proposal will be assessed by subject specialists, please bear in mind that non-specialists are also involved in the admissions process and that decisions about studentship awards are likely to be taken by academics from different disciplinary backgrounds.  You should ensure, therefore, that the aims, structure and outline content of the proposed research are comprehensible to a broad academic audience.  

Proposals are likely to take different forms, but you will be expected to situate your research within relevant scholarly literatures and to provide a full bibliography.  In particular, the proposal should include:

1. A statement of aims which outlines the purposes of the research with reference to the general field and/or problematic you wish to examine
2. The contribution that the research intends to make to existing knowledge.
3. A rationale for the research which demonstrates why the intended contribution is interesting or valuable – if similar research has been done, why is a new approach necessary; if your research fills a gap in the literature, why should it be filled?
4. A discussion of the theoretical approach and/or the conceptual framework or analysis. You should indicate here what the primary structure of the research will be and what issues/concepts/ ideas/ policies or events will be discussed or analysed within it. If you intend to work to a hypothesis, you should state what this is.
5. A reflection on methodology which shows how the assumptions of the research will be addressed in the analysis and why they are appropriate to it.
6. A discussion of the sources – eg. interviews/published or unpublished data/archival or policy documents.  If you intend to conduct field work you should give details.  In all cases you should be as specific as you can and assess the possibility of access to relevant sources.
7. A discussion of the research methods you will use to analyse your sources – eg. sampling, survey or interview design, data collection, discourse analysis.
8. An indication of your study skills: necessary language competence, familiarity with interview techniques/data processing etc.  
9. A provisional chapter plan which shows how you intend to develop the argument of the thesis.
10. A provisional research plan which indicates how you intend to schedule necessary research methods training/field or archival work/data design or collection.

How to apply

After contacting the postgraduate admissions tutor about your proposal, complete theonline application form. 

Funding and eligibility

The studentship is open to all graduates with backgrounds in relevantdisciplines and who are articulate, well qualified and highly motivated.
The minimum entry qualification is a 2.1 Honours degree or equivalent.The studentship is for three years and will cover tuition fees at the UK/EUrate and an annual stipend of £14,057 (standard RCUK rate 2015/16 academicyear). International (non-EU) students may apply but will need to find thedifference in fees between those for a UK/EU and international™student themselves

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/socialsciences/postgraduate-research/apply/