27 June: fyi -- phd funding, UK
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Aston University, Birmingham, UK: The Newbury
Studentship in the School of Languages and Social Sciences
In memory of Phill Newbury, a second year doctoral student at Aston
University, who tragically died in April of this year, the School of
Languages and Social Sciences is offering a studentship, preferably
for a student who already holds a Masters degree in a relevant subject
area, to enable them to undertake research in any of the research
areas of the School Corpus Linguistics; Critical Discourse Analysis;
English Language; Forensic Linguistics; French Linguistics, Culture,
Politics or Media; German Language or Literature; Language and the
Law; Spanish Culture; International Relations; Politics and Modern
History; Sociology; Translation Studies. It is hoped that the
successful candidate will join the School on October 1st.
The total value of the studentship is some £15,150 per annum. For a
student who has been resident in the EU for the past three years this
amount will be sufficient to cover the University fees and also to
provide a maintenance allowance of £12,000 per annum. The fees for
Overseas students are currently £8,750 per annum, so the maintenance
grant for such a student would be reduced to some £6,400 per annum.
We intend to award the scholarship to the candidate who, in our
opinion has the best thought-out research proposal. In order to allow
potential candidates sufficient time to prepare their proposals, the
closing date for applications will be mid-day on Monday August 14th
and interviews will take place in the week of September 4th . Please
make sure you will be able to attend for interview if invited.
Your research proposal should be 2-3,000 words long and should include
a brief review of the relevant literature, a statement of the research
question(s), an indication of how the question(s) will be approached
and an outline of how the first year’s work might be organised. As a
guide, we would normally expect that you spend much of the first six
months familiarising yourself with the literature and discovering and
testing potential analytical tools. Please send the proposal both
electronically and in hard copy form to Ms Margarita Chu -
m.chu@aston.ac.uk.
To speed up the process, please submit an electronic PhD application
form as soon as you decide to apply for the studentship; this will
enable us to check that no necessary details are missing - the form is
available from Ms Chu. Your application for the studentship should
also include a CV, the names of two academic referees and, if you are
not a native speaker, proof of competence in English, usually in the
form of a TOEFL or IELTS test score. The minimum test scores are as
follows: TOEFL: 610 (paper-based) or 253 (computer-based) or 101/102
(Internet-based) IELTS: 7.0 (minimum 7.0 in writing, and 6.0 in
speaking, listening and reading)
Applications for the studentship should be addressed to Ms Margarita
Chu, at the address below, to reach her at the very latest by Monday
August 14th 2006. To speed up the process please ask your referees to
send their references directly, by post or by email, to Ms Chu,
m.chu@aston.ac.uk. The references must also arrive by Monday August
14th.
If successful you will be expected to make a teaching contribution of
up to four hrs p/w and to provide research assistance to your
supervisor of up to 2 hours p/w.
Address for correspondence: Ms Margarita Chu, School of Languages and Social
Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET. Please mark
the envelope with the phrase ‘Phill Newbury Studentship'.
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