1. The project will be advertised on the Faculty website and on FindAPhD with an agreed deadline.
2. Interested candidates will be advised to make contact with the supervisor prior to making an application; supervisors should therefore respond to enquiries and encourage suitable candidates to submit the application via the process stated in the advert. The admissions team can assist with reviewing qualifications/eligibility, if necessary, at this stage.
3. Following the deadline, all applications will be processed and you will receive an email with the link to the SharePoint folder to access the applications received for your project. This will also include a spreadsheet containing a summary of the academic qualifications and where applicable the equivalencies.
4. Candidates not eligible will be informed of the decision at this stage.
5. Once you have decided on the candidates you would like to interview you should organise the interviews with any co-supervisors as well as an independent interviewer. You should inform the recruitment administrator when this will take place and the names of the candidates invited to keep track of decisions.
6. All candidates will only be informed of the outcome of their application once final decisions after the interview are reached.
7. You will need to inform candidates that are unsuccessful following the interview and the recruitment administrator will inform candidates that were not shortlisted.
8. If a formal PhD application is not already live in the system, the recruitment administrator will request that the successful candidate apply.
9. If you request references ahead of the interview, please forward these to be placed with the application.
10. The interview and offer proforma will need to be completed for the candidate successful after the interview:
    • HUMS Interview Form
    • HUMS Offer Proforma
11. Approvals will be sought as per the standard admissions process.
12. Following the required approvals, a formal offer letter will be issued.

Depending on the type of studentship being offered a formal Contract agreement may need to be put in place before the start date of the studentship.

All projects will be advertised to UK candidates only unless there is confirmation from the funding body or School that they can cover international tuition fees. Candidates from the EU no longer fall in the ‘home’ tuition fee category and are now classed as overseas for tuition fee purposes.

Should supervisors be unable to identify a high quality home candidate following the initial advert and selection, then they must seek approval and provide the required evidence to the recruitment administrator. Supervisors must ensure their funder is supportive of an international candidate being recruited prior to advertising.

If a supervisor has a PhD Studentship where the candidate will hold an HR contract e.g., Marie Curie this will be managed as below:

• The advert will need to follow the HR process for advertising a post and the supervisor will need to liaise with their School via the standard process.
• Once the formal HR advert is live the supervisor must provide the link to the advert to the recruitment administrator. A FindAPhD advert will be created at the same time with the link to the HR advert included to ensure candidates submit their applications via the HR process.
• When shortlisting candidates, before confirming they are suitable, the Doctoral Academy admissions team will require the academic documents to ensure eligibility for PhD is met.
• Supervisors must ensure that an independent interviewer (or equivalent) is present at the interview to ensure suitability to undertake the PhD.
• Once the successful candidate is selected, the details of the successful candidate will be required to create a PGR admissions record.
• The interview and offer proforma will need to be completed for the successful candidate:
  
  • HUMS Interview Form
  • HUMS Offer Proforma
• Approvals will be sought as per the standard admissions process.
• Following the required approvals, a formal offer letter will be issued.

A few additional points to note:

• The official start date will be 1 October or 1 January and the end date of the programme will be 30 September or 31 December usually for a 3-year programme. A PhD cannot be offered throughout the year, and it is therefore important that the HR appointment aligns with the start date of the PhD.
• If an international/EU candidate is appointed the difference between the UK tuition fee and the international tuition fee will need to be covered by the School if this has not already been costed in the grant.
• HR will issue the CAS for the visa if an international applicant is appointed.
• Ahead of the PhD start date and once the grant is set up, the code to charge tuition fees will be required. Supervisors will be asked to provide the code ahead of formal PhD registration.