School of Psychology
PGR Recruitment for September 2016
This paper describes the procedure for the recruitment of Psychology PGR students by
faculty members (see also Appendix 1 for a decision tree).
Note: Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) will now be referred to as School
Studentships and will have an optional teaching component.
The main points are that:
 There will also be generic advertising to encourage high quality applications in any area
of research in which the School has expertise.
 All applicants will be provided with clear guidance on the information that they should
provide.
 Some studentships, in particular whole or part-funded School Studentships, will be
prioritised (note: not earmarked) to particular supervisors on the basis of an agreed set
of criteria. The intention is that the majority, though not all, of these prioritised
studentships will lead to successful recruitment. The relevant faculty members will be
responsible for recruiting a good field of applicants. Those wishing to apply for a
prioritised studentship should complete the form in Appendix 2.
 GTA funding will also be held back to support part funded GTAs available to faculty who
generate external sponsorship. Faculty who have funding towards studentships are
given priority and, hence, it is important that we know well in advance who has secured
this funding so that we can plan accordingly.
Criteria for Acting as a Supervisor
To act as a primary supervisor, the supervisor should be on a faculty contract that covers the
expected 3 year period of student registration. Those not on faculty contracts (including
SPT [Sussex Partnership Trust] research contracts) may act as co-supervisors (secondary)
only.
Primary supervisors are expected to meet all of the following criteria:
 Supervisors should be active in research and be able to provide a good research
environment for a PhD student
 Good supervision record, commensurate with level of experience
 Prepared to attend supervisor training in line with University policy
For new members of faculty, the above criteria will only be applied after their probationary
period. New faculty can act as the primary supervisor but a more experienced faculty
member should co-supervise.
Detailed procedure and timetable
Early October. Director of Doctoral Studies to look at current position in relation to DTGs
from Research Councils, CASE studentships and likely budget for School Studentships. Draft
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text for a general advert for PhD students that should highlight the School and its Research
groups. Strategic priorities of the School and Research Groups should be incorporated into
the generic or specific adverts, as appropriate.
16th October. Those with grants that cover a PhD or matched-funding should provide details
to the Director of Doctoral Studies and prepare a draft of an advert. There will also be a
general call for expressions of interest from faculty who wish to have an
advertised/prioritised studentship. Faculty who wish to be prioritised should provide project
descriptions and describe their fit to the criteria using the form in Appendix 2. The main
purpose of prioritising is to give certain supervisors/projects a head-start in recruiting high
quality students.
This prioritising decision will be taken after discussion by a sub-group of the Doctoral
Studies Team. In addition to meeting the eligibility requirements to supervise, the sub-group
will look favourably on the following:
 Few (2 or less) PhD students as from September 2016
 The project being feasible, theoretically grounded and with potential for quality
publications and/or impact
 School priorities identified through appraisal, tenure committees, appointing
committees and research groups
The members of the group will be Director of Doctoral Studies (Chair), Head of School, two
members of the Doctoral Studies Team (presently Matt Easterbrook, Dan CampbellMeiklejohn, Kate Lester, Darya Gaysina).
Early November. Ask faculty who have successfully applied for a prioritised studentship to
plan their recruitment process and finalise text for advertising
There will be a standardised request for information from prospective applicants including:
 A research statement. A detailed guide to applicants will be made available and
potential supervisors should familiarize themselves with this. .
 A current transcript with full details of performance on all completed courses.
XXth January 2016. This is the closing date for students applying for ESRC and/or School
funding.
February. Interviews will be concentrated in the second and third week following the
closing date. Selection will be based primarily on the quality of the student taking into
account grades, references, interview and proposal. If several students are comparable in
quality then the process will favour those projects/supervisors who were initially prioritised.
Following this selection process, students will be put forward for nomination of ESRC
studentships (a separate form is filled in by XXth March 2016). Remaining School
Studentships will be filled as soon after the ESRC selection process as possible with an aim
to make all offers prior to the end of March.
Matched Funding
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Part funded School Studentships will be available to faculty who can generate significant
external sponsorship. This should be a minimum of £28k over 3 years, assuming that the
School contribution to research expenses will amount to no more than £700 per year.
Faculty who can generate significantly greater sponsorship will have a proportion returned
to their devolved account (10% of the excess above £28k, i.e. £38k would generate £1k in
the devolved account).
School-funded Scholarships Linked to Grants
Most RCUK and charity grants no not allow the costs of PhD studentships to be included in
the grant. The School is willing to consider funding a small number (no more than 1 or 2 per
annum) of PhD studentships linked to grants under exceptional circumstances. For instance,
this could happen in cases in which the level of the grant is capped or if the grant funder is
explicitly looking for ‘additional support’ from the institution as part of its decision process.
These would be large-scale grants must have a minimum duration of 3 years. Such requests
will be considered, as and when, by the DDS and DRaKE, with the final decision resting with
the HoS. This institutional support needs to be flagged in the grant application itself.
ESRC Collaborative Funding
ESRC no longer operates CASE studentships but remains keen to promote collaborative
research between DTCs and organisations in public, private and voluntary sectors. DTCs
have been set the target of ensuring that 20% of studentships include such collaborations.
Details at http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-andguidance/guidance/postgraduates/collaboration/DTC-collaborative.aspx.
Non-standard research expenses
The expectation is that any research costs over and above the standard £700 per annum
should be borne by the supervisor from their devolved code or from currently held research
grants. Supervisors applying for a prioritized studentship may, exceptionally, make a case
for additional research costs (e.g. for fMRI, animal costs, overseas fieldwork) provided there
are no current funds to support this, and provided there is a clear plan for how such funds
will be obtained in the future (and how this PhD studentship may facilitate that). No
requests above £5K per annum will be considered and it is likely that up to one School
funded studentship per year will be in receipt of non-standard research expenses. It is not
acceptable to recruit a PhD student for a project if the necessary funds are not already in
place.
Jamie Ward, September 2015.
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Appendix 1: Decision tree for potential supervisors
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Appendix 2: Form for supervisors requesting a prioritised studentship
Proposed Supervisor(s)
Name of first supervisor: _______________________________
Name of second supervisor (if applicable, this is not the assessor): ____________________
Current and Previous PhD Supervision Experience
Please list the current PhD students that you supervise as the first supervisor and include
their year of study and source of funding.
E.g. Fred Bloggs,
Year 2 PhD, 100% School funded
Please list former PhD students that you supervised as the first supervisor over the last 3
years.
Title of Proposed Project :
Project description written for a prospective applicant in mind (this will form the basis of
the advert, if successful) ~200 words.
Further details of the project. This should include details of how the project fits with your
own research priorities and/or those of the School. It should also include the potential for
the project to generate further funding, advance current theory, generate significant
publications, new collaborations, or impact.
Feasibility and logistical issues
Does the supervisory team have the necessary expertise in the chosen methods (including
statistical)? If not, how will this be obtained and/or how will the student be trained?
Does the supervisory team have the necessary resources in place for the research to be
conducted? This can include both equipment and access to participants. If not, describe how
this will be achieved,
It is expected that all costs should come out of the allocated RTSG and, if necessary, be
supported further from the supervisors own research budget. If you wish to make an
exceptional case for an enhanced RTSG then please do so here:
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