It is application time and most applicants are churning out personal statements and are struggling to produce a concise 1500 research proposal for their intended research degrees.

Below is a timely advice for anyone that is heading down south to the Millenium stadium town of Cardiff, the immediate past host of FA Cup finals until Wembley for a research degree. This information is also handy for all prospective research degree candidates.

In order to apply for an MPhil/PhD at Cardiff University, you can fill in the application form as normal. We do recommend, however, that you follow the procedures given below before you formally apply.In order to apply for an MPhil / PhD you must first find out if there is any research group or member of staff who would be happy to supervise your work.

The first thing to do is have a clear idea what you would like to research. Then you need to have a look at the relevant departmental web-pages. You can find these on: www.cardiff.ac.uk/departments

If you look through the Academic School web-pages you should be able to find details of what research that School carries out and which members of staff are involved. If you identify research that you are interested in you should contact the relevant member of staff (contact details should be on the web pages) and give them a brief idea of what you would like to do. Please note you should only contact full members of staff and not research associates.

If they agree that they would be interested in receiving an application from you then you should apply in the normal way. You can find out how to do this on: www.cardiff.ac.uk/international/apply

Although this does seem like a lengthy procedure it is proven that students who have already made contact with the relevant tutor are far more likely to be accepted than those who apply without doing this.

Please do not hesitate to reach me if you need any help, at least you can learn one or two things from my experience in the application process.

Wishing you all the best in the process.

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