UK PhD Admission and Visa Guide

Prepared by Iqbal Yasin

LONG POST ALERT

This would be a long post as I have spent considerable time preparing this (around 5 pages of Word Document). But I am hopeful it would be helpful to people applying for Ph.D. in the United Kingdom. The UK has one of the very best universities in the world.

My Detail

Program: Ph.D. Marketing

University: Durham University (World QS Ranking 86)

Department: Durham University Business School (it holds triple-crown accreditation: AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA)

Previous Education: IBA Karachi: BBA (4 Years), MBA (2 Years)

University teaching experience: total 6 Years teaching experience after Masters degree

Publications + International Conferences: not many, but yes some J

Admission

- To start off, Scholarships are limited in the UK. The universities many times have their own departmental + university scholarships. But these are highly competitive. Even if you don’t get it the first time, keep applying as more scholarships would come up. Many times you would get to know of more opportunities once you are actually a part of the university in the first year (if you have managed with self-funding) rather than being an outsider sitting in your home country. Also, some fundings are university-based, some are department-based, while some are available with your Professor also

- I applied for university admission without the help of any consultant and had my CAS (Confirmation for Acceptance of Studies) issued myself

- Research Proposal: three or four pages document is fine. My suggestion for this is you prepare a proposal based on your own research interests rather than first trying to find a professor and seeing their interests. I mean, there are so many universities and so many professors. You do ultimately find someone who is working in the area you are interested in

- Recommendation Letters (at least two): preferably from university professors. But if you have been working in the industry (have a study gap etc), some universities are fine with taking Recommendations from your employers. Check your university’s requirements

- IELTS Academic: better-ranking universities generally require an overall band of 7.0..but most would accept 6.5 as well. I had an overall 7.5

- Statement of Purpose: I believe this is not as important in Ph.D. as it would be for undergraduate and master's programs. Your CV, research proposal, your potential supervisor and their satisfaction, these things matter the most

- CV: one or two page CV. No particular format is required. It’s what you say INSIDE the CV that matters J

- Previous Education record: usually only your last degree matters

- Research experience: Masters's degree WITH research work is not mandatory in the UK and Ireland as much as I have experienced with different universities, but certainly preferred. I also had a confirmed admission offer from a reputed university in Ireland before my Durham University admission confirmation. They have limited seats for the PhD Program and for your relevant department, so they would want to choose the very best even if you are on scholarship or self-funded. A good candidate would help the university and the department in many ways which you would find out once you are here.

- Again, if you have worked on Conference Papers and journal publications, that would give you an edge. But keep in mind that a lot of students apply for PhD who have no publications so you know who you are competing this. Prior research experience may be important in winning a scholarship. But like I said, scholarships are extremely limited anyway :p If you have funds to invest in your PhD study, I would say (contrary to many people in this group) that it is a very very good investment. With a PhD from a reputed university in the UK, you can work anywhere in the world, including the UK and also have good prospects to settle in Saudi Arabia, UAE etc with a teaching and research career. Also, you have long run settlement prospects in the UK after you finish your studies. I discuss these briefly at the end of my post below. So PhD is a very very good investment compared to buying a plot in the home country if you had savings J

- Admission Process (finally we reach here!):

o each university has its Professors profiles + research interests clearly given out on the official website. Read them. Read the professors’ publications and research interests. Contact them through email. I had no issue in sending my CV and research proposal to the Professor in my very first email.

o The supervisor that I was most interested in working with, actually took a month to reply back with her first email! However, when she did, she apologized straight away and told me this was a busy time of the year for her teaching and supervision etc. Alhamdulillah I am working with that same supervisor finally for my PhD

o Besides the fact that your PhD supervisor should be knowledgeable and renowned in their area of expertise, try to get a supervisor who is a good human being and can EMPATHIZE. You would be able to judge this with your initial two, three online meetings with your potential supervisor.

o You have a long run relationship with your supervisor, at least three years. So make sure you are choosing the very best and the most relevant.

o If you hear back from the Professor (you would if your Proposal as well as proposed methodologies are linked to their work), you may be asked to revise your Proposal a couple of times

o I had Skype and Zoom sessions (informal interviews a couple of time) with my Professor/Supervisor before she finally took me on board.

o Once the supervisor is okay with you, they would ask you to formally apply online for admission. Okay this is tricky actually. I had applied online for admission before the go-ahead from my Professor/Supervisor. However, the better route would be to approach the supervisor first and then apply formally for admission online. Once you have an endorsement from your Supervisor, admission process would not be complicated even in the very best of universities. Ofcourse, as long as you meet the basic eligibility criteria and the list of documents

o Besides interviews with the supervisor, you may have one formal interview with the department (Department Head or the PhD Program Head)

o The university will issue you a CAS (Confirmation for Acceptance of Studies) once they have received your documents etc and have the supervisor’s official consent for taking you as her/his supervisee. Once you have the CAS with you, you are basically done with the admission! You would later have to ENROLL into the program. That you can do later

o CAS is your basic document to apply for visa

o Visa Processing for the students now also takes the route of Point-based Immigration System introduced by the UK government. So basically you have points to make in order to get the Tier 4 Student Visa. You have points for CAS, Bank Statement (proof of funds) and perhaps one more element only that I am forgetting right now

o Depending on the university, for Masters and Undergraduate programs, they may ask for an initial deposit of fee to issue you a CAS (the university will ask for this). But for PhD, since they know you are a more serious and a more long run student, an initial deposit would not be required. I still haven’t paid a penny to the university even though I am formally enrolled into the PhD program since 1st October 2020 and am working on my PhD with my principal supervisor and co-supervisor. The university will give you a later date for fee and mostly it is a three-installment program per year for your tuition fee. So if you plan to pay some of your tuition fee by working in the UK, you may be able to raise some funds like this. Do not expect that you would be able to pay your FULL tuition fee with part time working, no way please, especially if you have dependents here. Per year fee needs to be paid in three instalments at different times of the year. The total duration of the PhD is three years. But you would get the visa for FOUR years.

o The PhD model for England (and the broader UK) is different from that of United States. You PhD in UK is totally research based as opposed to course work + research. It does not have mandatory modules (courses) that you need to attend. Your supervisor would tell you what courses to attend to polish your skills. You would not have to pay for attending those courses. Besides the courses, the university and the department (Marketing department of Durham University Business School in my case) would have loads of trainings, seminars, workshops arranged for you for which you do not pay a penny. You would get free trainings on the latest softwares and tools from the highly learned professors based in the UK

o The learning experience is absolutely unparalleled and if you are passionate about your research and PhD, you would have loads of opportunities here to excel inshAllah. The experience, exposure, diversity, international conference and research grants are amazing. Try to choose the best of universities if you are applying for PhD please

Visa

- My Visa Application Center (VAC) was Islamabad. You apply online (UKVI website) for the visa once you have a CAS and the required funds in your bank account to show

- If your university has not asked for it, then you do not need attestation of your educational documents either from HEC or from MOFA. I did not need attestation for the admission and neither for the visa processing

- Visa Processing is straightforward for the UK. It is just that they can take like four to five weeks these days for the visa processing since a lot of students from Pakistan and India are moving to the UK after BREXIT.

- The total duration of the PhD is three years. But you would get the visa for FOUR years.

- You pay a visa processing fee and the health surcharge which is quite a lot depending on the number of years of your study. The health surcharge gets refunded in case your visa is rejected

- Once you are in the UK and have served your 14-day quarantine, you can go collect your Bio-metric Residence Permit (BRP) as the sticker visa is only temporary. You need to have a BRP

- Also collect your campus card after you finish your quarantine. A lot of buses have discounted student rates (such as ARRIVA bus)

- If you need more details on the visa process, do post in the Comments

Working in the UK

- 20 hours per week working allowed on student visa (Tier 4)

- Your spouse (on Tier 4 dependent visa) can work full time

- Your health and that of your dependents (wife and kids) would be COVERED throughout your stay in the UK

- Education is free for your kids once they are on Tier 4 dependent visa. They have really good public schools in England

- Good universities generally have a policy for giving teaching courses to their PhD students. So depending on your understanding and arrangement with your supervisor as well as the department (for example the Marketing department of Durham University Business School in my case), you can be allocated courses to teach at the undergraduate and the masters level. This is a great opportunity as the per hour rate for teaching that you do for universities is much much higher than you would get for most jobs in England. Try to get teaching hours so you do not have to rely on odd jobs

- Racism: I have not had any bad experience at all so far, be it while travelling, online meetings, interacting with British students, shops, anything. There is a huge diversity in the United Kingdom (especially in England and England’s major cities). People are extremely helpful on receptions, counters, shops etc. You are not likely to be judged based on your nationality

Settlement in the UK

- Your PhD would be three-years. After your degree, you will get THREE years Post Study Work (PSW) permit. It’s a long time period, three years!

- Besides the PSW route, or similar to it, another route is that you land a good job right after you finish your studies. Your employer would sponsor you to a Tier 2 visa category. That’s the quicker route to a PR in the UK. It’s called an Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in UK

- Another possible way is the SKILLED IMMIGRATION route similar to Canada and Australia. They have an Occupation in Demand list similar to those of Australia and Canada. University professors are highly regarded in the UK. In other words, BREXIT poses a lot of opportunities for skilled labor in the UK from any part of the world, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, India

- England is a great country to live in (as well as the greater United Kingdom, consisting of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England). No language problems, a lot of Asian community, Halal food can be easily found, temperature is still quite manageable if you compare it to most places in Canada. I would say PROPER winter time is December to March. With good clothing and shoes, you can go around anywhere in the UK. You need a waterproof/rainproof jacket with hoodie and windbreaker, and waterproof shoes. All places you would find central heating: houses, flats, shops, malls, universities, colleges, offices, buses, trains. There is only a 5-hour timezone difference with Pakistan. It is also closer to the home country if you compare it with Australia and Canada, which have extremely long and tiring flights, coupled with jetlag that would take quite a while to recover from.

In this long post, I may have missed out something or forgotten something important. If you need details on any of the points mentioned above, feel free to comment and I will get back when I have time. I have learnt a lot from SCHOLARSHIP NETWORK page in these last few years and I thought it’s time I pay back to the group in this way. Always remember that nobody can take away from you what is destined for you so share information and knowledge with each other. If you know something, share with people and try to benefit them. Do not keep hiding information to yourself and do not be arrogant if you have knowledge. If you would want to share this information anywhere, please be kind enough and honest to give Credits as I have prepared this myself totally based on my personal experience. Thanks.

Regards,

Iqbal Yasin