Speaker 1: My name is Jessica Kelly and I am Research Degrees Leader at UCA. So the application for a PhD at UCA has several stages. You start with the online application, which you do through our website. The Research Degrees page is on our website. It's a two-stage process. You have to register your interest. Then about 24 hours later you'll be sent an email with your application form. That then comes to us at the Research Degrees office and we do an initial read. If we think it's got potential, we then send it off to the relevant academic staff in the different schools that we have. So once it's gone to the schools, the academic staff there will review it. And they're reviewing it for the potential that it has. At the interview there's a panel of academic staff. There'll be a focus on the proposal, the things that you're suggesting you're going to do. There will also be questions around your preparedness for a Research Degree study. Questions that will focus on readiness for the independent study that a Research Degree requires. And if you can show how you're aware of how UCA would be a good place to do that, that's another way to show that you understand what the Research Degree would require. If you're successful, we'll then notify you that we're making you an offer. And at that point we'll also give you an indication of who your supervisory team would be. So the research proposal essentially is just a summary of the research that you are wanting to carry out. It's not going into loads and loads of detail about what you're planning to do. I think actually a good way to think of it is in terms of questions and answers. So what is the overarching question that you're trying to address? What's the gap in existing knowledge? So with the title for the project, I think it's important to try and be concise. Try and think kind of what are the key words that would sum up what the project is about and have those kind of at the centre. So for the background and context of the research, which we would look at being roughly sort of 350 to 400 words, it's that idea of where does this project sit in the existing body of knowledge. And it's important to think whether that is a theoretical context or a practice-based context. If it's practice-based research, who are the other practitioners working in this area? Who are the key authors, the key theorists? Another important part is who is it for? Who will this knowledge serve? Who will benefit from it? So the aims and objectives section, which we would look at being around 150 words, I think it's quite nice to put that in bullet points. It's quite nice to literally think of that as a series of aims. The aims are the things that you hope to achieve with the research and the objectives are the steps you will take in order to achieve those aims. Know what you're seeking to find out or the knowledge you're wanting to create and know how you'll do that. The literature review is perhaps one of the larger sections of the proposal as well. It bears a very close relationship with the background and context, being again around 400 words. It's about showing that you understand where this research sits in the landscape of existing research and knowledge. What we're looking for is how those key texts give the context to your work. It's about mapping the field and then being able to talk about how you will be moving that forward. The research methodology section, again, it's a large chunk of it. We would expect it to be around 400 words. It's about showing how what you are proposing to do is an appropriate way to address the research questions that you've set yourself. Methodology is often really quite important for explaining how practice is research. What you're doing is creating knowledge, not just, oh, I'm doing it because I want to find that thing out. That thing I'm going to find out will be new knowledge. I think it's important to remember that the research proposal is just the beginning of the project and we do recognise that it may have gaps and we certainly recognise that it will change. The two things that we're looking for are context and contribution. The sense that you understand where the research sits amongst other existing research in this area. Where you are in the landscape, who else is working and what you're doing. But you then also have a really clear sense of what your research will contribute to that context. Seek out help and advice around a proposal. All of our current staff who are supervising are very open to having people email them with questions about a proposal, even drafts. The University also offers a pre-doctorate research degree preparation course, which is a 16-week online course that helps with support and guidance for putting together the research degree proposal.