Hi! Thanks for getting in touch – As I am a UK student, I am sorry but I don’t have any information about international student admission requirements. I suggest having a look at this website >> https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/professional/external/admissions/index.aspx and getting in touch with admissions who would be able to provide more advice. Alternatively, if you find a PhD program or project you like, getting in touch with the supervisor would also help identify if you’re suitable for the project.

Hope that helps!

Hi! Thanks for getting in touch – in terms of the Darwin studentship, I apologise as I’m not really aware of that studentship as I believe it is for international students (Im a UK based student), but I am aware it is a microbiology based scholarship for international students:

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/darwin-studentships.aspx

Its best to speak to admissions who can direct you to more information on international student based funding: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/professional/external/admissions/index.aspx

Your PI/group should tell you how to prepare for the interview – it is either a short presentation on a paper/previous work you’ve done or it is a formal interview where you are asked questions about experiments and your experience.

Competition funded PhDs normally mean that a number of PIs/groups will advertise PhDs which are all funded by the same scholarship scheme – a group/groups will then win funding from that scholarship depending on who has the best candidate. A PhD stipend is between £15,000-£17,000 for 20-21 (how much you get depends on how its funded (e.g. industry funded programs have a bigger stipend).

Hope that helps!

Hi! Thanks for getting in touch!
Immunology and Immunotherapy is the broad name of the PhD – this covers the theme of your PhD however, your actual PhD can vary and be in vitro, mouse models or even a bit of both! When you apply for a PhD program, you will usually be told what type of work is expected, therefore you can decide if it’s the sort of methodology you want to work on.

In terms of full time/part time PhDs, it really depends on what your requirements are and what works better for you. For many, doing a PhD full time is more convenient as its like your full time job and you can focus solely on your PhD (and of course do some part time work on the side if you want). For others, such as clinicians or those with childcare responsibilities, doing a part time PhD fits in with their lifestyle so it is really up to you. It’s also important to note, some PhDs are only offered in full time positions. I did my PhD full time mainly because I wanted to mainly just focus on my PhD. This was convenient for me as part time PhDs take longer and I wanted to finish my PhD in a suitable time frame, but also, due to the nature of my PhD (working with clinical samples), the PhD was only offered as a full time PhD.

Hope that helps!

Hi! Thanks for getting in touch – As I am a UK student, I am sorry but I don’t have any information about international student admission requirements. I suggest having a look at this website >> https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/professional/external/admissions/index.aspx and getting in touch with admissions who would be able to provide more advice. Alternatively, if you find a PhD program or project you like, getting in touch with the supervisor would also help identify if you’re suitable for the project.

Hello, Thanks for getting in touch – the best way to identify a research project is to have a look on findaphd.com and see their requirements or contact a supervisor who’s work you really like and see if they have any vacancies at the moment. Some PhDs may require a Masters, but not all, and some will also want examples of any experience you may have, so anything you can show will just make you more competitive.
Hope that helps!

Hi!

In terms of choosing projects for the MRes, the process involved finding research groups who were working on areas you were interested in or topics/methods you really wanted to study and then emailing the groups ourselves to see if they could accommodate us in the lab for one of the research projects. After emailing, most of the groups I contacted asked for a face-to-face meeting and we discussed my background and the sort of work I could do for my project so there is a lot of choice/flexibility in choosing projects. For requirements for the course its best to contact the school and admin team as they may have more specific requirements from when I did my masters – any experience you have either way will be beneficial in the Masters. The application (this if from a UK student perspective, it may be different for international students, so again best to check with the school) consisted of applying through the Universities online portal (uploading transcripts etc) and writing a personal statement. I then received feedback on my application from the course director.

Hope that helps!

This is the link for entry requirements for the course:
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/combined/biosciences/molecular-cellular-biology.aspx#EntryRequirementsTab

Hello, thank you very much for your question and apologies in the delay getting back to you. My name is Emma from the Postgraduate Recruitment team, and I am replying on behalf of the mentor as they have not yet answered it.

Whether you apply for an MSc by Research or PhD is entirely up to you – the MSc by Research is one year, while the PhD is 3 (full-time) so is more of a commitment. In some cases, an MSc by Research can be used as the first year of a PhD if it goes well, so that’s an option!

In either case, yes you will need to look for a supervisor before applying.

I can’t offer any first hand experience of the research environment I’m afraid but you can contact the MDS team at mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk. They will hopefully be able to help further.

Best wishes,
PG Recruitment

Hi, hope you are well!– apologies for the delay in responding to you.

If you’re confused about going down the MSc/PhD route it might be worth reaching out to the school and seeing which you’d benefit from most – the MSc is great to build research experience in the lab and as Emma mentioned, the PhD is a bigger commitment. For both the MSc and PhD its always best to reach out to the supervisor – it shows your interest in the project but also helps you see if you’d fit into the group too. Depending on which MSc you go for, the method of contacting a supervisor will be different – for some programmes, a list of potential supervisors and projects is released and you choose from those whereas in some MScs/MRes programmes (such as I did), you have to find a project and supervisor yourself – again its best to contact the school to get more information.
The University generally has a very rich research dynamic, every floor in the medical school has a bustling community of people of different levels of research from PhD students, technicians, research assistants and post-docs. There are a lot of collaborations between groups at the University and with other Universities and companies. I suggest that if you find a project/group you like, it’s a good idea to reach out to them and see if they have any funding or if you can meet with the group – every PhD is unique (although we all have long hours in common!) and a lot of the experience depends on the group you work with so that really is the best way to get a feel of how your research environment will be.

Hope that helps!

Hi,

Hope you’re well!

In terms of contacting a supervisor before applying, if you’re looking to go into a specific area of research or you really like the work of a particular supervisor, then it’s definitely worth contacting the supervisor to see if they have any PhDs available/funding available. If you find a PhD through a website (e.g. findaphd.com) or an advert, then again, it’s a great idea to reach out to the supervisor to find out more about the PhD and also demonstrates your interest in the project.

In terms of research experience, it’s great that you have the experience of an MSc which will work in your favour, however being a successful applicant depends on various other factors too such as the supervisor, the group, the project and also on the other applicants. PhDs, especially funded PhDs, are extremely competitive, so if you can show that you have relevant research experience, it will definitely work in your favour and make you more competitive.

For funding, I’d recommend this website: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/index.aspx and there is information around on the Birmingham university website & findaphd.com about international student scholarships, however depending on the PhD you apply for, there may be a scholarship/funding attached with the project too.

Hope that helps!

Best of luck,

Jagjeet

Hello, thank you very much for your question. My name is Emma from the Postgraduate Recruitment team, and I am replying on behalf of the mentor as they have not yet answered it.

There are various funding opportunities available for both home and international students. Please refer to our funding database (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/index.aspx) for possible funding opportunities. You may also find information on our international pages useful, including our page on international scholarships (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/International/students/finance/scholarships/index.aspx).

Best wishes,
Emma

Hi!
In terms of funding, I am a UK citizen and therefore was eligible for EU-UK funding for my PhD. Do not feel too disheartened about finding funding for your PhD – some projects can have both EU/UK and, or, Non-EU/UK citizens funding. As Emma mentioned above, there is also information available on the University website about funding and scholarships for international students. I’d also recommend speaking to a supervisor who’s project you may be interested in – they may be able to help guide/support you in attaining funding for a PhD.
Hope that helps!
Jagjeet

I think more than anything, there is a lot more emphasis on you organising your own time independently. For example, as a Masters student, I have to organise a lot of my time around being in the lab and my experiments but also the lectures and seminars I have to attend as part of the course and the lab I am working in. As an undergraduate you’re more likely given a timetable and have either lectures or are working in the lab one at a time or with not much overlap, so multitasking independently is key for postgrad.

I chose the University of Birmingham for many reasons, such as its reputation for its globally recognised research, the chance to experience working in different labs at the University and generally undertaking a unique and highly interesting MRes.

My key advice would be, research everything thoroughly. Research about the area you are passionate about, research the University, the type of Masters/PhD you want to undertake and research how this postgraduate study will help you with your future plans. This way, you will be equipped with everything you need to make an informed decision that you will hopefully ultimately enjoy.

The variety on the course is great: it’s up to you to decide where you want to do your projects! I have the chance to work in different labs, on different research projects and meet experienced researchers who are willing to share all their advice and help you really understand the research environment. I also like the fact that you get a mix of being a taught and a research student which is great so you’re not just constantly in the lab.

For me, I really wanted to gain more practical lab experience in biology after my undergraduate and see whether a career in research was for me. Doing an MRes has allowed me to work in two different labs throughout the academic year and gain a vast amount of experience in different areas of biology in terms of research topics and techniques.

For my intake, yes!  It was up to us to approach potential supervisors for a molecular and cellular biology project in any appropriate research school – there was no set list of projects to choose from although this may be different for subsequent years, so please check with the admissions team. I worked on one project in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences and one in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the important thing being that both projects were strongly of a molecular and cellular biology background.

Hi, yes there is! As part of the MCB MRes, you complete two research projects and it was up to us to decide where we wanted to work, who we wanted to work with and on what topic. It’s great if you know what you’re interested in (i.e. molecular disorders) as you can research potential supervisors and email them to see whether they can take you for one of the projects.

When I applied, I didn’t have to do a research proposal. For us, we had to find two supervisors for both projects (obviously falling into the molecular and cellular biology theme) and just let the course admins know who we were working with and gave a summary title.

Just as a note, I would suggest contacting the course admins to confirm if this is still the protocol for choosing projects etc. as things may have changed for the coming academic year.

Hi,

In regards to the MRes, I used the online recordings of the lectures from Panapto to catch up which was really useful especially when I was unable to make a lecture because I was in the lab doing an experiment. The recordings are also super useful for revision too. For us, lecturers were supposed to record their lectures, but some didn’t do this so bear this in mind if its a topic you’re really not sure about as it would be worth ensuring your definitely able to make the lecture.

Most lecturers also have a reading list of journal articles or book chapters which help too. I personally find review articles useful especially when you want to be as current with your background as possible.

Hope this helps and apologies for the delay in my response!

Hi, I’m not an international student therefore I don’t think I’d be able to answer this accurately sorry. There are many international students at the University and many international student societies and the University offers support for international students as well to help them. If you contact the guild and their global buddies scheme/ international students society they’ll hopefully be able to answer your questions.