How do I secure a supervisor?

International Students

If you have written a research proposal, it’s often a good idea to look at the web pages of the individual research institutes (eg, Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), Institute of Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS), Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT), Earth Surface Science Institute (ESSI)) and find out which members of staff are working in your research area of interest.

You may then choose to email them sending them your research proposal and CV, to find out whether they are interested in your proposal and also whether they may be available to provide supervision.

If they are not able to provide supervision, they may suggest alternative supervisors.  Please bear in mind that our staff have a lot of demands on their time and so may not be able to reply to all of the emails that they receive.  Further, if you approach more than one member of staff in our School, please include all of them in the circulation list, so that staff can, in turn, see who else you have contacted.  Your initial communication with staff should always say how you propose to fund your study.

The alternative is that you may simply decide to submit a formal study application.  If you do this, you must include all supporting documents (CV, transcripts of marks of all degrees, degree certificates, any English qualification that you hold, research proposal, two academic references, evidence of your funding/sponsorship).  Failure to attach all of the supporting documents listed above will result in your application being subject to long delays when receiving consideration.