[leah1212]

Hi everyone,
I'm currently studying for my MA in Business and Marketing and did my degree in history. Although I have loved studying business I really think my skills and abilities are more suited to history so I'm hoping to get onto a history course.

I wanted to know if many people do this and are able to get funding for their PhD? I know I've made life harder for myself but I feel it reinforced what I want to do with my life.

I want to apply for courses starting in October but I think I've probably left it too late and damaged my chances, I wondered how others are finding getting funding this late? I know there are some opportunities around.

I'd appreciate any advice from you Thanks

[evantej]

(Original post by leah1212)
[...] I'm currently studying for my MA in Business and Marketing and did my degree in history. Although I have loved studying business I really think my skills and abilities are more suited to history so I'm hoping to get onto a history course.

I wanted to know if many people do this and are able to get funding for their PhD? I know I've made life harder for myself but I feel it reinforced what I want to do with my life.

I want to apply for courses starting in October but I think I've probably left it too late and damaged my chances, I wondered how others are finding getting funding this late? I know there are some opportunities around. [...]

You are too late for Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding, which usually closes mid-January to March. The only funding still open, including AHRC, will be project and university specific scholarships. In general, your chance of gaining AHRC funding is almost non-existent because part of the criteria for funding states there should be a 'transfer' of a research interests between the masters dissertation to doctoral research.

Your only way to get around this in terms of funding for history (not only for this year) would be to change your masters dissertation into something with historical interest, and ensure that your research proposal was somewhat linked to this project and your future supervisor's interests (Niall Ferguson mixes 'business' and history together quite well in my opinion). Obviously how much you can do will depend upon your current university (i.e. do they have a history department etc., etc..), and your programme leader's willingness to let you change at such short notice. But it is not impossible.