Do you get paid to do a Ph.D and if so, how much? (In the UK)

oh_1993

I might want to do a Ph.D when I am older in Maths. Just wondered if you get paid because I have heard that you do, but only from americans. Has it changed due to the fee change this year? And does it depend which uni you do it at?

Thanks :smile:

on average i mean

(edited 12 years ago)

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Reply 1

Gavzzz

I am just doing my PhD now in Automotive Engineering and I am getting a tax free stipend of £13,590 per year as well as my course fees paid. Thing is I am a UK citizen and many PhDs say you have to be a UK or EU citizen to be applicable for the stipend, if not you just have to pay your own way.

Also different PhDs will have different ideas about funding like for example the other PhD I thought about doing was offering £16,000 per year. I have also heard of PhDs that don't pay you anything at all because they don't have sponsorship.

Reply 2

Ghost6

Wow that's a pretty solid stipend considering it is free of teaching duties. Can you make more money by getting hired by your department as a TA? Also, do you have to pay taxes on that?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

Gavzzz

Original post by Ghost6

Wow that's a pretty solid stipend considering it is free of teaching duties. Can you make more money by getting hired by your department as a TA? Also, do you have to pay taxes on that?

Well actually I have been told that I may have to take on some teaching duties but a maximum of 4 hours per week and unfortunately I can not earn extra cash for it. The stipend itself is tax free. It is more like a bursary than a salary.

I also have my own office and I am likely to be supervising a couple of MSc projects this summer. I have a tutorial session teaching first years how to use Hyperworks tomorrow night which is going to be interesting as I hardly know it myself :biggrin:

Reply 4

kikkoman

Original post by oh_1993

on average i mean

I can only speak for the Sciences but

If it's in the UK and funded by the EPSRC it will usually be £13590pa with university fees paid (no teaching conditions) and £15690 (or something) in London. Although I think they should include Oxford in there (no bias!) due to the fact I find it just as expensive.

Anyway, other funding agencies have other conditions. For instance I have seen higher figures for the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation. One particular example may be a particular scholarship I once saw at UCL with an insane £22,000pa salary.

The catch however is that most of these are only eligible to UK students and in a minority of cases EU. As an American (I am guessing), I think scholarships that will be applicable to you will be dependent on the universities you apply to

Reply 5

flying plum

Original post by kikkoman

I can only speak for the Sciences but

If it's in the UK and funded by the EPSRC it will usually be £13590pa with university fees paid (no teaching conditions) and £15690 (or something) in London. Although I think they should include Oxford in there (no bias!) due to the fact I find it just as expensive.

I think this is the case for any Research Council funded PhD (the amounts and London weighting). And certainly, I agree that the London-to-not-London weighting is sometimes quite harsh. I used to live in Cambridge, and would have got the same there if I'd done my PhD in my old dept, as I do now in Nottingham, but there is at least £100 a month difference in my rent...

Reply 6

baseline

My stipend is a little over 16, 000 in the Biological Sciences, because I have an industrial partnership.

I also teach for around 70 hours a year (demonstrating) and we get paid £12 p/h for this too.

Reply 7

TheNightmare

Original post by Gavzzz

Hey what university do you go to? I've just applied for automotive engineering and I would love to do a PhD if I get the chance to do so. And you have to do a masters to do the PhD right?

Reply 8

poohat

Original post by kikkoman

The catch however is that most of these are only eligible to UK students and in a minority of cases EU. As an American (I am guessing), I think scholarships that will be applicable to you will be dependent on the universities you apply to

I dont know all the details so dont take this as absolute fact, but I think EPSRC scholarships are equally open to EU students as long as they've been living in the UK for 3 years beforehand (eg if they did their undergrad in the UK).

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/students/pages/eligibility.aspx

To the OP: the numbers given in this thread for the PhD stipend (£14-16k in the sciences) are accurate. Also, the stipend is not subject to income tax/NI ,so you end up getting slightly more than you would if you were getting the money as a normal salary. Additionally, the stipend doesnt count towards your taxable income threshold so if you do any teaching during your PhD then you wont pay tax on that either (up to £6k a year, or whatever the threshold is).

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 9

alleycat393

Only UK or EU students are eligible for research council funding. Non-EU students can apply to charities for funding. Some schools also offer studentships open to non-EU students. I'm an international (non-EU student) and I get fees at the international rate and a London stipend. See sig for academic details.

Reply 10

addh

Original post by Gavzzz

Hi Gavzzz

which university u r doing ur PhD from? In London most universities will pay atleast 15000 pa as stipend

Reply 11

Steb7

I think it's worth pointing out that most people's experience of doing a PhD is that they are not paid. I wouldn't like oh_1993 to get that impression from these posts, which seem mostly to come from people who are funded. Getting funded is often competitive and difficult, though I can only speak with any degree of certainty about my own area; education.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it; I did, and succeeding has changed my life. It's just that there is no automatic entitlement. In the meantime, (I take it from your post and username that you are a spring chicken!) my advice would be to do as well as you can in your undergraduate career, as it will help your PhD funding application later on.
Good luck!

Reply 12

Craghyrax

Original post by Ghost6

Wow that's a pretty solid stipend considering it is free of teaching duties. Can you make more money by getting hired by your department as a TA? Also, do you have to pay taxes on that?

That's an entirely normal stipend, for any research council funded PhD in the UK :s-smilie:

And yes you can earn extra money for teaching.

Reply 13

Blahah

Some subjects are much more likely to be funded than others. Contrary to Steb7's experience in education, I'm fairly sure the majority of science PhD students in the UK are funded by some form of studentship, industrial partnership, or bursary. All funding for postgraduate study in the UK is tax free.

Reply 14

Gavzzz

Original post by TheNightmare

Hey what university do you go to? I've just applied for automotive engineering and I would love to do a PhD if I get the chance to do so. And you have to do a masters to do the PhD right?

Hi there Nightmare,

I am doing my PhD at Coventry University, I have come from doing a Masters myself however a good degree will also do. There is a second PhD student doing basically the same as me and he came from doing an Automotive degree at Cov so if you can do well in a degree you do stand a chance of getting straight onto a PhD.

One thought though is that he has himself said that he should of done a Masters before going onto do this PhD, so that is something to think about.

Original post by addh

Hey addh,

See above and London always pays more as it is much more expensive to live, at least that is what I have heard.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 15

TheNightmare

Original post by Gavzzz

Thanks Gavzzz,

I am most likely going to do mechanical engineering with automotive design at Brunel University and then I am planning to carry on at Brunel by doing a masters in just Automotive Engineering. If I do not meet my offer for Brunel, I would be doing Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at University of Hertfordshire. But I will be definitely be doing a masters in Automotive Engineering at either university.

Reply 16

alleycat393

Original post by addh

In London most universities will pay atleast 15000 pa as stipend

Minimum stipend rates are set by the research councils. If you study at a London uni you get 2000 pounds extra. This is called the London allowance. Most jobs will also have this.

Reply 17

gumball

Original post by kikkoman

I can only speak for the Sciences but

Anyway, other funding agencies have other conditions. For instance I have seen higher figures for the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation. One particular example may be a particular scholarship I once saw at UCL with an insane £22,000pa salary.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/npp/NeurosciencePhD

"How to apply" tab. But there are others there, too.

Cancer Research UK actually pays a lot as well, though it's a charity. :/

Reply 18

addh

I am going to start my phd in may in automotive engineering and I would be getting the London stipend but I might have to do some teaching, not sure of that

Reply 19

Susan.Nobre

And where you can found this PhD degrees? I really want to apply for. I'm a UE citizen living in UK, I got a British bachelor (Honours) degree, confirmed by UK NARIC, anyway, I don't know if I need to have a master degree to do the PHD (?) in science areas.