AHRC DTP 2017 PhD entry advice!

Hello one and all, and thank you for looking at this thread.

Firstly, for anyone who looks at this thread and might not know what all those acronyms mean, here's the breakdown...

AHRC = Arts & Humanities Research Council

DTP = Doctoral Training Partnership, a funding opportunity covering tuition fees and a generous stipend for three years. DTP Funding required the student to study across two Universities with two supervisors, ideally experts in different subjects (one University is the 'home' Uni, where most time is spent as far as I'm aware). I have my main supervisor lined up, and plenty of time to look for another with the help of my prospective supervisor.

I am considering applying for DTP funding for a PhD in music, more specifically, ethnomusicology. Here's a quick background of what I've done/want to do:

Completed my undergrad in music in 2015 with a high 2:1
Completed my MA music degree in 2016 with a Distinction (woo!)
Applied for 2016 entry on the DTP, but on reflection this application was admittedly not strong enough and somewhat unfeasible.

I'm just looking for some advice from anyone who have had experience with the highly-competitive DTP in the past, or has secured funding for an Arts and Humanities PhD elsewhere. What I ask is:

How do I get my application to stand out from the crowd? I'm incredibly passionate about my subject, but I'm aware this will only get me so far. I suppose what I ask is how do I show my eagerness in my written proposal whilst maintaining a full sense of academic direction?

How much depth must I go into when submitting my research timeline? My research will depend on the willingness of musicians to communicate with me, so I would certainly be bound by their existing schedules. This makes it difficult for any timeline I produce to be anything other than vague.

How important is the academic CV? I don't have anything exciting to put on their other than my existing grades to be honest, except a scholarship I received from my University to cover part of my Master's fees.

Any other general advice is of course greatly appreciated, and I thank you for reading and helping me!

Hello one and all, and thank you for looking at this thread.

Firstly, for anyone who looks at this thread and might not know what all those acronyms mean, here's the breakdown...

AHRC = Arts & Humanities Research Council

DTP = Doctoral Training Partnership, a funding opportunity covering tuition fees and a generous stipend for three years. DTP Funding required the student to study across two Universities with two supervisors, ideally experts in different subjects (one University is the 'home' Uni, where most time is spent as far as I'm aware). I have my main supervisor lined up, and plenty of time to look for another with the help of my prospective supervisor.

I am considering applying for DTP funding for a PhD in music, more specifically, ethnomusicology. Here's a quick background of what I've done/want to do:

Completed my undergrad in music in 2015 with a high 2:1
Completed my MA music degree in 2016 with a Distinction (woo!)
Applied for 2016 entry on the DTP, but on reflection this application was admittedly not strong enough and somewhat unfeasible.

I'm just looking for some advice from anyone who have had experience with the highly-competitive DTP in the past, or has secured funding for an Arts and Humanities PhD elsewhere. What I ask is:

How do I get my application to stand out from the crowd? I'm incredibly passionate about my subject, but I'm aware this will only get me so far. I suppose what I ask is how do I show my eagerness in my written proposal whilst maintaining a full sense of academic direction?

How much depth must I go into when submitting my research timeline? My research will depend on the willingness of musicians to communicate with me, so I would certainly be bound by their existing schedules. This makes it difficult for any timeline I produce to be anything other than vague.

How important is the academic CV? I don't have anything exciting to put on their other than my existing grades to be honest, except a scholarship I received from my University to cover part of my Master's fees.

Any other general advice is of course greatly appreciated, and I thank you for reading and helping me!

What/which instrument/s do you play, and to what level/grade?

@The_Lonely_Goatherd a fellow ethnomusico!

OP, not my area of expertise at all but generally it's fine to not have a rigid timeline. Apart from musicians' schedules you also have life and other things to cope with which is true of any PhD so don't worry. They're looking to see that you've thoughts about it and have at least realistic goals. Have you identified a potential supervisor yet? That should be your first step to showing willingness and enthusiasm. The academic CV is what is is and there isn't much you can do about it. In most cases that will be all on there. The only thing I can think of that you're missing is projects.

Hey

Nice to meet you! I'm studying a self-funded part-time PhD in ethnomusicology at RHUL (not sure if that's one place you're considering).

Research timeline can be fairly vague, from what I remember. The key thing is it should be fairly plausible and realistic, so that it's clear you can/would finish within the stipulated timeframe.

That's a very interesting DTP stipulation, that you have to be split across two universities. Usually people these days now have 2 supervisors poss in two different depts but within the same uni. I'm intrigued now as to which DTP this is now, haha. Might have a dig through my BFE emails to work it out, lol

With regard to the research proposal: since you have identified a main supervisor, the best thing to do is to write a first draft and email it to them, for them to suggest comments and corrections as necessary. Some prospective supervisors are more willing to do this than others but then benefit of at least asking at this early stage is that if they agree to look over it, you'll get a flavour of what working with/under them would be like. If they refuse, that might equally give you some insight as to what working with/under them would be like.

The main thing to remember is that this is not a personal statement: it's a research proposal. So keep it academic, show awareness of existing literature AND gaps in the literature, and state as clearly as you can how you would intend to address (if not fill!) the latter

I'm guessing you're working to a Jan deadline? Remember that the proposal is not binding per se, even if you get the funding: you can change the details of the project once you have the funding, as you and your supervisors see fit. But do get a draft to main prospective supervisor early, in case a few drafts need to go back and forth before both of you are happy

It's hard to give more specific advice without knowing which DTP/which uni/which supervisor it is. Do feel free to PM me if you like



That's completely irrelevant at this level, tbh

Not at all. verification is necessary at every level at a degree process, even more so at doctorate level, i'm afraid. Someone can't do a music degree, and pg and phd, without being a high level at at least two instruments i'm afraid.

Not at all. Accountability is necessary at every level at a degree process, even more so at doctorate level, i'm afraid. Someone can't do a music degree, and pg and phd, without being a high level in at least two instruments i'm afraid.

......

Apologies for resurrecting this thread a few weeks later - I forgot to check back onto this thread for quite a while!

Thank you for all of the help and advice, it's somewhat reassured me in regards to the timeline.

I have identified a potential supervisor who is very keen to work with me - the same supervisor who worked with me throughout my Master's nonetheless! I'm at the stage where I'm identifying secondary supervisors, and have a couple in mind. The second supervisor will be all important, especially in my first year, as the supervisor I have already lined up is due to go on sabbatical next year!

John, I play the saxophone mostly, but practical grades are a bit irrelevant at this point I feel. I also play electric guitar and bass as well as the clarinet to a lower standard, but my proposal is centred around an instrument I do not actually play, the kora. Whilst I disagree that being able to play to a high standard is an absolute necessity for a research project, I do believe that it can be an important rapport builder when meeting other musicians.

The DTP I'm applying for is the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. My home University will be Cardiff, and there is a set selection of Universities to choose from for my second place of study - sadly I don't think RHUL is amongst them. There are a couple of main criteria for the application, the first of which is that the proposal must be interdisciplinary. I think this is pretty well covered by an ethnomusicology PhD, as long as I put the whole music/anthropology link across well. The other aspect is that it must be beneficial to the UK economy; I will attempt to justify this as one of the aims of the project would be to improve the integration of West African musical instruments into UK music scenes, a touchy subject that I will have to be quite careful with!

Thanks again for all of the support - it's definitely time to really crack on with this and nail my proposal!

Apologies for resurrecting this thread a few weeks later - I forgot to check back onto this thread for quite a while!

Thank you for all of the help and advice, it's somewhat reassured me in regards to the timeline.

I have identified a potential supervisor who is very keen to work with me - the same supervisor who worked with me throughout my Master's nonetheless! I'm at the stage where I'm identifying secondary supervisors, and have a couple in mind. The second supervisor will be all important, especially in my first year, as the supervisor I have already lined up is due to go on sabbatical next year!

John, I play the saxophone mostly, but practical grades are a bit irrelevant at this point I feel. I also play electric guitar and bass as well as the clarinet to a lower standard, but my proposal is centred around an instrument I do not actually play, the kora. Whilst I disagree that being able to play to a high standard is an absolute necessity for a research project, I do believe that it can be an important rapport builder when meeting other musicians.

The DTP I'm applying for is the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. My home University will be Cardiff, and there is a set selection of Universities to choose from for my second place of study - sadly I don't think RHUL is amongst them. There are a couple of main criteria for the application, the first of which is that the proposal must be interdisciplinary. I think this is pretty well covered by an ethnomusicology PhD, as long as I put the whole music/anthropology link across well. The other aspect is that it must be beneficial to the UK economy; I will attempt to justify this as one of the aims of the project would be to improve the integration of West African musical instruments into UK music scenes, a touchy subject that I will have to be quite careful with!

Thanks again for all of the support - it's definitely time to really crack on with this and nail my proposal!