Our PhD application process

Key information about your referees

• You will need to provide two references.
• Ask your referees if they can provide a reference for you before you submit your application.
• Both referees should be individuals that can comment on your suitability as a PhD student, for example because they have had input in, or have supported your most recent degree or research project.
• At least one of the references should be academic. This means the referee should be someone who can comment on your academic ability and suitability for further study.
• Referees will be asked to comment on things such as examination performance, practical work, time management, your ability to express ideas orally and in writing, reliability, initiative, independent work, and self-motivation. 
• Your referees will be contacted automatically when you submit your application. They will receive an email from [email protected] with full instructions on how to provide your reference.
• The reference deadline is usually one week after the application deadline.
• We do not accept references from employment agencies as they are not able to comment on your suitability for a PhD project.

Using the same referees when applying to two concurrent recruitment rounds

• You should input the referee details in exactly the same way in both applications. Ensure the contact details and names are identical.
• Your referees will receive an email asking for a reference for each recruitment round you apply to. However, once they have submitted a reference for one of the rounds, they will have the option to automatically pull through the previous reference they submitted for you on the other rounds.
• It can be worth explaining to your referees this is how it will work and that they should follow the new link to enable the second application to be populated.

Changing your referee details

If your referee is unable to fill out the reference for you, we can change your referee details to another individual. Please send this request along with the full name and contact details for your new referee to [email protected] and we will change this on the system as soon as we can. Your new referee will be emailed immediately. 

Missing the reference deadline

We should receive your references by the reference deadline. Your referees can continue to add the reference to your application after the deadline and your application may still be considered, however your application will be under review by recruiting supervisors with whatever references have been submitted by this time. 

No applicant will be invited to interview unless both references have been received.

Please do not contact our recruiting supervisors directly. All our studentships are recruited using our online Student Recruitment System apply.icr.ac.uk and only applications we receive through this system can be considered.

The recruiting supervisor will see your application there. You should not send CVs to supervisors outside of our recruitment system. This helps us to ensure fair recruitment.

Any questions you have about the recruitment process, or your application can be addressed to [email protected].

We do provide detailed project proposals which should answer many of the technical questions you might have. There will be opportunities for networking and questions for recruiting supervisors further on during the application process. As a result and we discourage contact at this stage.

When applying for a PhD at the ICR our recruiting supervisors are assessing the quality of candidates during the application sifting and shortlisting stages. In general, they will be looking at if you would be a great PhD student at the ICR. As such there is no implied order of project preference.

If there are particular projects that have strongly motivated your application, please detail this in the ‘Research Interests’ section of your application. You must select three projects to submit your application. 

If we progress with your application there will be opportunities to change your preferences after panel interview, and again after one-to-one interviews after you have had a chance to meet with and learn more about recruiting supervisors and the projects they are offering.

If you are applying for the ICR and Imperial Convergence Science PhD programme your project choices will be used to inform the shortlisting process and used to plan the recruitment process if you progress to the interview stage. 

The associated documents that we ask for alongside the application form, such as your university transcripts and project summaries, are used by the Registry team to check your eligibility. They are also provided to supervisors as a separate document, to understand more about the specific content of your degree.

You do not need to send or attach a CV as the information you will complete in the Student Recruitment System is sufficient for us to evaluate your application as a whole.

There is an opportunity to provide detail about your employment history in the ‘Additional Information’ part of the application. You can also use the ‘Research Interests’ part of the application to highlight where your degree, or technical experience and expertise make you a good fit for research at the ICR, or on a specific project.

You should not attach personal photos of yourself to documents that you upload to the student recruitment system. Where you are shown in a document, such as a transcript, please obscure the image.

If shortlisted, you will be invited to attend a panel interview, which is the first part of our recruitment process. We will contact you to ask if you need any adjustments before the event.

Interview dates

If you apply in October/November, the interviews will be scheduled for January, with the exact dates clearly detailed on the website. Candidates that progress to the panel interview stage will get the opportunity to see videos of all the recruiting supervisors explaining their projects and giving an insight into working with their team.

For projects advertised at other times of the year, information on the interview process and date/s will be provided on the PhD projects page.

Panel Interviews

We will provide full details with your invite but generally panel interviews last around half an hour, with three or more people on the panel. You will be asked to present some of your work, and you will be assessed using the same criteria as all other candidates.

You will also have the opportunity to hear about the ICR and our PhD programme from the Deputy Dean. Current students will be available to explain what it is like to study with us and there will be opportunities to network with recruiting supervisors.

One-to-one interviews

Candidates who are successful at the panel interview will be invited to participate in further one-to-one interviews on a different date. These will be with individual supervisors and specific to the projects you are interested in. As such, you may be invited to more than one interview as part of the second-round interviews. 

Changing the interview date

In the majority of circumstances, we are unable to amend interview dates. If you are offered an interview and you are unable to attend on the given date, please contact the [email protected] as soon as possible.

We consider applications on merit and have a strong commitment to enhancing the diversity of our students.

To be eligible for registration for the degree of MPhil/ PhD, you should have:

• a degree in a relevant subject, passed with First Class or Upper Second Class honours [1]
• or a Masters degree in a relevant subject
• or an overseas qualification of equivalent standard to the above
• or an MPhil in a relevant field (see paragraph 9.1 of the MPhil/PhD Code of Practice)

And you must have:

• experience of research work relevant to the post [2]

Also, if your first language is not English:

• you must be able to demonstrate a proficiency in English to the equivalent of an IELTS score of 7.0, with a minimum of 6 in any one component;
• or within the last two years in a majority English speaking country, have either education experience in English for a minimum of 1 year; or work experience in English for a minimum of 18 months and be able to satisfy Home Office visa criteria where necessary. [3]

It may be possible to make a conditional offer to candidates whose IELTS score is less than the minimum, subject to further study and re-examination, and to UK visa requirements. The qualification would need to be in place before we sponsor a visa application.

Further eligibility criteria may apply to specific programmes and projects. Carefully read any information provided by the funding body and in the project proposals. You can also help us to ascertain your eligibility by being accurate in your answers to screening questions in the application forms, such as your requirement for a visa to study in the UK and the ITN eligibility questions. You can provide clarity by using the ‘Additional Information’ part of the application. For example, you might want to include some of your employment history to confirm eligibility.

1. If you have not yet completed the relevant qualification then you are expected to be in your final year of study, and to nominate an academic referee from your institution who can confirm the classification you are on track to achieve. Our standard expectation from undergraduate study is a First, but we will consider candidates with a good Upper Second.
2. One of your referees must be able to comment on your research experience.
3. The Home Office visa criteria for English language eligibility is either for applicants to be from or have studied an appropriate academic qualification in a majority English-speaking country (see the UK Government's Student visa guidance) or have passed an approved English language test.

Majority English speaking countries:

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British overseas territories, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Malta, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, USA.