Recruitment and Selection of MPhil and PhD students in GOS ICH

Learn about the process of recruitment and selection for MPhil and PhD students within the institute.

We essentially have two categories of PhD student:

A) Those who apply for advertised studentships and have competitive interviews;
B) Those who come with funding from various agencies, or are self-funded, and do not have competitive interviews.

To ensure a uniformly high standard of appointments the following processes should be followed:

Group A:

Group B:

  • If you intend to charge an Additional Fee Element (AFE) (formerly known as a bench fee) to cover the cost of consumables/project expenses, you should complete a

    study-phd-research_student_afe_request_form.doc

    which must be submitted together with a completed Form B.

For both Groups A and B, an interview panel should be convened to include the primary supervisor, subsidiary supervisor (if available), plus at least one independent academic member of staff who is not part of the supervisory team or involved in the project. All efforts should be made to ensure diversity and gender balance when comprising the panel. The independent academic member of staff may be the R&T Dept Postgraduate Tutor (PGT, Andy Stoker DBC, Mona Bajaj-Elliott III, Mary Fewtrell PPP, Dagan Jenkins GGM, Frederique Liegeois DN, Simon Beggs DN and Gabe Galea DBC), or Co-Departmental Graduate Tutor (DGT) (Gabe Galea or Mona Bajaj-Elliott) if preferred.

Following interview and provisional offer of a place by the supervisor, the successful applicant must complete a UCL graduate application to the Child Health MPhil/PhD, and this should be made in tandem with the ICH application process.

All Students:

  • The Head of Section and Head of Research and Teaching Department (or their deputy) should approve the appointment of all new students.
  • For ALL the Form A or Form B (below), should be forwarded to ich.researchdegrees@ucl.ac.uk for peer review to ensure suitability of the proposed project for the PhD before final approval by the Departmental Graduate Tutor BEFORE a formal offer is made.

The following processes should be undertaken:

All competitive PhD studentships should be advertised via ich.researchdegrees@ucl.ac.uk (except in the case of a student on a named grant). See Procedure for placing a studentship advert below.

  • For group (A):

    • If the project has been peer reviewed, a copy of the original grant application should be submitted with Form A.
    • If the project has not been peer reviewed, the PhD project will be reviewed internally on receipt of the Form and approved by the Departmental Graduate Tutor prior to advertising.
    • The Assignment of Intellectual Property Rights in Student Work form should be submitted with the Form A.

  • For group (B):

    • If the project has been peer reviewed, full details of the review should be given on Form B.
    • If the project has not been peer reviewed, the PhD Project will be reviewed internally on receipt of the Form B and approved by the Departmental Graduate Tutor.
    • The Assignment of Intellectual Property Rights in Student Work form should be submitted with the Form B.

NB if the student is funded from a programme grant, the specific project to be undertaken by the student will need to be reviewed internally.

Important qualifying information / limiting factors

  • A UCL graduate application to the Child Health MPhil/PhD is also required, and this should be made in tandem with the ICH application process. References must be provided as part of this application.
  • Successful candidates cannot start their project before their official UCL programme Start Date, as per their Post Graduate Offer Letter from UCL Graduate Admissions.*

Permitted UCL MPhil/PhD start dates for 2024/25

Permitted UCL MPhil/PhD start dates for 2024/25 are: 1 Oct 2024, 1 Feb 2025 and 1 May 2025.

Non standard start dates may be allowed by UCL on an exceptional case-by-case basis, due to visa/ATAS delays and partnership contract delays, or clinical Out of Programme (OOP) allowances.

NB UCL programme start dates cannot be back dated to fit any prior grant award start date or deviate from permitted UCL MPhil/PhD start dates.

As a guide, R&T Departments and supervisors should allow a minimum of 4 months for a Home student to complete all application processes before they can start their research degree project. Supervisors should allow a minimum of 6 months if the student is EU/Overseas* or where the project is to be advertised**.

* UCL Post Graduate Offers may be conditional, subject to meeting Child Health MPhil/PhD entry requirements including English Language Requirements which must be met before an Unconditional offer can be made. Overseas students cannot start a visa application until they have accepted an Unconditional offer from UCL. 

** NB there should be some flexibility on the part of the R&T department, as these timelines are a guide and cannot be guaranteed, as UCL policies and processes relating to the Gradate Application are outside our control. Where a student is unable to enrol within 14 days of their start date, their start date will move to the next permitted UCL PhD start date, e.g. 1st October/Feb/May. Start dates no longer roll over to the 1st of the following month unless a Suspension of Regulations request is made due to visa/ATAS or partnership contract delays. Students and supervisors should ensure sufficient time for advertising, recruitment and admissions processing so that the student can start by their intended start date. This is particularly important regarding grant start and end dates. Where a delayed start date affects the start and end dates of a grant, it is the Supervisor’s responsibility to liaise with UCL Research Services and/or the funding body to arrange for the start and end dates of the grant to be amended accordingly.

Procedure for placing a studentship advert

The primary supervisor must:

  • Complete the ICH PhD Studentship Recruitment Authorisation MS Form and attach the Award letter from the funder. 
  • Upon receipt, ichresearchdegrees will forward documentation to the ICH Finance Manager for financial approval before the advert can be placed.
  • Applications will be received by the supervisor directly. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to shortlist, assemble a suitable interview panel, schedule interviews, issue a provisional offer to their top candidate, and inform all applicants of the outcome of their application. Ask the Co-DGTs for advice if you are unsure about how to do this. Note that, although this is not an HR process for studentship appointments, unsuccessful candidates may still request information on the assessment process through a Freedom of Information request.
  • Once a student is appointed and unsuccessful candidates have been notified, delete candidate personal information once no longer needed for the purposes of assessing their application. Please see:

UCL Prospective Students Privacy Notice and Personal data Retention periods

Please read UCL Prospective Students (Enquirers and Applicants) Privacy Notice available here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/privacy/ucl-prospective-students-enquirers-and-applicants-privacy-notice  

Student Data Records Retention Schedule for files relating to student data

Please read 1.2 Recruitment and Admissions available here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/collections/records-office/records-retention/retention-schedule/student-data  

Forms:

ICH PhD Application Flow Charts

ich_phd_application_flowcharts.pdf

Relevant UCL Documents / Information: