Gladiatrix77

Hey, so I'm a Brit and very familiar with the process over here. So some general points then I'll comment on the departments you're interested in:

1. The system is the reverse of the US - if you are not an idiot you will almost certainly get an offer. I got offers from Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Sheffield this year, You will get offers, even for places like UCL and Oxbridge without too much effort.
 
2. The converse is that FUNDING is immensely difficult. I got no funding at any of the above places, in fact at two of them Classical Archaeology was not awarded funding this year at all.

3. You only need two letters of recommendation, apart from at Oxford where you need three.

4. Your research Proposal is important. If you are going for a PhD bear in mind you *will* be writing the research you proposed f from day one for three years until you finish. There is no coursework, none to limited teaching etc.
 
5. Be careful if you want to work in the US/Canadian system after you finish. I have been advised by people on both sides of the Atlantic that because there is less of an all round element to a UK PhD and less teaching, US universities are not overly willing to take UK trained people straight out of a PhD - you would need to do several postdocs and other junior jobs before having the experience, especially in teaching. The issue you would face is that as an international student  on a visa (I presume) this may be hard for you to do. The UK has an unfortunate Conservative government that has been not only attacking the funding for PhDs in humanities, but also reducing immigration by any means possible, including making it hard for very highly qualified and intelligent people, in all fields to work in the UK. Given the freedom of movement in the EU hiring Americans is currently a lot of hassle for UK universities, when they can hire someone from anywhere in the UK/Europe visa free. This isn't to say that it's impossible but I do know at least one American who did their PhD over here who 'fell through the cracks' - ie UK places were not that interested for non-academic reasons, and US institutions, because he did not have teaching experience were not interested either - it's just something to consider. Personally I am happier moving from the UK to the US for a PhD than I would be the other way round.

Finally some words on the Universities in Question - within a UK view Leicester and Kent are middle ranking, but not bad Universities - Kent is in a much nicer location however. I don't know your interests so can't comment too much on why you have chosen them, but bear in mind that 'fit' is slightly less important in the UK than the US - if they *can* supervise it, and you aren't a moron, they will make an offer, but probably wont' fund it (Cambridge had 2 spots this year for all subfields of classics, with one guaranteed for literature, meaning that Archaeology, History, Linguistics, Philosophy, Art History applicants were all competing for one spot!). Overall I would say the 'top' places to do Classical Arch are UCL with the IOA and Oxford. Cambridge is not far behind but it is very poor at 'dirt' archaeology - the people there are excellent however. Other places you might want to look at, if you haven't already, are York, Edinburgh, Sheffield and Exeter. Bristol have some ok archaeology too.

Anyhow feel free to PM me if you want to know more.