Are U.S. students disadvantaged at Non-U.S. PhD programs?

[brush]

I'm particularly concerned with Canadian and UK schools.

1. Are U.S. students at a disadvantage when applying here? In other words, is there affirmative action for local students?

2. Do U.S. students get the same funding packages? My understanding is that its hard for U.S. students to get funding in the UK so I probably won't bother applying to any schools there. But what about Canada?

[maxhgns]

AFAIK there's no official prioritizing of Canadian students at Canadian universities. Canadian universities have a harder time taking on international students (yes, including Americans), however, because the international tuition rate is much higher, so they have to cobble together more in the way of funding. From what I can tell, the major PhD programs seem to take about 1-2 international students a year (except perhaps Toronto, where the incoming class size is larger).

I can think of two major disadvantages facing American prospectives, however:

1.) It's the norm in Canada to enter a PhD with an MA already in hand. While some PhD programs here do still take students directly from the BA, you'll be competing against a tough crowd.

2.) As far as I can tell, a "major" at most American universities means about 30 credit hours in the subject (i.e. about ten courses). It's not uniform across Canada, but for us it's generally about 60 credit hours (honours at my UG was 66). So Canadian applicants are likely to have done twice as much philosophy as you have.

 

So the disadvantages aren't really official. They're mostly unofficial, in the background. There are lots of international students in philosophy PhD programs in Canada, though, so it's not like it's anywhere near impossible. Apply, and see what happens.

[TakeruK]

Maybe it depends on your department, but there is definitely official prioritizing of Canadian students at some places in Canada. As maxhgns said, international tuition is higher, so Canadian schools pay more money to international students so that your take-home pay is the same. This is because in Canada, you are paid a stipend amount first, and then from that stipend amount, you pay your tuition. To use example numbers, a Canadian student might get paid $25,000 per year by their school and then pay $7,000 per year for tuition, leaving them with $18,000 to take home. An American student would be paid $33,000 per year by the school and then pay $15,000 per year for tuition, leaving them with $18,000 to take home. The difference in this example is $8000 and it is often covered by an award with a name like "International Tuition Supplement Award" etc.

However, the prioritizing is not "affirmative action" (affirmative action is a legal term in Canada that might mean something different than in the US). Instead this is what happens: The University will grant each department a set amount of money for the "International Tuition Supplement Award", let's say it's $80,000. This means the department can afford to have 10 international students on the roster at any one time without incurring extra costs. 

In my MSc department, we had about 10 international student awards allocated and there were something like 80 students in total. One potential issue is that if an international student does not graduate and takes an extra year, then they won't "free up" a spot for a new international student. Or, if the University decreases the quota, then the department may lose an international student spot. Or, if there are 2 openings one year but 3 really good indistinguishable candidates, then the department might have to "give up" one of those students (i.e. only accept 2 out of 3).

To combat this, my department voted to increase each faculty member's overhead in order to create a new pool of money so that the department can also offer its own International Tuition awards (I was there at the meeting). The faculty decided that they preferred this solution so that if the department decides to take on an extra international student, no one professor will have to pay an extra $8000 that year (instead, each faculty member ends up paying an extra $500 or so every year, regardless of whether they take an international student or not). This means though, that professors wanting to take international students beyond the University quota and dip into this department fund would have to justify their choice to all of the department. Also, any professor who wants an international student beyond the quotas can also do so as long as they willing to pay the entire extra cost out of their own grants.

So, in this sense, the department does prioritize admitting Canadian students over international students because these tuition awards create a financial quota. They are not, however, prioritizing Canadian admissions due to concerns such as "we want to spend Canadian money on Canadians". This is primarily because the amount of money spent on international students is still pretty small.

[brush]

Thanks that was very helpful.

Any word on UK programs? And I forgot, what about Australian schools?

[maxhgns]

Funding is pretty rare for UK schools.There are some dedicated scholarships for latin america (e.g. Chevening) and elsewhere, and a few for students from the commonwealth, but not much even then. AFAIK, as an international student you mostly have to compete at the university-level (not the department-level) for funding. Check out jobs.ac.uk and look for PhD studentships.

 

Oxbridge might be a little different.

[hippyscientist]

The UK has a very different systems for applying to PhDs than the US, and funding is also a lot scarcer - not just for international students. Here, you tend to apply to a project that's advertised on jobs.ac.uk or individual university websites. You submit a proposal with your application and go through fairly rigorous testing (my understanding from watching friends apply for sciencey PhDs). If you get funding, great, but I'v been offered less in the UK than I would in the states (allowing for currency exchanges). Additionally, there is absolutely NO taught component. You start straight on the project you were accepted for, they expect you to be publishing and making useful contributions to the literature and project prior to Christmas (about 3-4months after starting) and it can be pretty isolating. Any further questions about the UK system, feel free to ask me.