PhD abroad

[horselover89]

Hi everyone, I have a BA (2:1) in English and and MA (Merit) in Classics and Ancient History from 2 different universities in the UK. After completing my MA I joined the business world and have been out of academia since 2013- so 3 years. I would like to return to university and do a PhD in Literature, but not in the UK; rather, in Europe. I've had a look at the PhD Portal website, and there are some universities abroad that offer courses in English, but I'm concerned about the procedure. Did any of you apply to do a humanities related PhD abroad and if so, how did you find it? How do I go about my application- i.e. would I have to contact potential supervisors like you do in the UK? Are my chances of doing a PhD ruined owing to the fact that I've been working in the past 3 years? Any advice would be welcome! Thanks x

[fuzzylogician]

The first step would be to identify potential advisors, read up on their work, and then contact them to ask if they are taking on new students. In the meantime you could also start reading up on the general application processes for the relevant universities where those professors teach, and how the funding works. At the end of the day it'll come down to whether or not you can find an advisor. It's hard to give more specific advice since Europe is a large place. I do think you may be making a mistake in only looking at English-taught programs; European PhDs don't generally require any coursework, so as long as the professor speaks English and would support you in working in English (and preferably you'd probably also want other colleagues who you could interact with as well, which shouldn't be a huge problem I would think), that should be all you should care about. That said, I am in a different field, so take it with a grain of salt.  

The one thing I feel like I can say with confidence is that the fact that you have been out of school for three years should not by itself disqualify you from anything. You may face more hurdles than someone who just graduated in terms of getting good letters from people who remember you and perhaps in terms of getting someone experienced to read and comment on your application materials, but those aren't impossible obstacles to deal with, they just might require more proactive planning on your part.