Admission in 2008

You are now too late to apply for admission in 2008 unless you are able to self-fund.

Studentships in Bioinformatics for Foreign Students

PhD Studentships
Masters Studentships
Internships

PhD Studentships

EU students

In general EU students are eligible for a fees-only grant - you will therefore need to have your own source of funding for covering living expenses. It is not possible to hold down a part-time job while studying for a PhD.

EU citizens who have resided in the UK for 3 years are eligible for full UK studentships. Until recently, residency for the purposes of education did not count. However, the research councils have now changed their regulations (August 2005) such that EU students who have resided in the UK for undergraduate study will get a full PhD stipend. [More information]

Non-EU students

Obtaining funding for non-EU students is extremely difficult. If you are considering self-funding, you will need approximately £80,000 for a three-year PhD position to cover fees and living expenses. This consists of:
Tuition Fees: £15,410 per year (2007/08 rate - will increase each year)
Bench Fees (lab costs): £1,000 per year
Estimated Living Costs: £9,000 per year (minimum for a single person)

Note that the closing date for applying for funding for admission in October 2008 is likely to be February 2008.

You may find the following links useful for information on funding schemes for graduate students at UCL:

There are at least 4 major sources of funding:

ORS studentships. See the UCL pages. This is often held jointly with a GSRS award.
Graduate School Research Scholarships (GSRS) See the UCL pages. This is often held jointly with an ORS award.
DHPA If you are a foreign student from an eligible devloping country, you may be interested in the new Dorothy Hodgkin Awards (DHPA) for admission in October 2006.
Commonwealth Scholarships If you are from a commonwealth country (other than the UK!), there are Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships Plan (CSFP) studentships for which you could apply.

Details of all scholarship schemes may be found at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/scholarships/graduate/overs-res/index

IMPORTANT! if you are intending to apply for a GSRS/ORS scholarship or a DHPA award your UCL application must be received in the department by February 1st 2008. As it can take several weeks for UCL Admissions Office to process applications it is suggested you submit your application to UCL Admissions Office NOT LATER THAN FRIDAY, 11th JANUARY 2008. Applications received in the department after February 1st 2008 cannot be considered.

Will I get funding?

The standard of competition for any of these sources of funding is extremely high (in 2005, UCL had only one DHPA for Biosciences). To support an application for funding I must have evidence of a very high level of skills in both biology and computing. In other words, as well as a strong biology background, you must be able to write computer software (preferably in C or Perl) and be able to show me example code.

To stand a chance of being funded, you should be in the top 1% of students in your country. Your results and references are critical.

If you are able to self-fund, then of course I am happy to talk to you. As a foreign student, you should expect to need £80-85,000 for a three year PhD, to cover fees and living expenses. (Note, bench fees for Bioinformatics projects are £1000 per annum.) In 2005 and 2006, there were also some half-funded DHPAs available - you must find around £37,500 from other industrial sources. Again however, competition was stiff.

What should I do now?

Since, on average during the autumn and winter, I get 3-4 applications a week from foreign students, I also need some criteria by which to decide whom to support in requesting funding. I am therefore asking all possible candidates to provide me with a detailed description of how they see the project developing. I need a 1-2 page document describing the problem and the proposed solution. You can use one of the suggested projects as a basis for this, or even better, come up with your own project which would fit into the remit of the type of research done in my group. Remember we are a Bioinformatics lab and have no facilities for 'wet' experimental work!

Given that these awards are given to the candidate on the basis purely on the quality of the applicant (and not the project), I think it important that the candidate has the ability to do whatever really interests him or her. The fact that a candidate has been able to suggest a project also strengthens the funding application considerably.

If you wish to proceed, you should send me a project description, as above, and apply to the University formally in the normal way, making it clear what source of funding you wish to apply for. The Biochemistry Department web site has more information on applying for a PhD position in the Biochemistry Department including application forms.

Deadlines for these studentships are generally around March-April for admission in October, but please check the specific web sites for detailed information on admission in 2006. A sensible time to start the admissions procedure is therefore after Christmas.

If you are applying for funding, I recommend that you should get your application in to UCL by the end of January. You should also get a project proposal to me at the same time.

Other funding

Some other sources of funding, including visiting fellowships are listed here. Students from Pakistan may apply to the Pakistani Higher Education Commission

English Language Requirements

Details of UCL's English Language requirements can be found at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate-study/application-admission/english-language.

Test scores are grouped into 'Standard', 'Good' and 'Advanced' for UCL admission purposes. The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology currently specifies a minimum of 'Standard'.

Masters Students

We do not teach a Bioinformatics Masters course at UCL, but have a joint programme with Birkbeck College.

Internships

We do not have money to support intern students. If you are able to fund yourself and have appropriate skills, we would be happy to consider having you visit the lab.

If you are an American student, you may be able to apply for funding through the Foundation for International Education.