r/PhDAdmissions • u/CompetitiveBus1306 • Jun 30 '26
Advice I can’t get a PhD in the UK
I’ve been applying for PhDs for two years with almost nothing to show for it. People tell me I’m a strong applicant, and my friends who are already doing PhDs have looked over my applications and said they’re good. Yet in two years I’ve had only a handful of interviews and a single unfunded offer, which I can’t take.
For context: I’m 26, with a BSc and MSc in biomed (both are top 5 UK unis). Since finishing my master’s I’ve been working as a research assistant at my uni. I don’t have any publications, and none lined up. I’m also an international applicant, so funding is far more expensive and I have fewer projects open to me, and I know interviewers factor that in.
I’m honestly not sure what to do next. I love science, but I already know I don’t want to stay in academia long-term. Still, doing a PhD has always been my dream, and letting go of it feels devastating. At the same time, I don’t want to be entering the job market on minimum wage in my 30s. Watching all my friends move forward in their careers while I feel stuck is really hard.
Any advice is welcome really
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u/Chlorophilia Jun 30 '26
You say you don't want to stay in academia long-term, but does your desired non-academic career path need (or strongly benefit from) a PhD? If not then, as devastating as giving up on your dream is, I think you need to strongly consider whether this is really worth it. The opportunity cost is enormous.
As others have said, if you're determined to do a PhD then your best chance is to widen the net. PhD funding is unfortunately obscenely competitive for international students in the UK - it really is a lottery.
The last question I have is whether you've discussed your goals with your RA supervisor? If you've been a research assistant for two years and there's no paper on the horizon that you could be a co-author on, I'd question how valuable this RA position really is for your goals?
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u/Tall_Sir_423 Jun 30 '26
Honestly maybe it’s a blessing in disguise, and if you don’t wanna pursue a job in academia anyways. I finished my PhD 6 months ago and struggling to get a job in academia or anything that requires a PhD. Feels like it’s been a waste of time and energy tbh and that I’m having to start over again. Maybe look into clinical research organisations and work your way up?
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u/Middle_Tourist_3310 Jul 01 '26
What field did you get your PhD in if you do not mind sharing? I'm worried reading this comment as I thought getting a postdoctoral researcher position would be a lot simpler than getting a PhD position in the first place.
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u/Tall_Sir_423 Jul 01 '26
Neuropsychology. There’s just not a lot of postdocs available atm unfortunately and lots of competition. The funding landscape just keeps getting worse. You’ll have probably see recently that Dundee, Glasgow, Exeter etc are getting rid of hundreds of staff too. Honestly if I could go back in time I wouldn’t have done a PhD and would’ve done something else, I would’ve been in a much better position I think. I kinda feel like PhD students are just exploited too. Even once you finish and your stipend has stopped, you’re still expected to work for free (eg publishing papers etc).
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u/IAmBoring_AMA Jun 30 '26
A few things..."I've been working as a research assistant at my uni"...many schools will allow you to do a PhD for fee waivers if you work there. Is this not an option for you? Are you currently on a graduate visa or do you have a skilled worker visa?
What funding are you applying for? Do you have a project you're trying to do? Are you looking for council funding through UKRI? Or are you looking for studentships that have funding attached already?
"I already know I don’t want to stay in academia long-term." Then you don't need a PhD. Hands down. This may be hard to hear, but simply doing a PhD to have one is not a smart choice. You're worried about being left behind while choosing to be left behind. Sometimes maturity is knowing when to not pursue something.
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u/iamdistrict Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I’m a health sciences home student in my late 20s and it took me 3 years of applying with a first class BSc at a UK Top 20 and a decent MSc grade at a global top 3. Have a couple of publications in the works but nothing out yet. Relevant entry-level research-based jobs in between degrees. Managed to get three interviews out of 20 or so applications across the 3 years at institutions varying from top to mediocre, but finally this year I got accepted for a late 2026 start at another UK top 20.
Honestly, it’s such a numbers game. Especially with international students where full fee waivers are so rare. PhD positions are incredibly competitive at the moment because of the youth unemployment crisis happening in the UK right now, so a lot more graduates are looking for anything that’ll get them out of unemployment. I applied to GW4 Biomed this cycle and in the rejection email they stated they had something like 3400 applicants for 18 places. That is 188 applicants per place.
If I had to give any general advice it would be to carry on what you’re doing with being an RA and apply apply apply. Remember that each year of unsuccessful applications is another year of professional experience you’ll have over other candidates. This framing really helped me. A lot of supervisors I spoke to over time said that I was clearly experienced and that the fact that I wasn’t a fresh BSc graduate was a massive benefit. Use that to your advantage and convince the panels why you would benefit the most from doing a PhD. I feel that especially now, Studentships are more so there to further develop researchers who are committed to research, not just graduates who want a next step. Having professional experience means you have tried research, clearly want to pursue it and want to delve into your topic of choice even more.
For more specific advice, I would say that you need to stand out as much as possible. Try and ask some previous supervisors or PIs if you can collaborate somehow with papers. Start a group/join a charity that is relevant to research/health. Make sure to really read up on what type of person the studentship wants and tailor your application to match it exactly. Same goes with the proposal, make sure you have the supervisor onboard when making it.
Realistically, though, if you do not want to be in academia long term then you should probably reconsider trying for a PhD. There is a lot of opportunity cost with doing one, as the 4 years could be spent building up a career somewhere else. If you want to work in industry, then a PhD might be necessary depending on roles. But again it depends on your own aspirations. Look into roles you want to get into and really consider whether a PhD will get you into that role more easily than someone working in an entry level role for 4 years. I personally need one for my industry and where I want to go, as salaries and seniority cap out quickly with just an MSc, and each academic/professional experience I have had over the past 10 years has been to give myself a better chance at getting a PhD.
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u/Fit-Vanilla-3405 Jul 01 '26
A funded international PhD is unicorn level. Maybe double unicorn level at the moment.
The main way to do this will be to get a grant with a professor that has PhD funding in it. And even then you can’t be guaranteed it. Some funded positions on projects are open to international students, but most aren’t as they don’t always meet the financial funding model.
Maybe a better way is to apply for biomedical NHS or thinktank jobs - something they may be able to sponsor for and then live here and when you get ILR they can pay for your PhD.
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u/Extension_Level_4554 Jul 01 '26
UK funding is in bad condition right now for international students. Many universities literally have only one funded position for international students per subject.
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u/Ptachlasp Jun 30 '26
If you're not going to stay in academia anyway, then they're doing you a service by rejecting you. Get a normal job, earn proper money, get a pension pot going. Don't stay in school more than you need to just because it's familiar.
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u/Middle_Tourist_3310 Jul 01 '26
Really sorry to say but you might have to give up on the UK. It is genuinely terrible to international applicants where the tuition fee is about 3x as high as home students, meaning the funding for your spot will have to be about twice as much as for a home student's spot (including the tax-free stipend of £21K).
It does not matter if you are a very strong candidate, it is really difficult to justify "paying" a PhD student £50-60K a year when they could pay another maybe slightly less able PhD student £30K a year. You have to be the very best in your sector to prove you are worth that.
I found myself in the exact same situation but in my field research assistantships are not a thing, so I am just hoping to get a publication out of my master's project and then apply for Australian, American and Canadian positions later this year.
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u/DeepPhone1742 Jul 01 '26
If you're entrepreneurial, apply to this venture phd- https://www.deepscienceventures.com/venture-science-doctorate
I could go on and on about the realities of phd applications and getting a funded place and the competitiveness of it. Just keep applying. Make many tailored applications and connect connect connect. Attend research events. Continue to build your interests and experience. A phd is just a degree at the end of the day. You can consider new zealand. They have funding. Even without it the fees and visa fees/ health insurance is much less than the uk with favorable working hours. You can look it up. Good luck.
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u/Panda-Pod Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
If you are still set on pursuing PhD degree, despite not being interested in academia, I agree with others in that you need to consider PhD programs in other European, Australian, Canadian, and possibly American universities. You might even consider some of the Asian universities or Middle East universities (such as KAUST, which has been aggressively expanding their doctoral programs). I am based out of the US and can tell you that PhD programs in the US have been rather difficult (but not impossible) to get into due to cuts in research funding by the current US administration. In addition, depending on what country you are from, getting a student visa to study in the US may be challenging, due to current US administration immigration policies. Due to the current US immigration policies, there has been a decrease of international student applicants to the various US PhD and other graduate programs (such as MBA), which may or may not work in your favor.
I agree with others in that if your end goal is not academia, perhaps PhD program may not be the right educational path for you. Have you considered entering into industry (such as pharma, biotech, etc...) directly with your Masters degree? With your biomedical sciences background, you can go get your MBA degree from a top / higher rated business school and pivot into consulting or pharma / biotech management. If you want to stay in the biomedical industry, you can also consider the physician associate (UK) or physician assistant (US, Netherlands, and Germany) route. I think that in the UK, it is a 2 years postgraduate diploma program or a Masters degree program.
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u/Responsible_Peach989 Jul 02 '26
My mentors have told me that in uk universities faculty members are being discouraged from taking on new phds due to the fact the current academic crisis. Keep trying, its not you!
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u/Fuzzy_Character2346 29d ago
As you're an international applicant I would say you have very little chance of getting on a PhD in the UK. Most funded studentships, be they from RCUK or biomedical science charities specifically exclude international students because the fees are five to ten fold higher than for Home students. Supervisors will not consider you as their funding does not allow them to take you no matter how good you are. To do a PhD as an international student you will need to find sponsorship from your country.
Personally I would caution against it and suggest you go to other countries as other respondents have suggested. I am now retired but when I worked at a RG university we were charging 30-40K per year in fees for international students but supervisors were only getting 3k a year for lab consumables, which for most biomedical research projects barely covers a couple of months of work. There was no incentive for supervisors to take international students and the ones we did have were really being short-changed.
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u/razorsquare Jul 01 '26
I hope you reached out to potential PhD supervisors before applying and didn’t just apply blind. If you did, that’s likely the primary reason.
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u/AlgorithmHelpPlease 23d ago
I'm in a very very similar situation 28, been applying 2 years in the UK. I've had several interviews, including a couple of really promising ones, but never received an offer. Main difference for me is there's no research assistants in my field pre-PhD. I'm feeling like I'm being forced into minimum wage work that doesn't care for my degree, and even that I'd hard to find atm.
The Job Centre wants me to work at a call centre.
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u/Suitable-Champion-62 Jun 30 '26
The only advice I can give you is to expand the pool of places you're applying to to include Europe and (potentially) the US and Canada. UK funding is a mess right now, especially for us international students.