Finding a supervisor
Supervisory Team
PhD students in the Sociology Department usually have two academic supervisors (a lead supervisor and a second supervisor, though in practice they will usually share supervision responsibilities equally).You must secure the agreement of two prospective supervisors before you submit your application, and if you are applying for a PhD programme in the Sociology Department your lead supervisor must be based in the Sociology Department. Your second supervisor can be from Sociology or another Department at the University of Warwick. Lead supervisors should usually have the job title Professor, Reader or Associate Professor. Assistant Professors can act as second supervisors.
The relationship with your supervisors is crucial to your experience as a PhD student, so it is important to ensure that you will be able to work together successfully as a team. You, as well as the potential supervisors, should think carefully about whether you have shared intellectual and methodological interests and approaches which will enable you to thrive during your studies. An online or in-person meeting to discuss this frankly can be an important part of making this judgement.
Once you have the agreement of two supervisors, and they have given you feedback on your proposal if necessary, you should apply for the PhD through our online portal.
Please note that we will check with named supervisors that they have agreed to supervise an applicant as part of our processes, and applications without named supervisors will not be processed until supervisors have been confirmed.
Contacting a potential supervisor
We advise contacting a prospective lead supervisor by email in the first instance and they will be able to help find a co-supervisor for you, or to discuss ideas you may already have about co-supervisors.
You may already be aware of a prospective supervisor’s research, as the reason for applying to study with us. If not, please consult our staff profile directory Link opens in a new windowto find out staff member’s research interests and identify potential supervisors. Reading relevant works by prospective supervisors, if you have not done so already, is a good way to identify if your research interests and approach will match theirs. You can also find email contact details on individual staff profile pages.
When writing your initial email to a prospective supervisor, it is important to explain why you have chosen to email this person, and to show how your topic is relevant to their research area. Include a short summary of your research proposal in the email, and attach a draft of your full proposal and your academic CV, including the grades you have received for previous degrees. This will help potential supervisors to advise you and speed up the process. Many of our members of staff already have several doctoral students so please don’t be disappointed if they are unable to consider your project. You can always try emailing another member of staff.
If you have an expression of interest from a potential supervisor, we strongly encourage you to meet with your potential supervisor as soon as possible as part of the process. They may request an online meeting with you to discuss your project and potential co-supervisors, and to consider whether you want to work together.