Attaining a PhD from Pakistan v/s Europe or US

[stoppit]

Re: Attaining a PhD from Pakistan v/s Europe or US

@kakaballi

For several areas, the admission ‘academic’ requirements are more strict in North American universities. Their coursework requirements are generally more stringent too and take a long time before you formally start your research. The admission is more formalized and you select a specific topic only after a couple of years into the program.

Many universities in the UK, for example, would require a clear research proposal before you are admitted. You need to convince a potential supervisor before you formally apply too. The opinion of potential supervisor affects the admission process. The programs are generally shorter with fewer coursework requirements and more focused on your research.

Most of the PhD programs are university funded in North America which might not be the case in UK where students generally have to source their own funding.

Uhm, most PhD programes in the UK are funded and incredibly competitive to secure a place. The research topic will already be defined since the post is funded. Some people do self fund (usually they are foreigners) in which case a supervisor might take them on, even though they are academically weaker. PhD students don’t do the first 1-2 years of classes/coursework as in the US because they enter PhD level with the required level of academic study for the particular research area already through their Bachelors and Masters degrees.

Also, the UK now has a number of ‘Centres for Doctoral Training’ and these are increasingly becoming the main method of recruiting students for doctoral study. Competition for places is really high and you first have to pass an MRes year (usually with Merit or higher) to get onto the PhD proper.

I have a number of friends who applied to PhDs both in the UK/Europe and the USA… if anything the US has more money in some areas so it’s easier to secure a funded position.