Bournemouth University Launches Major Research Drive

Investment in new PhD studentships represents unique opportunity for Bournemouth University to raise its research standing and capacity

Bournemouth University will recruit an unprecedented 80 new researchers into PhD studentships over the coming months.

Over £1 million will go directly into the studentships as part of the University’s new investment strategy to build on its research achievements and develop world-class centres of academic excellence. The PhD studentships serve as a key component of that strategy.

The new studentships will build on areas of research strength and potential whilst developing opportunities for interdisciplinary projects within the University in order to expand the institution’s research capacity for the future.

“We have a commitment to that form of higher education where one learns from those who are themselves learning,” says Bournemouth’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Curran. “We therefore need to strenghthen yet further the research environment in each of our Academic Schools by investing selectively in areas of activity that have the potential to gain international levels of research status.”

The BU PhD studentships will pay fees for students from the UK and other EU countries with a stipend of £12,500 per annum for three years. A limited number of studentships are also available for non-EU students. The Bournemouth University Graduate School will work directly with the students in a number of ways to complement the support provided by individual areas of academic excellence.

Amongst Bournemouth’s best known research areas is the National Centre for Computer Animation, based in the Bournemouth Media School, which has the University’s highest research rating. Another of the University’s key research areas to attract international attention in recent years is the Environmental and Geographical Sciences Group in the School of Conservation Sciences.

Professor Matthew Bennett, who heads the group, was one of the lead researchers in the project that discovered ancient footprints in Mexico left by the earliest humans to inhabit North America. He believes that the University’s recruitment drive represents a unique opportunity for Bournemouth to raise immediately its standing and level of research activity.

“Bournemouth University’s new campaign to recruit such a large number of PhD students at one time in a wide range of specialist areas represents an unprecedented level of investment and a once in a lifetime opportunity which will make a big difference to our research credibility and culture,” says Professor Bennett.

“In our area alone, we have the potential to welcome researchers to a number of projects of international, national and regional interest,” he continues. “These areas include investigations using remote sensing, conservation biology and ecology, volcanic instability, studies into extinction theories, coastal management and citizenship and management issues associated with Poole Harbour.

“We are also looking to extend the use of the technology we’ve used in analysing the ancient footprints we found in North America to modern crime scene investigations so these studentships will prove invaluable to advancing all of this work,” he concludes.