White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership (WR DTP) Scholarship - Collaborative Award for October 2023 entry

The Department of Education at the University of York invites Home/ EU/ International students to apply for a White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP) ESRC PhD studentship. There is one of two types of award available for the successful candidate:

• 1+3  programme:  this award funds a Masters in Social Research followed by a PhD programme; or
• +3 programme:  this award funds a PhD programme only.

The PhD project’s title is “Improving maths achievement in children with speech, language, and communication needs” and will be supervised by Professor Sophie von Stumm (https://www.york.ac.uk/education/our-staff/academic/sophie-vonstumm/), who directs the Hungry Mind Lab (www.hungrymindlab.com). More information on the PhD project can be found here: https://www.york.ac.uk/education/postgraduate/scholarships/ 

Background 

Around 1.4 million children in the UK have long-term speech, language, and communication needs that put them at risk for poor educational achievement. Effective interventions can help children improve their learning and educational outcomes, which are key to having fairer, better life chances. 

The successful PhD studentship applicant will research ways for improving children’s educational achievement, through working with Speech and Language UK (speechandlanguage.org.uk, a charity and third sector organisation), Dawn House School (dawnhouseschool.org.uk, a specialist school for children with communication difficulties, funded by Speech and Language UK), and researchers from linguistics, psychology, and education at the Universities of Sheffield and York. 

For this PhD project, the successful applicant will (a) conduct a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials and other evaluation studies of the effectiveness of earlier language-focused interventions that sought to improve children’s educational achievement; (b) collect and analyse original, primary quantitative data to test the effectiveness of novel intervention approaches to improving educational achievement in children with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN); and (c) collect qualitative data from research stakeholders (e.g., pupils, parents) to study the feasibility of broadly implementing language-focused education interventions across schools in the UK.

Candidate profile & Criteria

The successful PhD studentship candidate will have completed BSc degree in psychology, education, or another relevant subject area, achieving at least a 2.1 degree classification overall. A MSc degree in a relevant discipline is desirable but not essential. The successful candidate will aim for a career in academia, be passionate about reading, conducting, and writing up empirical science, and have excellent statistical skills (appropriate to their prior degree and research experiences). The successful candidate will have outstanding oral and written communication skills, work well independently as well as in team, and be highly motivated to collaborate with research stakeholders across organizations (e.g., charities, schools, universities) to co-produce scientific evidence. 

How to apply

To apply for this PhD studentship position, please:

1. Apply to the department for a place on our PhD in Psychology in Education using the university’s online application form: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/. This will involve including a research proposal about 1,500 words in length outlining your proposed research study.  
2. Completed the Collaborative WRDTP ESRC PhD Scholarship Application by 5pm on 24 February 2023. Details regarding Collaborative WRDTP ESRC PhD sscholarships and the online application are available at: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/funding/collaborative-esrc/.

The application deadline is 5pm on 24th February 2023. 

For informal enquiries, please email Professor Sophie von Stumm atsophie.vonstumm@york.ac.uk.

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