Dear Emma

the AHRC system for funding postgraduate students studying for the 
archives and records management programmes in the UK (and for most other 
subjects as well) has changed recently.

Most large universities made a bid last year for a block grant 
allocation for all the subject areas covered by AHRC, and those that 
were successful now have a 5 year programme of studentships. UCL is one 
such university: we have a limited number of studentship nominations 
each year for students studying archives and records management; 
librarianship; and publishing. The system for these universities now is 
that applicants apply to the university for a place on their chosen MA 
programme or for doctoral study, and if they are successful in obtaining 
a place on the programme and are eligible to apply to the AHRC, the 
university will let them know how they enter the studentship 
competition, which is now run internally by the university. Successful 
applicants will then be nominated by the university to the AHRC for one 
of the ring fenced bursaries. These students do not apply directly to 
the AHRC until they have been nominated by their university and then 
there are some forms to be filled in. Nomination is not a guarantee of a 
studentship, but last year all of our nominations were successful.

There is still a much smaller open competition, in which students apply 
directly to the AHRC, but this is only open to students applying to 
universities which did not obtain an AHRC block grant: and I believe, 
although I am not sure (you should ask your university for 
confirmation), that all the universities which have archives and records 
programmes do now have a block grant and therefore students cannot apply 
directly to AHRC.

The advantage of the new system is that students know much earlier in 
the year whether they will be nominated or not, and therefore whether 
they will have a grant, and since the success rate to AHRC had dropped 
to very low levels, at least we do now have a guaranteed number of 
studentships each year.

Elizabeth Shepherd



-- 
Dr Elizabeth Shepherd
Visiting Professor, University of Toronto, I-School
Claude Bissell Building, Room 638

Department of Information Studies
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
tel + 44 020 7679 2945
fax + 44 020 7383 0557

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