How to apply

All applications must be submitted via MyLSTM. These notes are intended to assist you in completing your application to the NIHR Global Health Unit on Stillbirth Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia studentship as efficiently as possible.

Please read through these notes carefully before beginning your application to ensure that you complete all relevant sections of the application form in full.

When submitting your application, you should ensure that you attach any relevant supporting documents. It is your responsibility to ensure that relevant documents are attached to your application.

If you have any questions, please contact pgr@lstmed.ac.uk. Please bear in mind that the team receives a high volume of queries, therefore please ensure that you submit any questions or highlight any issues with your application as far in advance of the deadline for submission as possible.

If you have not previously applied for an LSTM programme or registered with MyLSTM you will first need to register:

• Once your registration is complete, please login and select the tab ‘Click here to start a new application’
• From the section ‘Choose your programme/course’, select ‘Research Programme’ from the drop-down menu
• The option ‘NIHR Global Health – Stillbirth & Neonatal Death Prevent & Mgmt in SSA and SA’ should appear
• Select the ‘Apply’ button to the right of the screen
• You will now enter the application form
• if you are unable to locate the programme this way, please use the following link

 

1. Welcome

Please indicate how you heard about this programme

2. Personal Details

Please provide your name exactly in the format that it appears in your passport. If you have ever held any other names previously then please also indicate this here.

You should also complete all fields related to contact details, country of birth, and nationality.

Under the ‘Passport’ section you must ensure that you provide all details (passport number, country of issue, expiry date) and a scanned copy of your passport photo page. To upload a copy of your passport, select ‘Choose file’ and select from your computer.

The admissions team will use the information that you provide in this section to determine your nationality and right to study eligibility as covered in the Eligibility and Entry Requirements section.

If your passport does not evidence your right to study in the country that the project for which you intend your application to be considered for will be based, you must provide follow up evidence to pgr@lstmed.ac.uk before the closing date for applications. Failure to do so will result in withdrawal of your application.

3. Address Details

Although most of our correspondence will be with you by email, we may, on occasion, be required to send something via post.

Please provide details of your permanent home address, which is the address where you usually live.

If you prefer correspondence to be sent to a different address, then please also complete the Correspondence Address section.

The admissions team will use the information that you provide in this section to determine your nationality and right to study eligibility as covered in the Eligibility and Entry Requirements section.

4. Study & Research

Please use this page to indicate which project you intend to be considered for.

In order to do this, you should:

• Select ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Have you already been in discussions with a member of LSTM academic staff about your application?’
• Input the project title 
• that you wish to be considered for in the box that appears that asks ‘If yes, who?’

 Under ‘Do you intend to be registered as an On-Site, Off-site, or Split-site student?’ you should select ‘Off-site’.

Under ‘What is your preferred award title?’, please select ‘Global Health’.

The page should look something like this when completed:

5. Academic Qualifications

It is the policy of LSTM to normally consider only applicants that hold at least a first class, or upper second-class Honours degree (or international equivalent) in a subject area relevant to the available projects for the NIHR Global Health Unit on Stillbirth Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia studentship.

If predicted grades are not available for studies that are still in progress, a partial transcript providing details of years completed can be provided instead.

Please provide full details of any relevant academic qualifications that you hold and upload evidence by selecting ‘Choose File’ under ‘Associated Certificate or Transcript’.

If you have an award certificate and transcript for a qualification then please submit both. To do this, please upload both your certificate and transcript as a single merged/scanned document, or please save certificate and transcript to a single file on your computer, zip the folder, and attach this as a single file. Instructions to zip files can be found here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/zip-and-unzip-files-8d28fa72-f2f9-712f-67df-f80cf89fd4e5

Please don’t attempt to upload multiple documents to a single Academic Qualification record as this will result in errors with your application.

6. Professional Qualifications

If you do not meet the academic criteria listed above, then in exceptional cases we may consider a combination of professional registration (e.g. Midwife, Nurse or Allied Health Professional) and substantial, demonstrable work at postgraduate level (including research methods training) undertaken for the equivalent of one-year full time as fulfilment of academic entry criteria.

Please provide details of any professional qualifications, and upload evidence under the ‘Associated Attachment’ section of the form by clicking ‘Select File’.

 7. Experience/Employment

You do not need to provide individual details of Experience/Employment for the purpose of this application. Instead:

Under ’Position Held’ you should input ‘Curriculum Vitae’

And then under Associated Evidence, you should upload a copy of your Curriculum Vitae/Resume by clicking ‘Select File’.

8. English Language

In order to ensure that candidates are equipped with the skills to successfully pursue your studies and to enable you to participate in all aspects of academic life, you must meet LSTM’s minimum English language entry requirements which can be found here.

Please provide relevant evidence where required.

9. Personal Statement

This section gives you the opportunity to explain broadly:

• Why have you chosen this programme? (Please specify the project title for which you wish to be considered as the first line of this section)
• Why do you want to study at LSTM?
• What do you hope to gain from your studies?
• How does this application fit with your career plans?
• What skills and/or experience would you bring to the PhD community?
• What long-term benefits do you envisage?

You are also able to upload a document as a personal statement to this section rather than completing the provided fields by clicking ‘File upload’. If you choose to upload a personal statement, you must ensure (1) that your statement provides responses to each of the questions within this section and (2) that you specify the project title for which you wish to be considered as the first line of your statement.

10. Fees and Funding

In this section, we would like to hear how you intend to fund your living costs outside of the funding available via the NIHR Global Health Unit on Stillbirth Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia studentship.

We therefore would like to hear how you intend to fund your living costs during periods that you are working in-country where the project is based when support for living costs during this studentship is not available.

11. References

Please provide the names and contact details of 2 suitable referees who have indicated that they are willing to be approached to provide a reference for you.

Please ensure that you select ‘Add Another Referee’ in order to add details of a second referee before submitting your application.

Referees should be senior academic and/or professional persons who are currently or have recently been responsible for supervising you and must also have an institutional email address (i.e. not gmail, hotmail etc). Friends and family are not acceptable. If you upload details of a referee with a non-institutional email address, this will not be considered.

If you already have references at hand which you feel are relevant to this programme, are dated within the past two years, then you are able to upload these, if they meet the above requirements.

12. Visa and Immigration

Please select the relevant option from the drop-down menu when/if presented.

13. Equal Opportunities

Please complete as fully as possible.

Your data will not be disclosed for other purposes outside of LSTM's Student Data Privacy Statement

14. Submit Application

You can save and return to your application if you do not intend to complete it in one sitting by clicking the ‘Keep as Draft’ button and selecting ‘Save as Draft’.

If you feel that you have completed all mandatory fields of the application, and attached all required documentation and are happy for your application to be reviewed you should click the ‘Confirmed Submission’ button and then select ‘Submit’.

Please ensure that you have attached all required documentation to your application before you submit as you will be unable to review attachments after submission.

Application Timeline

Application Closing date: 30^thSeptember 2021, 12 noon UK time

Your application must be Submitted 12:00 noon UK time on Thursday 30^th September 2021. You must’ve completed and submitted all of the information indicated above to be considered for shortlisting. Please take care to ensure that you have:

• Uploaded or submitted all available academic qualification documentation
• Uploaded a Curriculum Vitae
• Uploaded a personal statement
• Nominated 2 references, and ideally arranged for both to be received.
• Uploaded evidence that you meet LSTM’s English Language Requirements
• Uploaded proof of nationality of ODA eligible country and submitted right to study in project country evidence (if different)

Shortlisting – mid-October 2021

Interviews – end October 2021

Registration – January/February 2022