How to apply
You should acquaint yourself with the creative writing tutors' research interests by visiting their individual web-pages, and by reading some of their published work. Then, if you believe that your interests match theirs, contact your prospective supervisor directly by e-mail, giving a brief outline of your proposal.
If your prospective supervisor thinks that your project is a viable one for the St Andrews PhD programme, he or she will advise you to contact the School of English postgraduate office from where you will receive the necessary application and information links. Please do not contact the postgraduate secretary directly for information about the programme until you have ascertained a positive statement of interest from your prospective supervisor. Please also note that the creative writing tutors cannot engage in detailed feedback during the application process: their role at this stage is simply to assess eligibility for application.
Complete the on-line application. For the PhD in Creative Writing you will need to supply a portfolio of sample work. Please supply at least 1,000 words of creative prose or ten pages of poetry, and 1, 000 words of critical prose, so that we can assess your suitability for both elements of the PhD programme. You should also supply a 500-word research proposal. This should outline your proposed genre and topic, indicate the relationship you envisage between the creative and research elements, and say why you think the St Andrews PhD programme is the right one for your project.
Your application will be assessed by the creative writing team and processed by the university; the Admissions Office at St Andrews will then relay a formal decision to you. The School aims to deal with complete applications within 2 weeks, but during busy times of the year there may be an unavoidable delay. We cannot, of course, begin to assess applications until they are complete. The decision of the creative writing team is final. We receive a very high volume of applications each year and regrettably we are unable to offer any feedback on unsuccessful submissions.
