Global scholarship and PhD Opportunities: Canada, USA, Europe, Asia!

I've tried to send them a request. I don't know what is happening. Well, you may be able to start in the next one minute or so, other people I believe we join us with time. Yes, you are definitely going to moderate, but we just want you to possibly call my friend Lilian first, a PhD candidate at the University of Notion because of our schedule. She won't be able to stay with us for a long time, so I think it will be fine for her to speak. Is she already here as a speaker? Yes, yes, Akana Sue Lilian Akudu. She's here as a speaker. She is there. Okay. Yes, so I will leave the rest for yourself and the Academy to continue why I be in the background. Okay, once again, welcome everybody. I think we have given people enough time to join us, so let's get into the business of the day. Good evening everyone, and once again, you're welcome. I'm really excited about this conversation because we're talking about something that can really open those for people, global academic and scholarship opportunities. And I also understand the fact that for many students, graduates, aspiring scholars, 13 abroad can, how far during your education can sometimes feel out of reach, especially when finances are a major consideration. But the fact still remains that there are opportunities out there, fully funded scholarships, partially funded scholarships, grants, fellowships, PhD of masters, opportunities, and different forms of academic support. And we understand that one of the biggest challenges is knowing where to find these opportunities, how to approach them, and how to put together a strong application, and what's the process usually entails. And that is why we're having this kind of conversation tonight. Because we're not going to just be talking about these scholarships alone, we already have people here that have already done, it's never already worked through that path. We have scholars with experiences across different parts of the world, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the UK, Canada, and other places. So yeah, before we get into all of that, let me introduce myself to those who may not know me. My name is Timileia Kingley. I'm currently a second year master student in Finland. I'm currently studying governance of digitalization and besides that, I'm a tech-on-heir influencer. I'm passionate about school, sharing opportunities whenever I can, things I know that might be useful for, not just me, but any other person out there. And I really have these skills in this conversation tonight. And of course, I can't do it without giving a special shout-outs. So my, or not only, a working of Europe is an award-winning scholar. He's an aerospace scholar and if someone was, you know, personally navigated the world of international scholarships and, you know, academic opportunities. And also, shout-outs to my second co-hosts at JME. It's good to have you here. A working is good to be on this same space with you. And so everybody that is listening to nights, I really want you to make the most of this space. If you're looking for a scholarship, please ask questions. If you're thinking about doing the masters or PhD abroad, please listen attentively, listen closely, take notes. If you have applied before and you've not had success, please don't tune out. There might be something for you. How tonight that can, you know, give you a different perspective. And if you are not even currently looking for an opportunity, you might hear something that could be useful for somebody you know. So feel free to share this space to them. And again, most importantly, take notes. So yeah, thank you, thank you guys for joining us again. Adi, I mean, you don't do a little introduction of yourself before I called for speaker. Okay, thank you. What did you call the name of the press press in again? Okay, Lillian. Lillian. I call that Dr. Lillian already. Okay, Dr. Lillian. Please, you can have the floor now. We would like you to press out, out to go about things in your own part of the world. What we can do that can be because standout as regards getting scholarships or, you know, getting opportunities out there. We'd love to hear from you. Thank you. I you know, give me time because Lillian can speak for one hour. He can so far as speakers. We would love you because please speak for maximum of 10 minutes each. Thank you very much as you keep to time. Thank you. But you don't seem to finish your grieve in everybody. The host, please, what can I call you? To me, to me is fine. To me, okay, to me is fine. Thank you so much for organizing this space. My name is Lillian. I am currently my penultimate and my PhD at University of Nottingham here in the UK. I had my first degree in Nigeria, UNN Geography and then I did my master's on that year as most mundo sem scholarship at Estonia and Belgium if I moved to the UK. And I saw for this space, you wrote UK PhD. So it's not just general UK PhD. I think it's kind of, I'll say like the Nish PhD in the UK that many people don't really know about. It's a UKRI, the UK Research and Innovation Scholarship. And it's I'll say it's the largest fondant body in the UK when it comes to PhD and student ships. Just like we have dads to Germany, we have UKR right in UK. So this scholarship, you do not apply to me directly. That's the catch. The UKRI forms institutions and then you apply to the institutions. So I'm going to explain it. So there are different research councils in the UK where this research that has been funded by these research grants. So there's EPSRC for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. There's any RSC for natural environments. There's BBSRC for biotechnology, biological sciences. There's even MRC for medical research and if you're in the arts, there's AHRC for arts and humanities research councils. So all these councils have been funded by UKRI. My third for example, I'm on that EPSRC, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council because my research is in STEM. So you get these councils have been funded by UKRI as I mentioned and then you apply to these councils and then you get funding. So the funding covers your tuition but that is home fee and it also gets your stipend. I think it's stipend for 226, 227 after the next session is minimum of 21800, minimum means that some schools can decide to give you more than that. So for your stipend, you get like 1, 8 through K-Sontain which is non-taxable. That's a good chunk of money for you to money to survive in the UK. So the school fees is on home is equivalent of home fees. So as an international student, the university covers the excess. It doesn't come from your pocket. So even though UKRI covers for home rates, if you get this scholarship, this school has to cover the rest. For example, myself, I'm an international student here but I'm still not paying anything. UKRI covers the home fee and the University of Nottingham covers the rest. But the challenge here is the slots for international students is quite limited. I think about 30% for every research council which makes it very competitive for international students. For example, in my CDC, my cohorts, I am the only international student in the University of Nottingham. There are such as home students. And I think they do it to because of the cost, it takes to fund international students. And apart from your stipend, you also get research grants. And I think that's independent on your research council. So for example, in my research council, my research grant, that is different from my stipend, is like 25 k pounds, which you can use for anything for your research by data sets, by laptop, go for field trips, go for international conferences. It's been funded from your research grant. It doesn't come out of your pockets. There's a stipend and there's a research grant all for you. So it's a very lucrative scholarship, but it's quite competitive. And many people don't know about it because it's not one of the big names like Erasmag. It's a big name I'll say in the UK, but I don't know why many people don't know about it anyway. So how do you get in? Now most schools, because these universities are being funded directly by UKRI and they are funded by UKRI because there are some specific topics that concerns the UK government that they want these grants to be used for. So what's most institutions do that do is that they form what they call CDI's, Center for Doctoral Training. So these centers for Doctoral Training are focused on specific research topics and then these research topics are what the students will apply for. Let me explain it further. I'll use my session example again. So I'm part of a CDC that's called Geospatial Systems. My background is geography and then my my my master's in GeoCommatics. So my CDC isn't Geospatial Systems and my research is on land slides. So the CDC is focused on anything that has to do with Geospatial Systems. So if you have if you're interested in any top up that has to do with GIS, geography and environment remote sensing, then you apply to the CDC and then if you get in you get the funding. There are other CDC's like carbon CDC, there are other CDC's like climate change, renewable energy, AI. So it depends on your what you want to research on. That's what would and determine the CDC you would apply for. Apply to your other. So what I just remember that I should do is to get I used to have a link where you can search for all these CDC's in different institutions because not every university has a CDC in the UK and not every university has this funding. So let me just ask you this, could you please remind me like just bug me so that I get the link and maybe sent you so you share after this this space so that those who are interested in PhD, various routes can actually search for CDC's and maybe apply to them directly please. Thank you. I don't know what else should I talk about this so applying for it has so entry, entry, entry requirement most CDT's take people from BSE. That's another interesting thing about this PhD. So they take people from BSE so you do know sometimes you do know need to have a master's comment. I think for my CDC my cohorts, I think I was the only one who had a master degree or the master's degree that came in. The rest were coming from BSE directly and they will always tell you minimum of two one to come in. So for me I think because it was an unpopular scholarship and I was coming, I had a master's degree and I had a first class in my undergrad so I think it was it beats, it wasn't, it was challenge because this getting in was not quite easy at least I tick I tick the boxes so if you have a BSE you do not have to maybe shy away from and this kind of application because some CDTs can take you from BSE and they do it because most of these CDTs are 3 plus 1. So by 3 plus 1 I mean that the PhD they will award you is 3 plus 1 so 3 years for PhD then the first year is just kind of like to give you like a foundation in research. Another foundation in research you've been awarded an MRS because you do a mini research and then you defend your 3 years and then you get a certificate and MRS certificate so you get a master's first after the first year and then you transition fully into the PhD and you do it for 3 years so you've been funded for 4 years so after the 3 years and then you get your PhD so just like using one stone to kill two decks you're getting your masters you're also getting PhD at when I do and I think that's why most of them take people from BSE because they know they are still going to give you that foundation year so applying the main way to apply is to apply directly to CDTs some CDTs have funded all year some run out of funding