PhD Studentship: Online Gendered Violence Against Women and Girls on Social Media

Please quote reference: Project - Psychology – Online gendered violence against women and girls on Social Media

3 year, fully funded Studentship

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is inviting applications to join our PhD programme beginning February 2025. Your application will need to be based on the advertised project below.

A second cohort will start in October 2025. Any applications received after the 22 October 2024 deadline will be considered for the October 2025 cohort. The deadline for applications to this cohort will be in January 2025.

Psychology – Online gendered violence against women and girls on Social Media

If your application is successful, you will join the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Psychology of Counselling, where the Human Behaviour Stream of the Centre for Protecting Women Online is based. You will work with subject specialists to develop an original contribution to knowledge as well as your skills in research, communication, engagement and impact.

PhD studentships are based on full-time study for three years at the Milton Keynes campus. Full-time students are expected to live within an easily commutable distance of Milton Keynes, meet their supervisors face-to-face on a monthly basis, and are advised to be on campus or another site of research a minimum of two days per week. Part-time students are expected to live within the UK and attend campus when required. Please note that our PhD and MPhil degrees cannot be studied online or via distance learning.

Fully-funded studentships cover tuition fees, and a stipend (circa £18,622 per annum) for 36 months. A generous research training support grant is allocated to all students accepted into the programme to cover research-related costs including fieldwork and conferences.

Applicants for the PhD programme should have minimum qualifications of an upper second class honours degree (2:1 or an equivalent) or usually a specialist masters in a subject relevant to the intended study with a strong research element.

Your application must include:

• a proposal which should be at least 1,000 words and no longer than 2,000 words, indicating your knowledge of the literature, methods and likely approach to your project of interest (guidance on how to write your research proposal is available here)
• a covering letter indicating your suitability for the project
• a fully-completed application form
• copies of degree certificates and all transcripts relevant to your application
• an IELTS Academic Exam certificate (if applicable). If you are not from, or do not have a full degree certificate from, one of the countries in the tables on page 17 of the application form (international), you will need to submit an IELTS Academic Exam certificate with your application by the deadline. A minimum overall score of 6.5 and a minimum score of 6.0 in each of the four categories (or approved equivalent) are required in order to make the application process fair and equal for all applicants. You should have your level of proficiency certified through a provider approved by UK Visas and Immigration, and provide your certificate and grade with your application. Test certificates must be no older than 2 years (from date of submission of application). IELTS is the only proof of English competency we accept at The Open University. There are no exceptions or waivers to having an IELTS exam certificate. This is regardless of other qualifications, career experience, other academic experience or English-medium education that took place in countries not on the aforementioned list.

The deadline to submit your application is 25th October 2024 at 23:59 (GMT). Your proposal, covering letter, fully-completed application form, and copies of certificates and transcripts including IELTS certificate should be emailed to protecting-women-online@open.ac.uk by the closing date and time.

Interviews will form part of the selection process and will be held in November 2024 either in person or remotely via videoconference. Applicants are expected to give a 10 minute presentation about their proposal, followed by a question and answer session lasting up to 45 minutes.

Please ensure to thoroughly check your application before submission as incomplete applications will not be considered.

Please send queries about this opportunity to protecting-women-online@open.ac.uk.

Closing Date: 25 October 2024 - 17:00