The University of Kent is happy to announce that a new Doctoral Research Scholarship funded by The Wates Group is being offered to prospective PhD students.
The Kent-Wates PhD Scholarship in Suicide Prevention is being awarded in the name of Rowan Wales – a 17-year-old boy from Rainhill, near Liverpool, who tragically took his life in 2016. The research is entitled Mapping Suicide Prevention in the English Higher Education Sector: A Collaborative Sensemaking Approach.
Aided by the collaboration of Papyrus, a leading youth suicide prevention charity whose mission is to shatter the stigma around suicide and Universities UK (UUK), the collective voice of 140 universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, it is hoped the PhD study will address challenges of aligning meaning and action within and across organisations that play an important role in preventing suicides in and with Higher Education, the number one cause of death in people under the age of 35 in the UK.
Kent Business School academic and expert in strategy Dr M. May Seitanidi is heading up the scholarship, she says:
“One of the most challenging complex social issues in health and wellbeing is student suicide in Higher Education Institutions.
This funded research project aims to address the sensemaking challenges in the English Higher Education industry, when multiple actors aim to align efforts to prevent suicides.”
The scholarship will be awarded based on outstanding academic merit – a distinction in a Master’s degree in public health, social policy or organisational studies and a passion for research and excellent oral and written communication skills. Some first research experience would be preferable, such as an MSc or BSc dissertation.
It is open to all UK, EU and international applicants and will cover tuition fees at the home rate and a maintenance grant at the same rate as the UK Research Councils (£15,609 for 2021/22). The research project will be supervised by Dr M. May Seitanidi and Dr Krystin Zigan.
How to apply
Please apply for this award through the KentVision portal. The application documents should include a cover letter detailing your previous experience in research and ideally some work/volunteering experience and a justification of your interest in pursuing this PhD and a detailed CV.
All documents must be in either Microsoft Word or PDF format, documents that are not sent in this format, will not be reviewed. Please do NOT send documents via Google Docs or SharePoint.
Applications close on Wednesday 30 June 2021, 23:59 BST.
For more information on the scholarship, click here.