A PhD supervisor serves as your mentor, guiding your research, offering feedback, and ensuring timely progression while adhering to university policies. Learn how to select the ideal mentor for your research and approach them effectively.
Choosing a Supervisor
If you’re applying for an advertised PhD or MRes position, then your supervisor’s name will be on the advertisement. They will be on the panel if you’re invited for interview. Take some time to look at their areas of research and read what they’ve published. This background reading will help you understand how to pitch your proposal.
If you’re applying for a degree based on your own research ideas, or for a Professional Doctorate, then try and identify a potential supervisor at Edinburgh Napier who has expertise in that area. One way to do this is by entering a relevant search term on this page: Research explorer tool / People tab This will bring up a list of researchers linked to that term – and you will then need to look at each one individually to see if they match the research area that interests you.
Alternatively, you can search on Researchgate or Academia.edu