HELP deciding what to specialize in for PhD

Conformist1688
Mon, 21 Jul 2014 20:07:35 +0000

Several factors to consider.

First of all, jobs in the heritage sector are quite competitive to get nowadays, and not being an EU citizen will make it harder. Anything funded by local authorities (like many archive jobs, the field I know best) is being squeezed massively; and the museum jobs market has been awful for years. Pay isn’t great either.

By conservation, do you mean museum/archive/art conservation? You need a pretty solid chemistry background for that area, but perhaps you mean management of historic properties or something in that vein?

Do you have a route to live and work in the UK without an employer-based visa? I.e. dual citizenship with an EU country, or a SO who would bring you over on a spousal visa? (The one US citizen I know who did train and work in this kind of field in the UK did so because she married a Brit first). If not, then you’d need an employer to apply for a visa for you, and they would have to prove no EU citizen could do the job. For the foreseeable future, there is and will be a glut of people qualified for this kind of job, unless you manage to get a unique specialisation which happens to marry up with a job at the right time. It’s all a bit of a long shot, I’m afraid. If you have another route to a visa, and definitely want to work in this sector, then I would advise training in the UK, because the qualifications will translate better for most employers. Generally, PhD students generally get funding, but Masters courses (which might be more relevant for your planned career path) usually don’t, even for UK students, with a few exceptions.

If you do want to do a history PhD, they would almost certainly want you to do a research-based Masters first - it’s a pretty common requirement even for history graduates, and you will only have a minor. Then before you apply for the PhD you have to have a thesis topic in mind. However, few people working in the fields you’re interested in will have a PhD (and they will often have to do further training even if they do). Usually a Masters in a specific field will be the way to go, but you’ll almost certainly need to be able to fund yourself.

There’s quite a useful introduction to the kinds of jobs available in the heritage sector in the UK, and the qualifications required for each here:

http://ccskills.org.uk/careers/advice/job-profiles/heritage/?gclid=CjwKEAjw9LKeBRDurOugs43jnlgSJACUXqHxPGPOstCgNfCHDEW6pEDytJHkDQ_dVCAQ5FGoIOBY4BoCTgPw_wcB