Aberdeen in global hunt for 'tomorrow's thinkers'

Aberdeen University this week launched a £2.25 million investment programme to recruit 50 PhD students as part of its ambitious Sixth Century Campaign.

Aberdeen is two years into a £9 million strategy to consolidate its place as a strong research-led university. It is supporting leading researchers in key disciplines and recruiting research stars from across the world. Its full-page advertisement in today's Times Higher says the guiding principle underpinning its postgraduate teaching and research is "tomorrow's great thinkers should learn from today's".

Stephen Logan, senior vice-principal, said the studentships aimed to further improve Aberdeen's research quality, supporting its centres of excellence.

"Our investment will ensure that these PhD students will learn and be supported by academics at the forefront of their fields and, in doing so, we are supporting and nurturing the next generation of great researchers," he said.

Aberdeen is offering 50 Sixth Century studentships of £15,000 a year spread over three years. Just over 20 are likely to go to life sciences and medicine, just under 20 to arts and social sciences, and the remainder to physical sciences.

Professor Logan said: "It is a competitive market (for PhDs), and we want to do everything to ensure we get the best. We'll be looking for excellent students to fit in with research programmes in areas we want to gain 5* in the research assessment exercise."

For details and online applications, visit www.abdn.ac.uk/studentships