“A Fair Chance for Education: Gendered Pathways to Educational Success in Haryana, India”

The successful candidate will:

• Conduct empirical research in the state of Haryana, India, and produce a PhD thesis based on this research. The thesis project will be located within the larger Fair Chance Foundation funded project, “A Fair Chance for Education: Gendered Pathways to Educational Success in Haryana, India”.
• Contribute to the research project as a whole, including maintaining connections with relevant parties in Haryana, and disseminating findings within the project.
• Work in collaboration with the project’s Indian partners.

Funding

This studentship is funded for 3.5 years and will cover full tuition fees (including international fees if required), an annual standard RCUK stipend of £14,553 (2017-2018) per annum and support for fieldwork costs. Thesis completion is expected within 3.5 years. The successful candidate will be located at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) for the first year, to receive research training and supervised project development. There will be a suitable period of empirical research in Haryana in the second year, followed by a write-up period at Warwick for the remaining duration of the project.

Entry requirements

Applicants need to meet the University of Warwick’s standard entry requirements. In addition this project includes some specific requirements. The successful candidate will also have to apply for the appropriate visa (if necessary) in a timely manner and be available for the start of the studentship in October 2017.
Essential:

• A first degree of at least an upper second class UK honours or the equivalent, and/or a Master’s degree or its equivalent in a relevant subject area. The Master’s qualification must be complete before the start of the studentship.
• English language qualifications: if your first language is not English, you will be expected to obtain the recognised English Language qualification IELTS (International English Language Testing System) at level 7.0 with no more than two elements at 6.5/6.0 (and none below 6.0). If you are unsure whether this requirement applies to you, please contact us (e dot henderson at warwick dot ac dot uk).
• It is essential that the candidate is fluent in Hindi (written and spoken), to the extent that they are able to conduct research in Hindi without assistance.

Desirable:

• It is desirable that the candidate has prior knowledge and/or experience of the state of Haryana and/or Northern India.
• It is desirable that the candidate has existing knowledge in the areas of gender and education.

Project background

The larger research project within which this studentship is embedded is a five-year action research project which aims to produce useful and impactful evidence on factors that contribute to educational success for young people in Haryana, India. The project in particular takes a gender perspective, focusing on gendered social relations and gender differences in choices, obstacles and opportunities for young people as they progress through the education system. The first stage of the project involves gathering baseline evidence about the gendered educational trajectories of students who are in their first year of higher education in the state of Haryana, and the factors which influenced entry to and choice of higher education. This evidence-gathering will comprise biographical narrative interviews and wider surveying methods, and the studentship will be involved in collecting and analysing this data. This evidence, including the findings from the doctoral research, will be used to design and implement a small-scale targeted intervention. The intervention will be conducted in collaboration with local partners and will be designed to produce social change in areas that have been identified by the baseline research. In later stages of the project, research will be conducted to evaluate the process and results of the intervention. The project design has been developed in collaboration with a core group of Indian partners and Fair Chance Foundation.

Research partners

The doctoral project will be jointly supervised by Ian Abbott (Associate Professor) and Emily Henderson (Assistant Professor) in the Centre for Education Studies (CES). Ann Stewart (Professor, Warwick Law School), who is also on the research project team, will contribute to the development of the doctoral project, as will the project’s partners at Ambedkar University, Delhi; NUEPA, Delhi; TISS, Mumbai. The doctoral project will be linked with Warwick’s interdisciplinary research network, the International Development GRP.

How to apply

To apply for this position, please submit the following materials by email to e dot henderson at warwick dot ac dot uk, no later than 12 noon UK time on 6 March 2017. The email subject line should state ‘Doctoral Studentship Application’.

• A personal statement document of no more than 1500 words to include an explanation of your interest in this research area, outlining your relevant experience and existing knowledge of this research area.
• An up-to-date CV (no more than 3 pages)
• Two references, at least one of which should be an academic reference. If the second reference is not also an academic reference, it should be a professional (not personal) reference that is relevant to the project. Referees may send references separately by email to the email address stated above, but they must be received no later than 12 noon UK time on 6 March 2017.
• Evidence of Hindi qualifications (eg. Hindi A-level equivalent, i.e. in the Indian education system Hindi taken as a subject until class 10. Alternative evidence of fluency may be accepted).

Please note that it is also necessary to apply for a PhD place at the Centre for Education Studies and this application must have also been submitted no later than 12 noon UK time on 6 March 2017.