How to apply for PhD affiliation
Information for potential Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics (SGPE) PhD affiliates.
Benefits of Affiliation
SGPE affiliates attend the SGPE Residential Conference, held in January. Attendance is free, and all affiliated PhD students are expected to present.
Affiliates can attend training offered by the SGPE, including courses from the SGPE MSc and activities such as the Numerical Methods Bootcamp.
SGPE affiliates are eligible for free membership of the Scottish Economic Society. As part of this membership, you will receive a subscription to the Scottish Journal of Political Economy and preferential rates for SES conferences.
Affiliation Application Process
You must be enrolled as a PhD student in Economics at an SGPE partner institution. You must also have completed an MSc, preferably in economics (please see below for further information).
Becoming an affiliated member of the SGPE may require that you take some additional SGPE approved training in your first two years of study.
Students who have taken the SGPE MSc or its equivalent
If you undertook the SGPE MSc or completed an equivalent masters degree in economics, all you need to do is complete the application below.
If you are not already familiar with the SGPE, speak with your PhD Director or your supervisor and they can give you more information about SGPE affiliation, training and the annual conference.
Students with non-equivalent masters qualifications
If you did not undertake the SGPE MSc or its equivalent, it is likely that the training requirement of SGPE affiliation will be quite intense and it may be difficult to balance this with your research obligations. Please speak with your PhD Director or supervisor in the first instance, as they can help you to understand whether your masters qualification will be regarded as equivalent and whether or not SGPE affiliation is suitable for your studies.
For all applicants
If the Board’s decision requires you to undertake additional training as a requirement of affiliation, please discuss this with your supervisor before making a final decision. You and your supervisor may decide that it will be better for you to concentrate on your research rather than undertake so much additional study.
Ready to apply?
Click on the link below and complete the application to give us details of your academic background. It is particularly important that you give us information about your Postgraduate or MSc level economics training – the information you give will help the board to decide on your training requirements. If your MSc was over a two-year period, please indicate this on the application. If you have any queries, please contact SGPE@ed.ac.uk
The deadline for applications for 2023/24 has now passed. Information on how to apply for 2024/25 will be available in summer 2024.
Please consult the SGPE Affiliation Privacy Notice to find out how we use your information and who we may share it with.
SGPE Affiliation Privacy Notice
What happens next
Your minimum training requirement is assessed and decided by the SGPE Executive Board, which convenes in August and in November. You may be requested to demonstrate your ability or further your training by completing courses and subsequent examinations. The SGPE Office will contact you before the start of the academic year of 2023/24 to inform you of the decision of the SGPE Executive Board and any further training that you may need to undertake to become an affiliated SGPE PhD.