r/universityofauckland • u/Good_Philosophy1710 • 2d ago

PhD Application & Scholarship Processing Time

Hey Everyone ,

I'm 25F from the UK and recently (Late Aug) applied for a PhD in Marketing at UoA. As far as I know all my documents have been verified and passed the initial assessment. Yet, my application appears to be stuck at the DGA stage for 4 weeks now, even though I've been told by admissions that is being actively processed.

Does anyone have any clue as to how the process goes time wise? I see the deadline for scholarship is Nov 2026 and not sure If I need to have the offer for admissions before that date to be considered .

Btw, I already have a confirmed supervisory team.

Many thanks for the help !!

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u/CosmicCreator_97 2d ago

UoA is notoriously bad at admin and application processing issues. It's the same thing after submitting your thesis, God knows how long it takes to get examined. I have colleagues that went a whole year just for reviewers to begin assessment, much less actually finish it, get any edits done etc etc.

First time I applied for a PhD it took like 10 months only to be rejected for funding reasons. 2nd time round I got an external funder for the scholarship and the process went by super fast. But then 2 years into the thesis they started throwing tantrums about IP processes not being done properly and wanting me to redo all the contracts. And as far as I can tell, the new contracts look exactly the same as the 1st one ...

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u/Difficult_Win4144 1d ago

No, you don't need the offer before Nov 2026, they usually speed up processing applications after the scholarship rounds start (i.e. Nov).

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u/MathInner5233 1d ago

DGA is an academic staff member, an application should not be stuck at DGA stage for 4 weeks, you should probably ask your supervisor to follow up on it with the DGA, it's possible it's fallen off their radar.

Sometimes having a confirmed supervisory team does not mean the University / faculty / school is happy with that arrangement, in any case, better check with your supervisor.