UKC

at the advanced age of 54 will I be able to secure funding for a PhD? My qualitfications and experience are adequate but its competative. Obvs the institutions can't descriminate so don't have any restrictions on who can apply but is it likely that an elderly applicant can win the competition? 

Based on my experience you will have an uphill battle if you do not have the academic links, have been out of research/academia for more than a year or so and are unknown to your potential supervisors. 

Also, remember that PhD's are designed as training for professional research as much as they are for developing new science. As such you will probably face a lot of questions as to why you don't have this experience as a a mature student (unless you are going for a complete career change.

Saying that there should be no technical barriers to stop you being successful, allthough PhD funding is incredibly competitive!

(Full disclosure: I woefully failed to get a PhD but now am an established researcher supervising PhDs and postdocs)

There were/are several 'mature' funded PhDs in my cohort, funded by the AHRC. Its certainly worth a go, but as others have stated, it is ridiculously competitive. 

Were you thinking of doing it full or part time ? I was considered a bit old as a full time PhD student when I wasin my late 20s & having worked a bit after my BSc but that was many years ago. But I have friends & colleagues who have done PhDs part time when much older, sometimes based on their day job.

Good luck

Have PhDs changed a lot over the past few decades? Or maybe it depends on the area of research. Mine was already funded and advertised as available, I think I was the only applicant and kind of fell ass backwards into it because it seemed like something to do. (I found out it wasn't for me but that's another story).

That's not true but it may work in your favour if you are British.  A lot of funding is only for "home" students only. You may find you are actually in demand if you can show you are serious and committed.

Do you have a sympathetic supervisor and specific institution in mind?  I think the trick is to convince some group leader/PI that you are an interesting and committed candidate.  If you can do this, some way of funding a post-grad can often be found (or, at least, this used to be the case, but times are harder these days).  

I know several people who worked as lab technicians in excellent (and non-hierarchical) groups and who were allowed to register to do PhDs based on their obvious ability despite not having a 2.1 (which used to be a requirement for research council funding). 

I did a PhD as a mature student (though not as mature as you to be fair!), but I had also just done a degree late.

What discipline are you aiming to do a PhD in, also do you have a subject/title in mind or are you hoping to pick something? Let us know what you’re hoping to look at,

PhD funding landscape has changed a lot. When I began as an academic, a grant application (say EPSRC) would include a costing for one or a number of PhDs. Now, funding is directly channeled by UKRI into a number of thematic Doctoral Training Centres which tend to live in top 40 institutions. A new tranche of funding has been announced, again mostly for this group of Unis. There is fierce competition to get a place in a DTC. 

The other route is direct industrial/commercial PhD funding in a project. It helps to know academic/industry contacts to get in by this route.

There are a lot of self funded part time PhDs, but it is a grind and often difficult to remain focussed and connected. This route tends to have a higher drop out rate over the typically 7ish years. Of course if it’s lab based, the bench fees increase the cost.

What's the subject area and topic?

If they 'can't discriminate', then your final question has answered itself.

Back in the day I worked at the Southampton Oceanography Centre for the depatment of Oceanography, but my supervisor was a Fellow of the Royal Society and so wouldn't let me register for a PhD, but to be fair there wasn't enough in the research project to justify a PhD. I left after that and had a career in R&D for aviation, space and various other technologies. 

I'd like to go back into oceanograph, ocean modelling, climate change measurement or otherwise there are some funded phd's in low earth orbit satellite propulsion  and others in characterising of the plasma content at the altitude of LEO satellites. 

I know I could do these, but funding does come form NERC or ESA and is competative awarded to the 'best' candidates . What constitutes 'best' is my question really. I suppose I should ask someone in the research group.

As Paul says in his very good advice there are lots of differnt funding models, for the majority of PHDs funded through DTPs 'best' will look different to those funded by grants/industry (I would have thought the latter would be your best bet as they can be focused on getting results rather than the academic churn of modern DTPs) however there are less opertunites. Speaking to potential supervisors/people in the departments you are interested in is the best way to go. 

As mentioned above, nearly all funding these days goes through Doctoral Training Programmes. The topics you mention are very broad. The questions I always ask are

1. why do a PhD?

2. why do this PhD?

For 1. it's training for a future career in research. As a mature student, you have to be able to give a convincing answer of how successful completion would lead to a future career. A typical PhD candidate will go into industry as a research group leader, or post-doctoral research then fellowship for the academic route. You will be assessed against the other candidates.

For 2. How does this PhD help you gain the skills for your career. Hence you need to be flexible, but not too broad. That's where very wide ranging topics can work against you.

An alternative you might want to consider is PhD by publication. Many research technical professionals go down this route. You have a job and do research work as part of that job. In the process of this you build up a set of publications where your contributions are clear (you don't have to be first author). You then register for a PhD for 1 year and write a thesis with an extended introduction, your papers bundled together, then a discussion which shows how your work has advanced the field.  They are well respected.

Good luck! 

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Yep that bemused me too at the time. I guess he wanted to choose his own PhD candidates and not ‘promote’ one from a lower rank. Maybe he just thought I was t the right calibre, though I couldn’t see how any of his students were more capable. 

Hi there, are you planning on doing a PhD in Southampton, or willing to travel, and how about full vs part-time? Also could you survive on the current PhD stipend of £18,600 ish?

My Dad's partner did an OU PHD, if a more drawn out online approach may be an option? I'm currently thinking of doing a Masters in something sustainability related, it's an interest, and a friend who works in recruitment mentioned it being a growth area too. It's good to meet one's potential, and to die without regretting not going for it.

Totally depends what you want to do. If it’s something which your knowledge and life experience will feed into, you offer something utterly unlike other (undergrad) applicants. In this case I’d research and email some academics you could see your interests aligning with. Start with an open explanation of who and where you are at, what your motivation is and why you think they’re a good fit for you. Your work ethic alone should set you apart, if you’ve been earning for decades. Either way.. don’t undersell yourself and make it clear what you offer. Academics care not at all how old their students are or what to why do after. They just need hard working, smart people. The only potential issue I can see would be a younger academic feeling like you were supervising them! 
 

of course, you still need the relevant skills/knowledge and interest, but don’t for a minute think your age and experience are a negative. Quite the opposite.. someone motivated to do a PhD at your stage is a rare bean. In a good way

edit: the begging question to me (an academic) is WHY you want to do a PhD? For the interest and love of the subject? (Good). For a career change (unlikely to succeed at your age)? Or for another reason (what?)?. Then as others have said.. why THIS PhD?