英国访问学者答疑（ 1 ）—邀请函篇 目前我在英国做访问学者，看到很多正在办理手续的战友经常问同样的问题。 2 年前我创办了一个英国访问学者的群（ two seven two nineeight four one two one ），里面对各种问题都有讨论。我是过来人，所以想把自己走过的经验分享给大家，避免后来者走弯路。 作为大学老师，最直接的出国途径就是以访问学者的身份出国。可以申请国家留学基金委的访问学者项目，也可以走自己学校的出国留学项目。 Anyway ， 申请项目的第一步就是要有邀请函 。当然申请项目时的邀请函并不严格，怎么写都可以。但是如果签证时提供的邀请函必须要遵守英国对访问学者邀请函的要求。下面我们就来说说，英国访问学者邀请函的格式和需要哪些内容。 邀请函的基本要求是： 邀请信主要内容包括 ：邀请人姓名、单位、地址、电话号码；被邀请人姓名、单位、预定访问日期、停留期限、访问目的、经费来源以及 Bench Fee 的明确数额 留学一年以上的， Bench Fee 最高可报销限额 1000 英镑；留学期限为六个月的， Bench Fee 最高可报销限额 500 英镑。超出部分自理，邀请信上未注明的，原则上不予报销受理。 另外在邀请函里还有一项非常重要的声明，就是访问学者必须是从事独立性的研究。 这条非常重要。有些人在邀请函里大谈特谈与外方的合作研究关系及项目，没想到立刻被签证官以访问学者必须从事独立性研究为由拒签。所以在邀请函里一定要特别声明这条，让签证官彻底安心。 所以在写邀请函时，你应该从签证官的角度去看你的邀请函。说实在的，签证官并不想拒签的，给英国送钱的好事，没理由不干的。但是签证官最害怕没有钱的人去，或者到英国赚黑钱。所以在邀请函里要说明自己是受留学基金委的项目资助，所有费用都由项目经费承担。当然在签证时，必须提供留学基金委的中英文资助文件。一定要做到有理有据。提供支撑文件是向签证官说明理由的最佳方式。 关于签证时需要提供哪些材料，我们在下次博文里说明。 这里还要说明很多人问的一个问题，就是邀请函原件的问题。再次声明， 邀请函不需要原件，但是导师签名必须是手写签名。邀请函打印出来即可，彩色的、黑白的都可以 。另外， 签名的必须是外方系里的负责人 ，例如系主任。 以系主任的口吻邀请你 ，在邀请函里要说明你的导师是谁，最后签名的是系主任。 下面是一个范例，我就是这样的邀请函通过的。邀请函不要复杂，提供签证官想看到的东西即可。 Chen xxx Date of Birth:September 1th , 19xx School of Computerand Information XXXX Universit y No.8 South Road Hangzhou city, ZhejiangProvince, 115100 P. R China Dear Dr. Chen XXX Subject: Invitation to Chen XXX to conduct research atthe XXX University as an Academic Visitor I am pleased to invite you to spend 12 months at the XXX University as an Academic Visitor, during thetime period from 20 st August, 2013 to 19 st August, 2014. I understandyou will be supported by a scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council(CSC) and the Zhejiang Ministry of Education( 如果是省里和留学基金委的合作项目，需要提及说省教育部，否则不需要 the Zhejiang Ministry of Education 这句。 ). The funding covers the international airfare, living expenses andhealth insurance for a period of 12 months. I have communicated with you forseveral times and can attest that your English level satisfies our requirementsfor an Academic Visitor. You will conduct research in the area of applied cryptography,in which you have had significant experience already （说明自己是有研究经验的，让签证官知道你不是去玩的） . Your academic visit to the XXX University is intended to facilitate independentresearch as set out in your application . （必须强调独立性研究，让签证官彻底放心） TheXXX University is one of the largest security group inthe European, and has a leading research in several aspects of informationsecurity. You shall be provided the necessary support for carrying out theresearch including providing office space, materials supplies and access to ourlibrary and other research facilities. Moreover, there are no bench fees for themoment here at the University of London （这里是没有收 bench fee ，如果需要收这里要加上费用是多少） . Please note that academic visitors are notpermitted to engage in work in the UK other than the academic activity forwhich they are admitted under the Immigration Rules （再次用法律条文强调，让签证官的心再次放心） . I look forwardto your visit. Yourssincerely, (Handwriting Signature) 如果你是签证官 ，你看到这样一份邀请函会同意么？我想应该是 of course 。 因为里面没有任何签证官担心的问题出现。
【立委按：亲友的孩子很多都到了大学毕业的阶段，于是经常有问如何出国留学深造的问题，特别是该不该申请博士学位，等。现将自己亲历和观察到的经验和建议整理分享给各位。这是针对在海外已经得过硕士学位，还想到北美继续深造的情况，但是里面的资讯尽可能做到更加普适。一孔之见，仅供参考。】 I do have some advice and experiences to share with you on the application in general, on how to be more effective and draw attention and response. It also depends on what you really want to achieve. If all you want is acceptance into a PhD program of the area of your choice, it should be fairly easy and straightforward for your background. Except for a few very hot areas, in general, PhD programs in Canada are not difficult to get in. As long as you satisfy their requirements, the chances are very good, even if you just follow the normal procedure of application, with no special effort to communicate with individual professors. All you need is to follow the procedure instructions they specify and meet the deadlines for all the documents they need. But if you want partial or full financial support to be part of your results, then you should take a more informed and planned strategy to approach professors. Keep in mind that if an area is not hot in market, almost all PhD students get some financial support in some form (Teaching Assistantship or Sessional Instructors from the department, Research Assistantship from professors, Fellowship from the school,etc). That is the way they attract and keep people to stay in the programs for years to finish the degree, for otherwise people who cannot support themselves will just stop half way and go out to work for living. But the difference lies usually in whether you get a financial support upfront versus whether you get it after you enter a program. Hot areas may be exceptions as too many people want to get into the program and there is not sufficient financial support to help all. But in North America, as far as I know, most PhD programs are supporting their students but master programs are much more difficult to get financial support. A hot area like computer engineering for a master degree rarely gives support to the students who usually get support only in the summer when they find work for some companies as interns or something. I do not know how hot your area is and whether most students in the PhD program do get support. But the general situation is, the more difficult it is to find an industry/society job for that area in the market (not counting the very few academic jobs such as professor jobs or research jobs in big labs because every area has a small percentage of PhDs lucky enough to get academic jobs), the easier you can expect financial support from the department. This is understandable because otherwise the system cannot sustain itself. That is the reason why you see the North American universities keep producing PhDs in many areas, who are out of jobs as soon as they get PhD and for this reason who try to delay the graduation as late as possible. Not few middle-aged students are stuck in the black-hole of PhD or in several rounds of post-docs without the hope of getting a real job and losing abilities of changing careers due to the over-involvement in a narrow and not practical area. Other people who are smarter and more flexible usually choose to abandon PhD programs once they find themselves sort of stuck, and shift to more practical areas of programs with shorter training for the job market. It is painful, and involves recognition of the waste of the time already spent in the PhD program, but once they get over this and find decent jobs to establish themselves in a real career, they typically do fairly well and not regret the decision for a change. I have observed people who shifted from PhD programs in linguistics, literature, economics or other humanities to master programs of computer engineering or some other practical programs such as accounting, MBA, nursing, pharmacy, etc. Similar shifts happen to PhD candidates in math, physics, philosophy which happen to have no jobs in market either. A lesson learned from all these cases is simple: (i) do not enter a PhD program with no jobs unless this is the only vehicle or bridge to help reach your final goal, final goal being things like pursuing one's true interests without the pressure to earn breads for yourself or family (e.g., your parents are multi-millionaires), pursuing academic career if you believe you indeed have a chance (but be noted that too many people overestimate themselves for this), using this as a bridge to go abroad or to immigrate (green card), using this as a buffer to keep the status between jobs, using this as a stop to buy you time before setting the final goal; (ii) in case you enter such a PhD program for whatever reason, try to get out of it as early as possible and do not be easily persuaded by your own inertia or hesitation, your professor's nice words, or the brand name of your university: all this does not count if they cannot help you find a job to establish yourself for a decent career. Having said all this, if you think at this point your pursuit for a PhD program in Canada helps you to get closer to your final goal for immigration and pursuing a career in North America (with which I agree, coming out of China is the first step towards the goal), go ahead applying. First, follow the application steps set by the university in general and by the department in particular. Meet all the deadlines, prepare for the tests if they require one (many programs in canada do not require GRE or GMAT tests, but some do). If you apply for 5 programs, I think you will get at least 2 offers of acceptance. It is also quite possible that you will at least get some financial support (such as tuition fee waiver). With careful plan, the chances of getting full financial support should also be there. Contacting professors themselves is indeed a good and quick way to get accepted for financial support (especially the RA which the professor can decide to give whom) as well as for admission. So keep trying. (In my generation, this is sometimes called 钟南山捷径: all the people who came out to do degrees at our time needed financial support in order to get visas and in my generation, almost no families had the ability to support the study abroad by their own savings. Most people succeeded in securing the financial support by trying to stand out in all aspects required, such as the best score in GRE/GMAT, providing the impressive transcripts and other achievements, great Statement of Purpose and great references. A few who have not had time or energy to do so try this 钟南山捷径 to get attention from the professor himself/herself, and there are success stories. What they usually do is to study the professor carefully, for example, read the publications of the professor, translating the professor's work into Chinese, volunteering to serve as a guide or interpreter when the professor visits China. Some foreign students also visit professors on campus to get close to the professor. When the candidate contacts the professor, he/she tries to ask questions which he knows will interest the professor, or gets into a discussion on some topic of interest to the professor. Once the professor has a good impression of a candidate, he can help in many ways to get the candidate into his program. I think you can improve your letter by adding at least one paragraph on why you choose him as your advisor before you present your background. Say some nice words about him and his accomplishments. If you can discuss some of his work in more details, it will surely draw his attention. If I were you, for the initial contact, try to email him with shorter message instead of formal application cover letter. Once he replies you, you can keep the communication going by asking more questions, and showing strong interest in his work and it will be natural to indicate you really want to pursue a degree under his supervision and ask him for how you can better prepare yourself for that. In this electronic age, you should set up a personal page or LinkedIn account with your refined CV (put a picture or icon of yours in it), some of your select albums and other nice activities or aspects you want to help impress others. In your email, your application package, you always leave a link to your personal page. This way, when a professor or admissions officer examines your email or application, they can easily click the link to know more about you. The candidate and application will no longer be just an ID to their eyes, the real person behind has a chance to meet the decision makers. That is as much as I can think of on this issue. Hope it helps. In general, if your family can support you for the first year, you will be able to get multiple offers and be more selective on which program and which university location you want to get into. If you entirely depend on the financial support from the university or professor to do the degree, your choices will be limited. In my generation, some very bright students had to enter a second-class university, simply because that is the one with financial support at that point (we call it 有奶就是娘). Wish you success in your pursuit, I think you should apply for both Canada and US,
标签: 过来人
