The Centre for Internationalisation and Usability at Thames Valley University (TVU) is pleased to announce The Vice-Chancellor's full-time research Studentships. TVU is among just three London universities to climb 17 places or more in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008. To celebrate TVU's performance in the RAE2008 and strengthen our research student base, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter John is pleased to announce up to fifteen full-time research scholarships throughout the university. A proportion of these will be in the field of usability and internationalisation. Rooted in the discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) the Centre for Internationalisation and Usability supports software developers in building systems that meet all the needs of end users. There are two challenges underpinning our work. Computer science and interdisciplinary challenges that need to be solved to provide tools, techniques and methods that can be used by software developers internationally to build usable systems. Two separate strands have been identified in HCI for global commercial software development and HCI for international economic and social development. http://www.tvu.ac.uk/computing/research/comp_ciu.jsp Possible topic areas for the studentships include: - Cross-cultural HCI - Internationalisation of products and systems - Interaction Design for Social/International Development - Sociotechnical Interaction-Design - Usability and healthcare - Empirical Studies of Software Development - Agile Methods and User Centred Design Informal enquiries about our research can be directed to Dr. José Abdelnour Nocera, jose.abdelnour-nocera@tvu.ac.uk Applications are invited from suitably qualified students to commence study in September 2009. You should hold or expect to be awarded a 2 (i) Hons degree or above. A Master's degree in an appropriate subject area is desirable. Those candidates whose first language is not English must demonstrate evidence of appropriate English language proficiency, normally defined as a minimum IELTS score of 7. In addition to their PhD studies, duties will include up to 6 hours per week (during term time) assisting with teaching on appropriate modules. Informal academic enquiries may be directed to Professor Sibel Roller, Head of Graduate School, sibel.roller@tvu.ac.uk. To apply, send your full Curriculum Vitae and a covering letter indicating your area of interest and including a supporting statement of no more than 500 words describing your reasons for wishing to undertake a research degree to Maria Pennells, Graduate School, Thames Valley University, St Mary's Road, London W5 5RF (researchdegrees@tvu.ac.uk). If applicable, evidence of English language proficiency should also be included. Closing date for receipt of applications: Friday 12 June 2009. If short-listed for one of these awards, you should be prepared to attend an interview at TVU in London in June/July 2009.