Scholarship / You should describe clearly your research question, the methodology that you will use during study [NEW]

DETAILED PLAN OF STUDY

Research proposal for commonwealth scholarship application-environmental science

You should describe clearly your research question, the methodology that you will use and the potential significance of the study to your discipline. You should also justify why you want to study at each of the institutions and with the supervisor(s) listed in your application. Although the Selection Panel will be well-informed professionals, remember that they are not likely to be specialists in your subject.

Nowadays, Environmental Science plays a vital role in the world as the environment is being put under constantly increasing pressure. Although I am fascinated by the idea of acquiring greater knowledge in Environmental science and the various topics in it, I am particularly interested in the topic of recovering nutrients such as phosphorus from wastewater, and as such, I would like to conduct my PhD reached on this topic.

Phosphorus is a non-renewable and non-replaceable nutrient that is essential for plants growth and production. 70% of phosphorus is mainly used as a fertilizer for agricultural crop growth and animals feed. However, uprising population growth and changes in the diet as a result of rising living standards have resulted in a high agricultural demand for phosphorus, which is leading to its depletion. If no action is taken to solve this issue, phosphorus will be depleted within next 50-100 years. Although phosphorus is essential for plant growth, mismanagement of this nutrient can pose a serious threat to water quality. Thus, high concentrations of phosphorus in rivers and dams cause eutrophication, which can be detrimental to human and aquatic life

More recently, methods to recover phosphorus from current consumption have been gaining significant attention as a keystone in sustainable development. Sewage is an important source of phosphorus and therefore offers a great opportunity for phosphorus recovery and can play an important role in the societal move towards phosphorus sustainability while minimizing adverse environmental and social impacts.

Although there are various available technologies that are currently been used to recover phosphorus, most of them are not efficient, economically viable and environmentally friendly and requires a lot of energy, thus only a few sewage works around the world are currently recovering phosphorus from sewage.

Recently, an emerging membrane technology known as Forward Osmosis (FO) has been attracting a great attention. A major advantage of this technology is the low energy consumption and high pollutant rejection rate, its low fouling propensity, and has appeared to be a great potential for application in nutrient, energy and water recovery by integration with other technologies.

Although FO has been studied for phosphorus recovery from different waste streams, direct recovery from sewage has rarely been attempted.

The low strength of sewage water is the main barrier to direct phosphorus recovery, which can only take place if the phosphorus and calcium in the sewage are concentrated sufficiently through FO. However, it is still unclear, how the quality of the sewage and the 'draw' solution affect the concentration of phosphorus.

Methodology

The overall aim is to design an advanced FO system that can efficiently and directly recover phosphorus from raw sewage, in order to address the need for clean water and minimisation of water pollution. It will generate new understanding and provide dynamic information to expand the application of FO to direct phosphorus recovery from sewage, leading to a significantly simplified phosphorus recovery process, reduced costs and increased environmental friendliness.

Specific objectives that will be met to address this question include:

·Designing and building FO-based direct phosphorus recovery set-up, consisting of an FO unit, precipitation unit and draw solution regeneration unit.
·Characterize sewage from three sewage works, especially for metal ion content.
·Investigating the effects of sewage quality and draw solution on concentration and precipitation by operating the FO-based process.
·Optimize operation for concentration in FO unit and precipitation in the precipitate unit.

The project main outcomes

The proposed research project has great potential to recover phosphorus directly from municipal wastewater for fertilizer production, with clean water as co-product. The concentration of organic pollutants by FO when concentrating phosphorus also offers opportunities to recover energy from low strength sewage. Therefore, the proposed work on FO is a foundation for phosphorus, water and energy recovery from low strength sewage, which could be applied either separately for single resource recovery or collectively for multiple resources recovery in combination with other technologies. Ultimately, this project work would be of great benefit not only to the water municipalities but to the water industries as a whole.

I choose to study my PhD degree at either the University of Southampton, Reading or Sheffield University primarily because of their internationally renowned environmental research programmes which commensurate perfectly with my proposed research project.

These are prestigious research institutions with exceptional resources, including state of the art laboratories, an affiliate science center, and renowned faculties. Their environmental science faculties offer research projects that directly address the world biggest problems including nutrients depletion. Through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations, their aim is to apply emerging technologies to find solutions to the current environmental problems. I intend to gain a wide breadth of training in hydrology, environmental mineralogy and analytical chemistry as I know that industries are looking for specialists who have an understanding of these, how it can be used, its benefits and limitations.

I am currently busy applying for the admission at the nominated universities and I already found one prospective supervisor, Dr Yongqiang Liu from Southampton University. She specializes in sustainable wastewater treatment with concerns of water quality and nutrient recover and I believe her research work fit right into my intended area of study and I believe that working with her would be an excellent way for me to improve my research abilities and better understand and address the challenges affecting the environment.

Obtaining a PhD in one of the selected institutions would not only provide me with more specific knowledge and research opportunities, but it will serve as a foundation to fulfil my career goal of becoming an environmental scientist specializing in water.

Scholarship / Personal background that encourage the future contribution to development of Nigeria [2]

contributing to the development in your country

Please supply a personal statement of no more than 500 words that summarises the ways in which your personal background has encouraged you to want to make a contribution to development in your country. You should indicate areas in which you have already contributed, such as in overcoming any personal or community barriers to higher education.

Growing up in a poor neighbourhood ruled by poverty with the annexation of daily challenges such as unemployment, unhealthy environments and poor education, I always knew that education was the only way out of the situation. With a great willingness to learn, I gained admission into the University of Lagos for my bachelor's degree study. Studying at the University came with a lot of financial challenges but I was able to get through school through support from parents, community members and grants from religious bodies. I purposed in my heart to be a person that adds value and give back to the community in any way I can.

This has informed my actions and inactions till date. In my third year in the university, I engaged in my first community project to better the lives of people living in my environment. My vision was to go to a slum area close to my University to share food and clothing materials to the people living in this slum area. With the help of friends, class mates and the religious body I belonged to on campus, we were able to raise enough funds for the project. We gave out food and clothing materials to about five hundred families that live in this slum area. I have also contributed to education in Nigeria by volunteering and working with Tosin Jegede Foundation which is a charity based in Lagos Nigeria whose goal is to improve literacy in Nigeria by the provision of educational resources for students in public primary schools across Nigeria. This project has benefitted over 7,000 students in Nigeria.

I developed interest in gender inequality as it relates to recruitment, promotion and working conditions of women during my undergraduate studies. As an undergraduate in the department of psychology I conducted a research that looked at the role of gender on employment opportunities within the public service and the results showed that women has been greatly discriminated against when it comes to recruitment, career advancement, pay and working conditions within the Nigerian public service.

This has motivated me to contribute to the development of Nigeria by removing obstacles and inequalities that women face when it comes to employment and to also be an advocate of equal employment opportunities for both men and women in Nigeria.

I strongly believe that when competent women and men have access to equal employment opportunities and not discriminated against on the bases of gender or any other protected characteristics, Nigeria will experience all round development in every sector of the community.

Scholarship / The methodology that you will use and the potential significance of the study to your discipline [4]

Please I need help on this commonwealth scholarship essay. I need a critical review from anyone in the house. Thank you all.

Question

DETAILED PLAN OF STUDY

You should describe clearly your research question, the methodology that you will use and the potential significance of the study to your discipline. You should also justify why you want to study at each of the institutions and with the supervisor(s) listed in your application. Although the Selection Panel will be well informed professionals, remember that they are not likely to be specialists in your subject.

My Answer

I am planning on pursuing a master's degree in international human resource management. Human resource management is a field that is concerned with the strategic management of people for the purpose of achieving the organisation's goals and objectives. Some of the activities of the field include but not limited to recruitment, promotion, performance reward, placement of employees and human resource planning to meet the future employee needs of an organisation.

I chose this course because of the prevailing issue of gender discrimination as it relates to recruitment, promotion and conditions of work of women within the Nigerian public service. Statistical report release by the Nigerian bureau of statistics has consistently showed that men are more favoured for senior positions than women.

The reports also show that women are significantly underrepresented both in the state and federal civil service and this has contributed greatly to underdevelopment in Nigeria. My goal is to contribute to the development of Nigeria removing the obstacles and inequalities women face with respect to employment and career advancement in Nigeria.

The three universities I have chosen will equip me with the knowledge and skills required to carry out an objective recruitment exercise, promotion and reward system. One which gives both men and women equal opportunities and which also meets international standard for the Nigerian public service. Secondly, this course and institutions provide a thorough grounding in research and contemporary issues such as gender issues in human resource management which is my proposed dissertation topic. Thirdly, this degree will position me to be an advocate of equal employment opportunities for women and men in Nigeria. I wish to study in the UK because of the strong reputation UK universities have internationally. It would be a great privilege to have a qualification from a university in the UK.

Scholarship / You must provide a statement explaining how their proposed study relates to a development need. You [3]

the issue of gender discrimination in nigeria

My proposed course of study, international human resource management was chosen as a result of the prevailing issue of gender discrimination as it relates to recruitment, training, pay and promotion in the Nigerian public service. Women constitute roughly half of Nigeria's population and by extension half of the work force. However, the types of work, condition under which women work and their access to opportunities for career advancement differs greatly from men. This discriminatory practise in Nigeria has contributed greatly to her underdevelopment.

According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2015 report, it was reported that between 2010-2015, on the average, 72.3% of senior positions in the state civil service were occupied by men compared to 27.7% occupied by women. The report also indicated that employment in the federal MDAs by both grade level and cadre skewed in favour of the men. At the national parliament, 94.3% of seats were occupied by men compared to 5.7% occupied by women and in the tertiary education only 25% of teaching staffs are women.

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) identifies women's role in the economy as a critical area of concern and calls attention to the need to promote and facilitate women's equal access to employment and resources. Furthermore, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets the achievement of full and productive employment and decent work for all including women to eradicate poverty and hunger.

Therefore, removal of employment inequalities that woman face will bring about rapid development in Nigeria.
The federal government of Nigeria since independence has formulated employment policies aimed at promoting equal employment opportunities for men and woman. However, this has not been successful in solving the problem thus, the need for experts in human resource management equipped with the knowledge of closing gender gap in employment. A master's degree in international human resource management will equip me with the knowledge and skills to design and implement a strategic human resource framework void of discrimination against women as it relates to recruitment, pay and promotion and which also meets international standard for the Nigerian public service. This degree will also equip me with the knowledge of international human resource policies and best practices to be an advocate of equal employment opportunities for both men and women in Nigeria. Upon my return to Nigeria, I will seek employment in the ministry of labour or federal civil service commission. This will afford me the opportunity to directly apply the knowledge and skills I have acquired during my study to close the gender gap within the Nigerian public service. Furthermore, I will leverage on my new knowledge and network of contacts to advocate for equal employment opportunities for both men and women. My goal is to contribute to the development of Nigeria by reducing employment inequalities faced by women. Every woman who has been previously deprived of equal employment opportunity in the Nigerian will benefit from my study and the impact of my work can be measured using statistics.