MIST students attend STFC-funded summer schools each year, with one introductory and one advanced summer school held every September. This is a list of the summer schools which have been held from 2004 onwards.
This year's summer schools are:
Typically, a summer school will start Monday morning and end Friday lunchtime with an afternoon off during the week. This gives 16 slots of 1.5 hours each. We propose that, in each school, 12 of these are filled with a ‘core’ curriculum, not including a ‘careers’ element which should be included in the Advanced School. This will leave some flexibility for course organisers to present topical lectures perhaps reflecting their own group’s activities, have hands-on activities and schedule student talks.
STFC’s own guidance reads: “Courses or schools must be held in a core research activity supported by the STFC studentships programme (astronomy, solar system science, particle astrophysics, particle physics, nuclear physics) and must be aimed primarily at STFC-funded PhD students. Courses of a specialist technical nature will not be supported.” Our schools therefore fall within this remit.
The organisers of each school need to put in an application to STFC about a year before the summer school. We strongly recommend contacting the previous organizers for information and advice. Please note that funding is increasingly competitive and is not guaranteed.
All bids must be contained within three pages and provide the following information:
Bids are normally to be submitted as an e-mail attachment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., by 1 October in the year before the summer school. The points of contact are Clare Heseltine and Susan Blackwell, and the relevant STFC contact page is here.
Below are the suggested core lectures for each of the schools. Each lecture represents 1.5 hours with a small break in the middle.
In addition to the core content above, each School will have 3/4 slots to be decided by the host for extra topics, including hands-on/interactive activities, student presentations or posters (Advanced School only). As examples, such activities could include lectures focusing on specific techniques, facilities and models, data analysis or computing exercises, grant application tutorials, presentations on outreach and research impact or sessions focusing on the development of research skills. Organisers are recommended to consult MIST and UKSP Councils at an early stage in timetable preparation.
The primary requirement is of course that lecturers should be experts in the relevant field, who can present clear and interesting talks. Organisers should pay attention to balancing seniority and institutions of speakers, and especially to having an appropriate gender balance. In the interests of efficiency of lecture preparation, it may be helpful to “recycle” some (but not all) lecturers from previous schools to speak on the same topic. We also hope that all lecturers would be prepared to share their materials with successors.
Organisers are expected to collect feedback from students attending the Schools, a digest of which should be passed on to the organisers for the following year, as well as to UKSP and MIST Councils to aid future planning.
This year's summer schools are:
This is a list of the introductory and advanced summer schools which will be held from now to 2024. Note that the Advanced Summer School is no longer guaranteed funding by STFC. Further information on this year's STFC summer schools, including dates and websites, can be found on the STFC website. If you are thinking of proposing a summer school, the guidelines for UKSP and MIST summer school convenors are on our website.
Year | Introductory | Advanced | ||
Institution | Organiser | Institution | Organiser | |
2021 | Durham | Yeates | n/a | n/a |
2022 | UCL (MSSL) | Rae | Leicester | Lester |
2023 | St Andrew's | de Moortel | Glasgow | Kontar |
2024 | Sheffield | Erdelyi |
This is a list of the introductory and advanced summer schools which have been held since 2004 to the present day.
Year | Introductory | Advanced | ||
Institution | Organiser | Institution | Organiser | |
2004 | Glasgow | Fletcher | UCL (MSSL) | Harra |
2005 | Warwick | Nakariakov | Leeds | Hughes |
2006 | UCLan | Walsh | Sheffield | Erdelyi |
2007 | Armagh | Doyle | St Andrew's | Hood |
2008 | Sheffield | Erdelyi/Jain | Queen's University Belfast | Mathioudakis |
2009 | UCL (MSSL) | Harra | Birmingham | Chaplin |
2010 | Leeds | Hughes | UCLan | Walsh |
2011 | St Andrew's | Neukirch | Glasgow | Fletcher |
2012 | Armagh | Doyle | Warwick | Verwichte |
2013 | Sheffield | Erdelyi | UCL (MSSL) | Matthews |
2014 | Imperial | Schwartz | Dundee | Hornig |
2015 | Glasgow | Kontar | Leeds | Hughes |
2016 | St Andrew's | de Moortel | Sheffield | Erdelyi |
2017 | Northumbria | Zharkova | UCLan | Walsh |
2018 | Exeter | Foullon | Southampton | Fear |
2019 | Aberystwyth | Morris | Lancaster | Arridge |
2020 | Birmingham | Chaplin | Warwick | Verwichte |