We find the professors who are actually recruiting in your field, approach them on your behalf, and negotiate for you, so you stop cold-emailing into silence.
What does this service cover?
PhD Application Strategy, Execution & Supervisor Outreach replaces mass cold-emailing with a systematic search. MAAS narrows your research direction, filters departments against requirements you actually meet, profiles professors currently supervising and funded, then approaches and negotiates on your behalf.
Most PhD applications fail before anyone reads them. The candidate picks a country, emails fifty professors, and hears nothing back.
This is Group B · Advisory: MAAS commits to expert guidance and process quality. Admission and funding decisions belong to the admissions committee and the professor, and stay outside MAAS's control.
Who is supervisor matching for?
Supervisor matching suits master's graduates seeking a funded PhD place in Asia, Australia, the UK or Europe, particularly those whose research interest is still too broad to be a research direction, or who have already emailed professors and heard nothing.
- You hold a master's degree and want a funded PhD place in Asia, Australia, the UK or Europe
- You have a research interest but it is still too broad to be a research direction
- You have emailed professors already and received no reply
- You are a lecturer or industry professional returning to academia after a gap
- You are unsure which programmes your profile actually qualifies for
What do you get with supervisor matching?
You get your research direction narrowed to a defensible question, a shortlist of departments screened against requirements you meet, a positioning table of professors who are currently supervising and funded, and personalised outreach written for each of them.
- Research-direction narrowing: turning a broad topic into a defensible research question inside a recognised research tradition
- Profile positioning: what to lead with, and which gaps to close before you apply
- A filtered shortlist of universities and departments, screened against entry requirements, funding for international candidates, active research groups and live deadlines
- Professor profiling: academics working in your sub-field who are currently supervising and funded
- Personalised outreach written for each professor, tied to your proposal
- Direct negotiation with professors on your behalf
- Developmental feedback on your research proposal, which you write
How it works
MAAS runs supervisor matching in three phases: profile and proposal upgrade, then department and professor positioning, then the outreach campaign with interview coaching, each phase closing on named deliverables before the next begins.
- Narrow and position: we fix your research sub-field and decide how your profile is presented
- Shortlist schools: departments filtered on entry requirements you meet, funding, active research groups and deadlines
- Profile professors: we read their recent work, not just their bio page, to confirm fit and availability
- Approach and negotiate: MAAS contacts professors on your behalf and handles the exchange
- Support the application: proposal feedback, document review and interview preparation through to submission
What happens in each phase of the search?
Each phase runs to a fixed set of deliverables rather than open-ended hours, so you can see what has been produced before the next phase starts and before the next payment falls due.
Phase 1, profile and proposal upgrade. Your research proposal is audited for internal consistency between its model and its method, citations are verified against real DOIs, the methodology is reconstructed where the design cannot answer the question, a multi-year research schedule is built, and an industry CV is converted into an academic CV. This phase closes with a submission-ready proposal, an academic CV and statement of purpose, a short positioning report, an interview question framework, and drafting frameworks for your referees.
Phase 2, department and professor positioning. Universities are cross-checked against your profile requirement by requirement, and each candidate professor is assessed by reading their most recent work rather than their biography page, confirming both that they are still taking doctoral students and that their funding can carry one. Where an admissions page is unclear, MAAS writes to the department directly. This phase closes with a personalised university table, a professor positioning table with links to their work and their funding status, and a backward timeline that turns every deadline into weekly tasks.
Phase 3, outreach and application. Pitch letters are written individually against each professor's own research, sent in controlled batches rather than all at once, tracked, and followed up twice before a target is closed out. This phase closes with a one-page proposal summary, the pitch drafts themselves, a weekly progress report, and interview coaching in English.
How does MAAS decide which countries to target?
Admissions systems split into two kinds, and the split matters more than rankings: in supervisor-led systems a professor who wants you can largely secure your place, while in committee-led systems a panel decides on scores you may not have.
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, much of Australia, the UK and continental Europe run largely supervisor-led admissions, so a candidate whose strength is research fit and professional experience competes well there. Systems that recruit through a central committee tend to weight standardised test scores and prior publications more heavily, which is a harder route for an applicant who has neither yet.
This is why MAAS does not start from a country list. The shortlist comes out of your profile, and the countries fall out of it.
What does MAAS commit to?
MAAS commits to verified targets and honest assessment: departments checked against their own admissions pages, professors confirmed active before approach, and a straight answer about your competitiveness even when that answer is uncomfortable.
- Universities and departments verified against their own official admissions pages, with sources you can check
- Professors confirmed to be active in your sub-field before we approach them
- Personalised outreach and direct negotiation where the system allows it
- Honest assessment of your competitiveness, including when the answer is uncomfortable
- Confidentiality of your documents and your search
What does MAAS not do?
MAAS does not sell a place or a scholarship, does not write your proposal or statement of purpose, and never claims influence over an admissions decision, because the decision belongs to the professor and the committee.
- A PhD place or a scholarship, because that decision belongs to the admissions committee and the professor
- Writing your research proposal or statement of purpose for you
- Any claim of personal influence over an admissions decision
Who sends the emails to professors, MAAS or you?
You do. Every message to a professor is approved by you and sent from your own mailbox, so the academic relationship is yours from the first contact rather than something introduced through an agency.
MAAS prepares the strategy, the letter and the negotiating position behind that message. When a professor replies, MAAS helps you settle the five things that actually decide whether an offer is real: the intake you would join, the funding attached to it, the requirements still outstanding, the timeline, and who holds the decision.
The reasoning behind this is the same reason MAAS will not draft your proposal. You are the person who has to defend this research in an interview, and a file you did not build is a file you cannot defend.
How is the service priced?
Pricing is quoted per case rather than published as a fixed rate, because the work depends on how far your proposal already is, how many systems you are targeting, and how much of the search has to be run from scratch.
Fees are staged against delivery, so payment follows work you have already received rather than work still promised. Third-party costs such as university application fees, test fees, certified translation and visa charges are paid by you directly to those bodies and are itemised per university during phase 2, so they do not arrive as a surprise.
Deadlines move faster than you think. Book a free 15-minute consultation: support@maasedtech.com or +84 979 422 393 (Zalo / WhatsApp). The right professor, approached the right way.
Frequently asked questions
MAAS narrows your research direction, shortlists departments you actually qualify for, profiles funded professors in your sub-field, and prepares personalised outreach you send yourself, while admission and funding decisions remain with the professor and the committee.
Which countries does MAAS cover?
MAAS does not work from a fixed country list. Entry requirements vary by department, not by country. Two universities in the same city can have opposite rules, so we shortlist by your profile first and the country list comes out of step 2, not before it.
Can MAAS guarantee a PhD place or a scholarship?
No. Admission and funding decisions belong to the admissions committee and the supervising professor. MAAS commits to the right targets, the right timing, a competitive application, and direct negotiation where negotiation is possible.
Do I need a GMAT or GRE score?
It depends entirely on the department. Some business schools require it with no exceptions, others have dropped it, and many systems never used it. This is exactly what step 2 checks before you spend months preparing for a test you may not need.
Does MAAS write my research proposal?
No. You write it. MAAS narrows the research direction, checks that your question is answerable with the methods available to you, and gives developmental feedback across drafts.
What if I have no publications yet?
Publications are rarely a stated requirement, but they strengthen a funded application against a global pool. If a paper can reach under-review status before your deadline, that changes how your file reads. A small number of programmes do require published work, and we screen those out early.
How long does the search take?
The profile and positioning work runs over the first few weeks, and outreach begins once the professor table is agreed. Because letters are sent in controlled batches and followed up twice, the campaign runs over months rather than days, and it is planned backwards from the application deadline you are aiming at.
What if my proposal method is wrong for the question?
MAAS says so during the audit, and explains why. Reconstructing a design is a significant change, so it is proposed to you with the reasoning and decided with you, never applied to your proposal without your agreement.