Thankyou for your email. I do hope to recruit a PhD student to start in Autumn 2015, and I would be happy to consider an application from you. The system in our institute is that projects are formally advertised online around October/November, and all applications must be made through the central University system by a deadline that will probably be in mid-December. An institute panel then interviews all candidates nominated by individual PIs, with places being awarded competitively amongst all applicants to the institute. The institute has various sources of studentship funding available – if you would be eligible and interested in applying for a China Scholarship (http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-depa ... egion/china-council) this could be a good option.
I suggest you look out for my projects being advertised in the next few weeks, and if you are still interested contact me again later in the year and we can discuss further.