MA's are generally awarded on a Fail/Pass/Distinction basis, with only a few distinctions being awarded. Some courses offer a further grading Fail/Pass/Merit/Distinction and some only offer Pass/Fail. You should not let these gradings affect which course you apply for - the quality of the course is the most important thing.

The quickest route through higher education in the UK would be to start your first degree at 18 and finish at 21. In some areas of the sciences students can move straight to a PhD without a Masters degree. This means they can have a PhD by the age of 24.

Getting on to a PhD with a 3rd would be almost impossible without a postgraduate Masters degree on top and even then you would not be eligible for most of the available funding. It would also be difficult to get on a suitable postgraduate masters course with a third and the chances of getting any funding for this are very low.

Taking a teaching degree that doesn't interest you is also probably a bad idea. A third isn't the end of the world, don't let it force you into rash decisions.

As you say, it shouldn't matter in your application, but without the actual qualification you will need very good references from your course tutors stating that you are highly likely to complete the MSc successfully. Even with valid personal reasons for poor performance your potential supervisor needs to know that, had you not had problems to deal with, you would have passed first time. If you believe your references will be good then you might as well begin applying. If your course tutors won't say whether they expect you to pass or fail then you might want to wait until you've got the MSc in the bag.

This is one, but there are others. See our PhD Life section for some suggestions.

See our Funding and PhDs Explained sections for links and information.

Try www.food.reading.ac.uk and see who's working there.

The new Business & Law section of the FindAPhD forum has been introduced to help users of our new FindAPhD Business & Law zone which will be launched later this month. Use it to ask questions about PhD study in these areas.

If you can find a supervisor who will let you start the PhD before you have successfully completed your MSc then you should probably start it. However, if you apply now, saying you expect to have to retake one of your exams they may not think that you are that good of a candidate. It may be better to wait until you have completed your MSc and that way potential supervisors need never know that you had a retake.

I don't want to worry you unnecessarily, but it is unusual for the maintenance part of a Research Council grant to be available to non-UK students. Usually EU students receive a 'fees only' award. I advise that you check with the university that you are eligible to receive the grant.

On the brighter side if you are eligible for the grant then the EPSRC will almost certainly pay your fees separately.

You're fees will be paid separtately by the research council. All the 13.5K is yours.

This one's also pretty good: Click Here

This one's also pretty good: Click Here

Unfortunately not, as they are largely funded by UK Research Councils and follow their usual rules for eligibility.

Warwick do a course in Hypertension & Nephropathy.