======= Date Modified 09 Aug 2011 13:27:31 =======
I personally just wanted to push straight on and prepare / revise for viva. As I submitted just before Christmas, once I got home my mum caught up with me, confiscated the PhD stuff and said "You get that lot again after Boxing Day." I was GOING to take a rest. Just as well, as the viva was delayed until beginning of March due to a seminar the Prof. was organising on a different project.

I didn't feel drained or anything. I actually remained up for the task and put a lot of bookwork in up to the day of the viva (a bizarre day, which I've recounted elsewhere). As far as I was concerned, the job wasn't yet finished.

I guess I only really came down to normal again some 10 days after the viva and a couple of days after hardbound copies were handed in (minor corrections and hard binding only took a week to complete). I took a long walk one lunchtime and found myself thinking "Now what?"

Hmm, I'm thinking about a few updates to the blog and there's food for thought there. I also think I'm going to slightly revise the supervisor and examination bits, as there's one hec of a lot of people having problems in those areas.

A final amendment may possibly be a link to the page from a few days ago I posted about as regards individual University pass rates. There are some places out there that really need to get their acts together.

I did a blog ages back (recently a few minor updates) that tries to answer some of the more common questions members of the public and potential students might ask.

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net

Hope it's of help to you.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

======= Date Modified 05 Aug 2011 20:35:02 =======

I think what has happened to you is cruel beyond belief. Aren't they contracted to fund you for the expected taught doctorate period (i.e. four years)?

Good for you for deciding to stick it out. If you don't see this through, it could be something you regret in years to come.

======= Date Modified 05 Aug 2011 20:53:06 =======
I posted this lot on a related thread, so here goes again to save folks having to transfer threads..

======= Date Modified 05 Aug 2011 20:53:37 =======
Reet, Times Higher Education Supplement article here from 2010 and more recent than the NPC link below (both are interesting reads):

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=412628

Now for the statistics, I knew I'd seen them somewhere. 80% of 2001 starters passed (UK and EU within English Universities) and the below gives a breakdown by University. However, some Universities have not provided full data.

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2010/10_21/

The page may take a little to load mind.

======= Date Modified 05 Aug 2011 20:22:19 =======
I've seen data somewhere and I'll have a dig around. Might be Times Higher Education Supplement. However, for starters, the last year I saw number expected PhD passes for was 2005.

1) 9640 UK domocile passes;
2) 2065 EU (excluding UK) passes;
3) 4070 passes from student outside the EU;
4) 15780 total passes.

(Source - UK Grad PhD Trends 2007)

If the UK domocile passes are compared to the number of births per year, which stands at 722,000 average between 2001 and 2008 (Wikipedia) then you could argue 1.3% of UK domociles can expect to end up with a PhD.

However, given the birthrate previously was lower, then that value may be a little higher. As people take PhDs at different ages, then this makes the value a little fuzzier again. Also, there will be a little 'natural wastage' before people are old enough and in a position to take a PhD, which may push the figure up towards 2%.

The problem is no proper figure exists estimating PhD holders as percentage of population. Sorry about the rough calculation.

(up) :-)

You'll have probably found there's the established Durham set up and then there's Stockton out on a limb. That might not be a bad thing, being away from the centre and left to get on with things. That said, I had no reason ever to set foot on Stockton campus as the job I was doing required no interaction with them, so I'm in no real position to judge.

The advice I'm trying to give to Marie is just to make sure she can work with the academics and others she'll be with for the next few years. I personally found my situation with the senior academic having too much of a hands on approach not for me, smothering if you like (not in a nice way) and I felt constrained. I could not take proper ownership of the project and give it my best. I also perceived a sort of tunnel vision in some people, though that may be a little unfair description of some people's focus.

It was a situation I was warned might happen in that the culture and expectations of people can be slightly different depending on the senior academic leading in a given field. That perception may in part be because of me coming from a New University / Old Polytechnic into an older, established institution.

To be fair, however, different situations suit different people. Durham has produced some ground breaking research and the data and published information put out by them in some cases has been top class. That includes the senior academic who was in charge of me to be fair to him.

It's a few years ago now and I learned some valuable lessons in life from that (judge situations properly before becoming involved being one, also the art of diplomacy). I guess if I'd done my PhD there (and I did have an offer before I opted for the New University), my development may have been more in tune with the culture of the place. Instead, I found myself in at the deep end as a post-doc.

I'm trying my best to take a balanced view of my time there and be fair as I can.

Noctu, you probably feel differently out at Stockton and the set-up in your department may be one that suits you. It just didn't work for me at Durham and it's just one of those things. That's one reason it's important to know the people you're working with.

======= Date Modified 03 Aug 2011 22:12:25 =======

Not at all, as the people I dealt with have all gone now. Besides, Stockton is another world. ;-)

I was at the South Road Campus in Durham itself. As I was a home based researcher there for one year's post-doc, I never got too deeply involved. That is as much as I'm saying, except to say that the cultural differences for someone who's gone through the new Uni. route can lead to some interesting juxtapositions. :-)

Going from minor to major, or from minor to complete rejection would be unusual HuHu. This would only really happen:

1) If the authors significantly changed the paper on revision / resubmission so it was not recognisably the same document (i.e. carried out extensive amendments not requested by the referees without a good reason); or

2) If the authors declined to revise.

Once you receive the referee's remarks, you should either try to fulfil or adhere to those remarks or have a compelling technical or other content related reason for not doing so. If the latter, you will need to explain this in your reply and resubmission.

If you've minor revisions, I would just stick to those amendments you've got to do unless you find something seriously wrong with the paper.


Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

P.S. That paper I mentioned below I had major revisions for has been accepted after resubmission. Promise to my external examiner to "publish lots of papers" a few years back kept!!! Thanks to those who sent me articles, your help was greatly appreciated.

======= Date Modified 03 Aug 2011 23:28:52 =======

No, I wasn't in your field though it was a Science-based discipline. For reasons I'll not go into, I'll not say what I was doing.

I know it's probably difficult you being an overseas student, but I would normally suggest people go to visit the department and meet the people they're going to be working before they accept or reject to ensure you can work with them.

======= Date Modified 03 Aug 2011 11:29:06 =======

If you really feel you've exhausted things then perhaps the Ombudsman is the next step.

As well as the Post-grad forum, there's also 'The Student Room'. However, I still feel uneasy about you actually naming the institution on open forum for the reasons I've given, though I agree you need to talk and should talk about issues that have affected you.



Take Starlight up on their offer. (up)

Point taken Bewildered, in that the internal complaints procedure should be exhasted first. The existence of this at any University should be made clear at induction. However, I keep in mind the oft repeated phrase of "Universities closing ranks" here!!!

As regards the academics taking holidays as students are finishing dissertations, most taught masters courses expect submission at the end of September. By that stage, the academics are normally back from holidays and conferences. The July / August period is the only time many academics get the chance to take a break as undergrad tuition prevents holidays at other times. Masters students are expected during the dissertation period to work and research largely independently of the academics.

That said, the impression I'm getting from Epic Adventurer is that of being completely cut adrift. That shouldn't be happening as a student should be able to work in a safe environment and a clear goal and direction should still be set for the Masters student to achieve. The supervisor should at least be aware enough to ensure this direction is being maintained.

======= Date Modified 02 Aug 2011 20:59:14 =======
I admit I know very little about the place and I even had to look it up on the internet to find out where it was.  That said, it doesn't have the most comprehensive set of courses and I wonder if it should be a University College (thus degree issuing controlled by another University and thus standards it has to reach theoretically set elsewhere).

I guess you feel you've got to warn people of poor standards and conditions, so fair enough and you've got guts doing so.  However, be careful as actually naming a place or a person can attract unwanted attention or even legal action (i.e. gagging order).  You do notice where each of us study or have studied (or been a post-grad researcher) is not named?  There are things said on this forum in such a way as to get things off our chest or to air our frustrations.  Not naming names allows us to do that without any repercussions (though admit the chances are remote).  That said, I'd love to name a senior professor at an established University (not my PhD University) who during my second post-doc period gave me a hard time, but I don't for obvious reasons.

If you have genuine grievances, I would try this place - the University Ombudsman.

http://www.oiahe.org.uk/

If enough people do it, then perhaps things can change.  A better approach would have been to discretely ask other attendees of the said University then organise a joint complaint off-forum.

In the meanwhile, I've a website link here more to cheer you up and I'm sure no parallels can be drawn to any University, in the UK or elsewhere.  Smile, it could be worse!!!

http://www.cynicalbastards.com/ubs/

:-)

======= Date Modified 02 Aug 2011 08:57:15 =======

What version of Word are you using?

There was a known issue with Word (versions 97, 2000, XP and 2003) in which embedded images could disappear and Word would be unable to handle the problem (noticeable as you wouldn't be able to save the revised document). You could work around it, but you needed to identify which embedded object was causing the problem, delete and repalce it.

I know Word 2007 and 2010 have interfaces that are not everyone's cup of tea, however, I've never encountered the same problem with either of those. Alternatives are OpenOffice (downloadable for free and some people prefer this) or Latex (which I've never used).

Another thought is you don't have sufficient memory (RAM that is) and when you combine the files, the computer memory is filling up.