In another post recently someone was asking about getting a mortgage when a student. I said I had had no problem as PhD funded study was seen on a par with employment for most lenders. However I have just remembered because of this post re age that quite a few of the graduate mortgages available stipulated you had to be under a certain age - again assuming students are young(er)!
One good thing though is that you can still get a Young Person's Railcard if you are a full-time student. I don't think I fool any of the ticket inspectors though (I'm a young looking 40 but there are limits!)

I used to be a journalist and regularly covered court cases so got to see and speak to lawyers quite often. Generally they were very approachable and although you might think they are very clever intimidating people, I never met one who had a PhD. Judges also aren't as aloof as sometimes portrayed. I agree you need to write a professional letter but don't be intimidated by these sort of people - you will probably be better qualified and as expert in your field as they are in theirs (well maybe after a few more years experience).
Good luck.

I agree with the above. I failed some A levels but managed to get to uni as a mature student (22) then had to resit 2nd year and failed my degree. Gave up education for a while then did an OU degree in my 30s. Surprised myself so decided to do an MA in a subject I was interested in just for me rather than any future reasons. Surprised myself again and with encouragement and support from fellow students and staff am now doing a PhD. It is good to take things in small steps and move up to the next one when you feel ready. I feel overwhelmed sometimes with what I have to do but keep thinking that I wouldn't be here unless I deserved it and was capable. I think it is much harder to bluff your way in academia than in some other jobs out there.

After my mini-rant I decided to be more constructive. I am applying for OU teaching in my first year so Badhaircut you should be in a much better position to get work as an Associate Lecturer. I have just checked and there are vacancies for three psychology courses.
Starting with Psychology
Understanding Pyschology
Cognitive Psychology
If you go to the OU web page you can find more info about jobs. It's worth a try.

I think you may find that Open University tutors would regard themselves as having a 'proper' academic job. Having done my undergraduate degree with the Open University and found it much harder than my MA at a 'proper' university, I get very annoyed when people belittle institutions such as the OU. If I was ever employing anybody the fact they had an OU degree as opposed to a conventional one would put them at the top of my list straightaway.
I apologise if I am being critical of views you might not actually hold but the tone of your post led me to believe your opinion of the OU was not as it should be.

Having spent the afternoon trying to get the hang of EndNote I can see that there is no need for more than one library. However I am storing my images separately for different purposes and I will include ones I am going to use in my main library as then it will be easier to add them in as Fig 1,2 etc etc.

And please excuse my bad spelling!

I have just got EndNote and have started adding references but have a query. A recent post was asking about how many libraries to use and it was recommended only one. I intend to have my main library for all my books, articles etc etc etc but I also need a library for images and also manuscripts. The images, I think should be kept separate, but can I include the manuscripts in my main library and then have a separate bibliography or section of bibliography for them? Is this how EnfNote works? Please excuse my ignorance.

Thanks everybody. I won't let one negative attitude put me off. I think people who have done similar are better placed to give me advice anyway. I'm going to go for it but be prepared for me to be on this forum moaning that I haven't got enough time to do PhD and organise conference!! Ooops - no - be positive. I will be saying what a great experience it is and I have gained lots of brilliant contacts etc etc.

I have just been offered the chance to join the committee of a society which is very relevant to my research. I volunteered to do their newsletter but they asked me to become conference organiser and now I don't know what to do. There are three one-day conferences a year and I would have the present post-holder to work with to start with. I think it is a good opportunity as PhD students are always encouraged to organise postgrad conferences and doing so for a national/international society must be good and will look good on CV. However my supervisor (who was on the committee in a different role a few years ago) has suggested I won't have the time or the contacts to do a good job. She is quite a negative person generally and I don't know whether to take her advice or not.

Thanks. EndNote sounds as if it might be worth looking at first. I'm glad I haven't forked out on some expensive software already.

Is there anyone else out there who is using images as part of their research? I am collecting and taking my own photographs for my Art History PhD and wondered if anyone had any experience or advice on software for storing these. I need more than is included with PCs as I need to include lots of info on the images I have and make them searchable by date, genre etc.

Can you join the library at your previous university as an Alumni? I don't know whether this would entitle you to an Athens password as well but it is worth a try.

Thanks for the replies. I am quite happy being independent. I did my degree with the Open University and most of my MA was directed reading as I was the only one doing my subjects. I was just worried about the 'official' stuff like supervisors logging meetings and informing the department of how many times we have met and when It is a requirement in my department). Also in my handbook there are guidelines for lit review, research panels etc which I don't think my supervisor knows anything about. However I will take control and inform her I have to do these things and by when.

I was just wondering how much it is the responsibility of the student to know when to do things or what should be done by a certain time. I have been looking at my student handbook regarding literature review, first research panel etc etc and I am a bit unsure what is needed for these sort of things. Should my supervisor be helping me with this? Also I am a bit worried that she doesn't make any notes when we meet. I usually make a few notes but it doesn't seem very official. I am only a couple of months into my PhD. She is not an academic and hasn't supervised before. My 'proper' supervisor is back next year from research leave but I am worried I am not getting all the support I need but I'm not sure what things I might be missing!