You could find out about alumni from your specific course and university- but as the earlier poster said, I dont think anyone will give you a list of graduates from strategic studies (or I hope they dont)...

Hello- I do a bit of volunteering, and it is well worth doing. I think it helps to get a bit of extra experience and its very rewarding as well, plus you get to meet lots of interesting people. This website is excellent for finding out about all sorts of volunteering vacancies:

http://www.do-it.org/

So hopefully there should be something there in your area that might be something you'd like to do.

I agree with all of the above- I've had some pretty huge disasters when it comes to public speaking, but I decided to keep going and to get better at it and I think that I am. I know what you mean about questions and not neccesarily knowing the answer- one thing I've found that really helps is to flatter the persons ego who is asking the question by telling them what an interesting and thoughtful question they have asked, which gives you time to think. I also find that it makes them far less likely to criticise or question your answer- hope you dont give up because of this..

Hello- where I am there are a few ways to get involved in teaching- the first, which is meant to be the main way, is to ask your supervisors who will then sort something out for you (but sometimes this doesnt work given that sups are often not very interested). The other way was to ask the secretaries or those who book the teaching slots, who are usually better placed to give an idea of what teaching is needed etc. I suppose the other way would be to ask the person who is in charge of what you would like to teach if they need any assistance...hope that helps..

Oh, I see- when I started my PhD we were meant to attend research training courses etc. etc., but I think you can usually opt-out of these if you have reasonable grounds for doing so (i.e. I did, because I'd already done an M.A. with res training). If you type 'guardian university league tables' into Google that should get you a list of real universities, and you can sort them by subject- i.e. which one is ranked highest for economics. Then I suppose if you contacted the relevant universities and explained that you have a few books already published but just want supervisory assistance and hence eventual submission of your thesis then maybe they could sort something out. Sorry if youve already tried that...

Hi- what university are you in?

Oh and that Moorelanduniversity thing looks well dodgy! I think there was another one on here some time ago, Belford university- I think its really only worth going with a real university (i.e. one that doesnt offer degrees in 'life experience' and also has buildings etc.)

Hi- not too sure about that, sorry. From what you've written it sounds like you just want to hand in the thesis and be awarded a PhD for it without it having been supervised at the uni your handing it into-I've not heard of that before (though obviously I'm sure you know what your talking about!) Out of interest, if you already have a completed thesis but have not been studying for a PhD and have not been awarded one then how did that come about?

Hello- I knew of someone who has a undergraduate degree in music, a masters in something like English literature and is doing a politics PhD, which is funded. I think sometimes departments do like students to have a more 'inter-disciplinary' background, which sounds like what you have. I think its probably hard to say though how likely/unlikely it is that you'll get funding because of this- do you think you'd write a proposal that combined elements of what you have done in the past with sociology etc., or would it be purely sociological? Good luck!

Hello- I'm not science based so maybe things are very different from what I imagine. But if you finish the thesis, based on flawed (fundamentally) equations and so evidence/results, then hand it in, wouldnt it be a bit of a nightmare if someone did notice it and challenged you at the Viva about it? Plus, as youve noticed that it is a mistake/innaccuracy at this stage, wouldnt that sort of spoil the satisfaction of completing a thesis (i.e. you would have a thesis with fundamentally flawed data in it)? Hope I havent misunderstood, but hope you manage to make the right decision for you...

Hi- I have what I've found to be a really useful and simple article on this, but I've just tried to 'refind' it online and I cant for the life of me remember how I accessed it. The reference is Knopf, J; Doing a Literature Review, PS: Political Science and Politics, 2006, 39

I definitely accessed it online, so might have been through uni library or athens; hope you have more luck than I have had and that you find it useful if you do manage to get a copy...

Hi Becky- I dont know what field you are in, but it seems to be that most PhD's in social sciences (or a lot them) can be applied for most of the year, but it might be an idea to get an application in as soon as you can. Funding is the big problem I think- there are usually strict deadlines for this, and it depends on who you apply to for funding (external funding bodies have their own deadlines, and universities have their own deadlines for handing in apps to external funding bodies, and different universities have different deadlines for their own funding) presuming you need funding. If you have an idea of where you want to study and what, it might be an idea to contact them and ask about it.

Hi Seabird- I have a had a similar problem; but waiting for two months for comments on at least some of my work, so probably not as bad. I did a similar thing as well- my supervisor suggested cramming what should have been two chapters into one, which made it very long and a bit of a monster. I also know of people supervised by him who handed in their work and received comments back the next day! Sorry its not much help, but I know how frustrating it is when work youve spent ages on gets shoved to the bottom of whatever it is they actually do...

hadnt thought of that-but very true

I knew someone a few years ago who had a PhD in nuclear physics (or something like that) and a second PhD in theology; agree that there are perhaps better hobbies out there.