But the whole idea of doing a degree, whatever the discipline, is to move from being a dependent learner to and an independent learner. If she carries on, refer her to the Learning and Skills Council and she will find exactly what is expected of her as someone aiming to get a level 4 qualification. Included in the description is something along the lines of being able to think for yourself and solve complex problems by yourself. You can point her in the right direction, but she has to do the work. And if she moans about paying so much (and I think that a 1st degree should be free), refer her to statistics that tell her how much more she will earn over her lifetime than a non-graduate (though I think they are a bit false). If Mandelson gets his way with HE, I don't think we've heard nothing yet, as far as students thinking they're paying for a service.

If I remember correctly, there is actually an MSN chatroom that you can participate in if you use Microsoft Messenger, specifically for PhD students. You could always create your own too, as you're suggesting, and get like minded people to join :-)

Try this Someone3: http://www.virginia.edu/vpr/postdoc/docs/CVCoverLetters.pdf

It's a very nice presentation that tells you exactly how to set you CV out and target and construct a cover letter (paragraph by paragraph) for a post-doc position. Hope it is helpful.

There's a thread somewhere on here where it's explained more detail. However, essentially, people who start threads can award stars to others for providing useful advice by clicking on the helpful user button that is the right of the PM button. Very much like the socio-economic class divisions, there is a hierarchy to the number of stars people have. I described it above, but basically, the star distinctions are as such:

0 stars = street urchin - bum, probably drinks Hobo's Choice (12% abv)
1 star = a Nodody - probably has been given the star out of charity from a philanthropic 4 star celebrity (me!)
2 star = Pathetic Wannabe - like someone's mum trying to sing Barbara Cartland songs whilst blind drunk in a pub. They try hard but don't have what it takes.
3 star = Aspiring forumites - having more potential than the try-to-hard but talentless 2 starers, with, in very rare cases, the ability to go far. All four star wannabes have to start somewhere and a few, a very tiny few, make it to celebrity status.
4 star = The cutting edge of postgraduateforum.com celebrity. Very few forumites ever make it to the very top, but when they do international fame and fortune awaits. From photographs in esoteric journals (probably only read by 10 people, and providing you pay the hefty publishing fee) to opening up one's new local Spar and dealing with the sycophantic ramblings of other forumites, the life of the four star exception is a busy one.
5 star = God/forum moderator

Hope this description is of some help. Don't forget to click me as a helpful user at the earliest opportunity - there's a JPEG with my signature on that I'll e-mail to you if you do - and yes, your welcome.(up)

I don't know, I go away to do four star celebrity stuff (well, work mainly) only to return to the comfort of the VIP thread to find lesser starred subspecies trying to hog the limelight. Do you know who I am? Do you think Katie Price or Peter Andre would stand for this (or next to one another for that matter)? Get out! Mel B is right; celebrity does have it's downsides!
On a separate note I'd just like to thank all the forumites (my fans) who have made my transition to quadro-stardom possible. Of course, I've quickly forgotten you all, like a good celebrity should.
Oh, my mobile's ringing and it's Simon Cowell. I can't sing (not until I get five stars), so he must want help with his sums. Must Dash! Ciao for now!

Muah ha ha! My plan to acquire 4 star status has come to fruition and I am now...a celebrity of epic (though paradoxically vacuous) proportions on the Postgraduateforum.com forum! Since only myself, RubyW and the great Phdbug have 4 stars I have decided to start a thread for us to acknowledge our fame and general all round specialness amongst ourselves. Like Darius Danesh, Gary Barlow or Steve Brookstein, we have now have our own VIP lounge where we can retire from the tiring, unrelenting adulation of aspiring 3 star forumites, wannabe 2 star forumites and...[smirk]...[giggle]...one star nobodies! And no star forumites? God, do people like that really exist outside the world of 4 star celebrity. I may not have a PhD but that's just fine cos I have four stars!
The rules are simple: nobody with less than 4 stars can post on this thread. Should anyone dare, I shall be very cross, have a strop and refuse to sign autographs. The only downside to being a celebrity on Postgraduateforum.com will be all the autobiographies (like Cutting Through Stale Bread with a Blunt Knife: My Story, My PhD, and Confessions of a PhD Student: Not Much) I'll have to instruct my ghost writer to make up at the same time as doing my PhD! Don't despair lesser starred creatures, one day you could have my 4 star lifestyle.:p

Good morning Chrisrolinski. It's still going poo, but I have done the best I can tonight and have to get some sleep. Just time to start a new thread... Good luck with yours matey!

I, too, will be gracing the carriages of the Midnight Express tonight - still trying to write a paper and, my God, it's awful. It just seems what I am writing is rubbish and I fear that it will be rejected when finished.

Thanks Teek, I was looking around and I've found quite a lot of variation too. Hopefully, if I get a post-doc it'll be closer to 27-32K, as it seems a bit pee-poor getting something like 22K for all the hard work you've done for a PhD, but for the love of the subject. Thing is, I'm quite far oop north too...

I've been thinking about what to do after my PhD (even though it's nowhere near done) and was wondering how much a typical post-doc pays? Does anyone have any ideas? There's stars in it! :-)

In my experience, they are usually quite strict about it. I've just submitted an abstract where they didn't even go by a word limit - they went by a character limit including spaces. I really struggled to cut mine down but fortunately managed it in the end. It's surprising how many 'ands' and 'buts' you don't need. The wording needs to be very tight, even though that's really difficult. Don't forget to click my helpful user tab ;-)

A waste even if it was for the pure enjoyment of learning, discovery and self-improvement?