They have to guarentee you get paid! As Zelda says it is illegal in any field of work not to pay someone for work they have done. If things have been lost by them and lost in the post it is their job to sort it out. You could go to a local Citizens Advice Cdentre to get help on how to claim the money you are owed.

However, as you say I would try and do this by working with the college, rather than kicking up a fuss, as you need to get a reference and I would use going mental at them as a last resort.

In your post you write ESPRC.

Do you mean EPSRC as in engineering and physical sciences research council? If you are planning to do a PhD in this area then self-funding is very rare as funding is common. In my opinion it would be madness to self-fund a PhD in a science/engineering type area as almost everyone (who has a decent first degree or a masters) gets funding to do their project.

However, if you mean ESRC (economic and social research council) funding is much harder to get and many people self-fund and work on their PhD part-time due to the scarce/competitive PhD funding. In this case staying at your current university might be a good idea if you are happy there and get on well with your potential supervisor (plus deadlines for ESRC funding for an October 2009 start have already passed).

I'm sure that if you post up a bit more detail about the topic/area your research is in people will be able to give you some more specific and useful advice.

Badhaircut – obviously part of this forum is for people to discuss things, and complaining about a specific problem/issue and asking for advice and help here is what this forum is for. Everyone (myself included) needs to have a moan and complain about things once in a while. Useful, considered constructive criticism is a good thing as it brings about change, constantly spouting negativity at any opportunity about any and every aspect academia does not help anyone at all.

I do read the Times Higher Education every week, and the Guardian and yes these papers do make justified criticisms of many aspects of academia (the markerisation of HE being one of them). However, they also celebrate achievements of academics (Times Higher Education Awards) and provide interesting/positive/humorous stories along with the criticism. This is because it is a true reflection of academia – like any career it has its good and bad points, the one-sided negative version you constantly present is not representative and is very unhelpful. Your posts do not offend me but they annoy me enough to want to put an alternative view forward and challenge some of your claims.

I was not asking you to justify your career choice, just making the logical observation that if you dislike a career in academia you are free to leave a start another career in a different field.

Also, I was commenting on the views you put forward on an open public forum – not making a personal attack on you.

Sleepyhead – Sorry if this seems out of context but I just felt I had to make these points.

Badhaircut – please do not use this joke advert as another excuse to go on about how terrible the university system and academic careers are. All you seem to do is pour negativity and pessimism on every aspect of academia as soon as half a chance emerges to do so!

Please stop banging on about how hard academic careers are or how useless universities are, you really sound like a broken record now. So many people would jump at the chance to be a lecturer, have a research contract (inc fixed term) or get a PhD studentship, despite your negativity about all of these things. Many people are happy and please to be doing a PhD/starting an academic career and this makes your constant, unfounded moaning these things is really hard to take. Sorry if this is out of place to say this but I have read the negative nonsense you write for so long I feel I need to speak up about it now.

“Its almost like intellectual version of prostitution. There are only victims” – No, this is just a bad advert that no one in their right mind would use. It’s nothing more than that so let’s stop saying silly, melodramatic things like this.

If academia and academic careers are so horrific, why don't you just get a different job in a different field? Or is it that academic careers aren't that bad and you just like moaning at any oppourtunity?

I don't think that it is fair that your university has said that they re going for AHRC funding and have then changed their minds and not registered to become an AHRC outlet.

It does take time and money for a university to be recognised to be eligible for research council funding and there could be any number of reasons why they decided not to do it - time, cost, not being given funding from the performance in the recent RAE that they throught they would, staff leaving etc. In the end it is up to the university if they want to try and register for AHRC recognition and if they don't there is nothing you can really do about it.

You could complain about the university in question saying they would be registering for funding and then not doing it. However, they will probably have al manner of excuses to get out of the complaint, and also if you burn all of your bridges there you won't be able to apply there next year when they possibly will have registered for funding.

The only thing you can do is move on to another university that can provide funding and apply there and forget about this university that has messed you around, although bear in mind that time for 2009 entry is running out.

I agree with pamplemousse, using the forms the university you are applying to is essential as they want to see that you are making the effort for their application and ignoring the forms they supply will not make a good impression at all. In fact they could reject your application outright as you have failed to completed it correctly (this would be harsh, but if there is a lot of applications they might just bin the ones that aren't completed properly).

I know it is a real pain having to print the forms out, take them to your referees, wait for them to be completed and then include them in the application, especially when there is a research proposal to do/ interview to prepare for as well, but the is no way around it.

Just remember that it is the same for everyone and if you are serious about getting accepted for a PhD then it is something that has to be done.

I have voted ditch it. I don't think that a timetable is necessary in a short proposal. The 1st = lit review, 2nd year = doing the research and 3rd year = writing up results model is fairly standard and I don't think it adds anything to the proposal spelling it out in an extended way. All this does is uses up words that could be describing the originality of your research which will be a lot more helpful in securing funding.

I don't know why many universities insist in having two written references included in applications, rather than just taking up references contact details. The way it is done now makes applications so much more difficult but that is just the way it is!

I made four aapplications which I think is a reasonable number - any more and I think my referees might have started to get annoyed.

If you only have one referee that is obviously a problem. Ask other lecturers/tutors, I have found that they are generally helpful and if they really feel that they don't know you well enough to provide a reference they will just say so. If you really only have one reference from universiy could you not use a reference from a job you have done in the past? Or an undergraduate lecturer/tutor. I have used undergraduate lecturers as referees and it hasn't caused a problem in terms of getting interviews/being accepted for PhDs.

Good luck with the applications!

I have done a phone interview for a funded PhD before, although this was for a UK institution (I also live in the UK - couldn't be there in person due to work commitments). In terms of the questions they ask it is exactly the same as a face-to-face interview. In some ways I think a phone interview can help the applicant as the panel can't pick up on signs of nerves in terms of body language. All of the questions I got were pretty standard: why do you want to do a PhD, How would you go about carrying out the research, where do you see your career going etc, etc, etc.

Just be calm and i'm sure you'll do well!

Only you can decide if you want to so a PhD, but from what you say about disillusionment with the ‘real world’, and wanting to research your own area of interest it sounds as if you do want to do one.

The main issue with applying for September 2009 start is the research proposal. If you haven’t started one yet it is too late to do one now – the deadlines for funding are a within the next week or so and there is not enough time to put a decent research proposal together. I would forget about a 2009 start. With a first at undergrad and two distinction masters it would be madness to go self funded, even if it would make seeing your partner easier. Overall I think your best bet would be to put together a rally good proposal for 2010, get funding and start a PhD then!

I also agree that working a few years before doing a PhD is an advantage and there’s no issue in being 28 when starting a PhD

Are you looking for pre-defined PhD research projects in politics that are advertised? If so you will find that although they do exist for politics they are few and far between, and are generally a science thing.

In most politics-related field you will have to come up your own original idea for your own PhD, write a research proposal, find academics who are prepared to supervise it, and then apply and hope you are selected for funding!

You can't apply through the Open competition to the ESRC and and AHRC in the same year - you will need to decide which one fits your research best and go for that.

There is, however, nothing stopping you applying for ESRC quota awards at one uni and AHRC block awards at another - since these are awarded at a departmental level they will never find out (or care) that you are applying for different awards at different universities.

http://www.student4justice.com/

It is a campaign by some guy who was a Graduate teaching assistant who is now trying to sue his university because they gave him too much teaching and got him to run a full third year module by himself while the academics who wrote the article went off on sabbatical.

It makes interesting reading!

Many people in the arts/humanities/social sciences investiagte a topic at MA level and then look at the same topic but in more depth and on a bigger scale for their PhD research.

However, if work is completed for an MA it can't be 'recycled' to knock a year off doing a PhD. Obviously the ideas and literature and theory used in the MA can be used but a PhD will still be 3 years and all of the research should be original and carried out soley for the PhD.

I have heard of ESRC enhanced funding. This is for students doing PhDs in areas which are under-represented such as large scale quantitative/longitudinal social science research. I think it is £3000 more than the ESRC pays for a normal studentship.

Like everyone else I have never heard of enhanced funding for having 'top grades', and I also agree that you should concentrate on getting any kind of funding before worrying about enhanced funding.