What subject would you be applying for PhDs in? If it is a science subject then I would have thought that a 2.1 and a Masters (pass) would be enough to be in with a decent chance of getting on a PhD with funding.

I think the AHRC is going to have two ways of getting an award from this year onwards - the Block Grants (where certain university departments can give out a specific number of funded PhD awards to whoever they choose) and the Open Competition (where you apply through a university department to the AHRC, and it is the AHRC itself which decides whether or not you get the award).

As far as I can tell you can apply for the Block Grants at as many universities as you want, as it is up the individual university if they give you a place (and how would they even know you had applied to other places?). However, with the Open Competition you can only make one application, through one university department.

Hope this makes sense!

Being self funded makes things a lot easier.

If you are determined to change institutions then you might as well attempt the transfer as you have nothing to lose by trying it. Contact the institution you want to move to and discuss moving there as a 'transfer student', if they won't accept you as this they should take you as a new PhD student starting all over again (although this will mean that all of the work you have done on your PhD so far is wasted).

The only difficult thing will be telling your current supervisor that you are leaving as they will not want you to go (and the university won't want to lose your fees!).

If you are fully funded I believe it is difficult to change institutions. I know the ESRC says that you need very strong reasons to transfer an award (i'm guessing this means a change in someones circumstances which is outside of their control).

I would expect your current institution and supervisor to be less than impressed if you tell them you are considering transferring due to a change of research focus and the whole process of changing institution for this reason would be very drawn out and difficult.

I have been out of education since 2005 and I still ask my lecturers for references (although since this is my 3rd year of applying for funded PhDs I think they will be getting sick of it now!) I think that your dissertation supervisors from masters or undergrad will still remember you and should be happy to supply a reference - 2003 wasn't that long ago and many academics get reference requests from people who graduated up to 20 years ago!

Perhaps you could use one academic referee and one from work? Although your job may not be relvent to the PhD it is often an advantage to go into a PhD with some years experience of work and many of the skills you have picked up during work (being able to work independently, leadership, skills you have learned) are relevent to a PhD.

I don't have anything against the assistant / associate / full professor system as such, and as you say in the many countries where it is established it works fine. The problem lies trying to 'import' it to the UK, like Warwick Univeristy is. It becomes a joke when everyone in teaching or research at that univeristy is called professor (or at least has the word professor in their job title), while at other universities only senior academics with years of top research behind them have the title. The potential for confusion (especially with people not too familiar with academia) is massive, and can only harm the UK HE sector in the long run.

I totally agree that the professor title is also being devalued by universities giving it to people brought in as visiting professors. The former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr having the title at the Univerity of Salford seems particulaly silly to me! This is definatley about univerities getting 'celebrities' on board to get more students through the doors and has little to do with genuine scholarship or research.

No, the title Professor should be reserved for the highest level of acadmics. The Lecturer > Senior Lecturer > Reader > Professor system we have in the UK works just fine. When everyone becomes a professor it becomes a joke with the highest level of academics having to call themselves 'full' Professors which just sounds daft!

Keep it the way it is. We shouldn't devalue the Professor title by handing it out to anyone and everyone who carrys out teaching or research at a university!

There was an article in the Times Higher Education this week (which you can probably find by searching their website) all about the higher education sector in Japan. It was basically saying that Japanese Univerities are suffering from under-enrollment and struggling to adapt to changes in the world education system. This has the effect of poor reputation for research in Japan and poor representation in the world university rankings for Japanese Universities.

I think Japan would be an amazing place to live/vist, but a PhD from even a top Japanese Univeristy seems to be less highly regarded than one from the UK/US.

Assuming you are talking about being accepted for a masters degree:

If you are paying your own fees, chances of getting accepted are high as long as you show enthusiasm and explain that you are definately capable of doing well despite the 2.2

If you are looking for any kind of funding then the chances of getting accepted with a 2.2 are very low.

When I asked for feedback after being turned down for funding I was told that the fact I had a 2:1 at undergrad and not a first was what counted against me. My MA mark (merit) was not mentioned at all in the feedback.

I guess this just shows that some universities place more emphasis on undergrad grades, rather than masters grades.

I would tell your friend not to get too hung up on the MA grade, as other people have said grades are only one part of the application process, and referees, research proposal, fit with potential supervisors research and other things like work experience and publications/conferences are all taken into account.

Most major supermarkets are open 8 - 8 Monday to Saturday and 10 - 4 on a sundy. By law they are only allowed to trade for 6 hours on a sunday and by law must be closed all day Easter Sunday, Chrismas Day and New Years Day. As Cytochrome says the reason for this is so the low-paid staff are guaranteed some time off to see their family/enjoy the holidays.

By my roughcalculations that’s around 80 hours a week and 362 days a year mostsupermarkets are open. It’s really not that hard to find a time during this todo your shopping. This is enough time we really don't need 24/7 supermarkets!
Would you liketo contractually obliged to work 10 am til 7 pm on Christmas Day? Staff deservesome time off during holiday periods.

Yeah I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get the studentship as well (which turned out to be right). This was partly because I decided to leave apply quite late and the whole thing, including putting together my research proposal, was quite rushed. Hopefully I can improve the whole thing for next year and get either ESRC funding or a university studentship then.

I always thought I’d find out with a letter through the post, but the university found out today and emailed me straight away to let me know. Louisa23 (and everyone else waiting for results) I guess the university you are applying through knows now, since the university I applied through does. If you haven’t been contacted by phone or email you might have to wait for them to send out the results in a letter.

Best of luck!

Just found out about my +3 ESRC Application direct from the university I applied through...and I was unsuccessful. My application was apparently 'Alpha rated' (which is good) but I still didn't get the studentship (which is bad).

Still the university I have applied through has invited me to re-apply through them against next, so that will be plenty of time spent over the next few months fine tuning my research proposal.

Good luck to anyone still waiting for their ESRC results!

My brother had his student house robbed and the insurers refused to pay for any of the six people who had their laptops stolen because laptops had to be separately registered and no one had realised this.

However, he contacted the insurance company and after a few weeks of complaints/requests they gave him the money for a new laptop, apart from a £100 excess.

Sleepyhead, it might be worth persisting with complaints and claiming that the window was perfectly secure, even if it was not locked the way they wanted it. Often a bit of complaining can get insurers to pay out, it's worth a try.

It is totally unfair and misleading to lump “low-ranked” universities in with unaccredited diploma mills. There is a world of difference between the two. All UK universities meet minimum standards and university rankings are unofficial and to a large extent subjective.

As I have said I agree that people should look out for unaccredited universities/colleges but scaring people about the quality of education they are receiving from fully legitimate UK universities is not a good thing to do.

The crude, sensationalist warnings from OldLecturer about valid UK institutions do not help anyone.