OldLecturer – I have read your past posts and you seem determined to scare people about Higher Education in the UK and elsewhere.

I agree that people looking for HE courses need to be vigilant for fake colleges (Millennium City Academy for example) and avoid such institutions.

However, you are totally wrong to include legitimate UK institutions such as UEL and Glamorgan in with this warning, or say “Even if a degree is a valid UK degree it may be of very low quality” (a previous post).

All legitimate UK institutions are monitored for quality (ie by the QAA), claiming they are “low-ranked” or “low-quality” is purely subjective. Overseas students at these institutions reading your post will be worried about their education for no reason.

Furthermore, your crude definition of “low-ranked” institutions helps no one. The department of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at UEL includes RAE Grade 4 and 5 departments, making them among the best in the country!

It depends on the subjects involved. Its up to the university you are applying to to decide if undergraduate degree (whether BA or BSc) gives you the knowledge you to do a specific masters degree.

I did MA Human Geography a few years ago (although not at Leeds) and I worked part time all through the course. I worked 15 hours a week, all on a saturday and sunday leaving the week free to concentrate on university, seemed to work for me. I got a merit in the end, and don't think that the working really influenced the grade I got at the end of the course. Things would definately have been easier for me if I hadn't worked while doing the MA but I needed the money from working to afford to be on the course!

If you don't get the funding and have to work during the MA then its not the end of the world - as long as you are committed and work hard you can work 15 - 20 hours a week and still get a high grade for your MA

Getting funding for a one-year masters is very difficult and if you defer there is no guarentee that the university will have funding for the course next year.

If you can afford it this year I would go ahead and do the masters this year rather than hanging around for funding that may never come along.

I think you will fine getting a reference. Academics are used to being asked for references all of the time from former students, and it would be extremely unprofessional for them to refuse you reference because of your personal circumstances when you were studying with them. I wouldn’t have thought that any academic would think being asked for a reference was putting them into a difficult situation.

Just send a polite email stating that you are planning on applying for a PG Diploma and could he please supply a reference for this application.

The only way to get over fear like this is to go out and do the presentation!

For practical advice I always do a full runthrough of the presentation a week or so before in front of friends and ask for constructive feedback. Any major problems will be spotted here making you more confident for the presentation itself.

When doing the actual presentation I use Powerpoint slides to prompt what to say and don't use any notes at all. However, I also have a full script with me which I can read word-for-word if I forget what to say. Thankfully I have never had to use this but it helps to know I can fall back on this if needed.

To be automatically eligible for funding you need an ESRC recognised masters.

Without one it is basically up the ESRC if you existing qualifications make you eligible to go straight to a PhD - even having two masters might not be enough to go straight to a PhD if neither is recognised by the ESRC.

Any university department that has ESRC recognition will be able to do a 1+3 or just a +3.

There is a book called something along the lines of 'Formulating Effective Research Proposals' by Keith F. Punch from about five years ago.

It is based on educational research but is applicable to many other subjects and is very useful when making a research proposal.

Reading that section of the ESRC guidelines it looks like you would need a serious reason for wanting to transfer between institutions. I don't think that being generally disatisfied with the one year masters would be a good enough reason for the ESRC to transfer the award, plus your current supervisor will more than likely be extremely annoyed that you are leaving one year in.

I agree that getting an academic position in HE requires 7 – 10 years studying before you get a full-time job.

But everyone taking this 7 – 10 years of study is aware at the outset of (a) how long it will take to be qualified (b) the debt incurred (c) the salary they can expect to earn at the end of it.

Seeking an academic job is voluntary – if any of these three things put you off then you are totally free to seek a job in a different sector!

If a salary of £30k is “shit money relative to our costs of living” what does this make a salary of £10k?

I can’t believe people are moaning about academic salaries so much!

Anything around £30k a year is a good salary. Working full time in a supermarket would get you an annual wage of around £10k. That will be around £715 take-home pay a month for working every weekend, bank holidays, working til 11pm, being back in work for 7 the next morning, doing one of the most boring jobs imaginable. That is low pay.

I am aware that you don’t need qualifications to work in a supermarket but some people have no choice other than to work for ten grand a year and get by on this.

By all means campaign for higher academic salaries, but academic careers in the UK are not by any stretch of the imagination poorly paid.

Funding for an MA alone is nearly impossible to find, looking into ESRC 1+3 studentships would be your best bet. These provide funding for one year masters then three years of PhD study.

The deadlines for this will have passed for this year so you should look into applying next year.

It probably won't be too difficult for you to get onto a PhD, but it may be difficult to get funding if you have a 2.2

Getting a distinction in your MSc would definately help, as would any relevent work/research experience or publications.

I have been preparing a conference abstract and have noticed that the conference I am preparing to submit this to is 'inclusive', meaning that they will accept all abstracts, publish them all and everyone who submits will present at the conference.

Has anyone heard of this before? I am concerned as there seems to be no form of peer review at all! This conference is organised by a well known humanaties/soc sci journal, and has many UK academics organising it.

Anyone know anything about this?

If you want funding you will almost certainley have to do a masters before you go on to do a PhD. Finding funding for the masters can be extremely difficult. I suggest you research ESRC 1+3 studentships which provide funding for the 1 year of the masters and the 3 years of the PhD. Alternatively you could self-fund a masters this year and then apply for PhDs after that.