As tsipat says a PGCE is essential so you are better off getting this qualification and the teaching experience which goes with it. Getting a PhD will waste a minimum of three years and isn't necessary for a career as a secondary school teacher.

Which subject are you working in Vic? In the social sciences/humanities the vast majority of people have not had anything published prior to starting a PhD.

Badhaircut: You sound totally unreasonable moaning about PhD funding! You are incredibly lucky to get funding in the first place, and getting £12,300 + full fees paid (another £3000) a year is not a rip off at all!

I used to work full time in a supermarket and I got around £690 take home pay a month and had to work late nights, every weekend, nightshifts, bank holidays etc. Why don't you do that for a year? I'm sure your 'rip-off' PhD funding will seem very generous in comparison.

At the end of the day doing a PhD is completely voluntary and if you dont like the pay and think you can earn a lot more doing something else then go and do it!

With ESRC funding it depends on whether you are applying for a quota place or to the open competition.

My understanding is that departments with quota places can give these quota studentships to whichever students they wish. They therefore invite applications, hold interviews and give the quota place studentships to students on the basis of this procedure. Applying for non-ESRC university funded studentships will follow a similar process.

However, when applying for the ESRC open competition you must apply to, and be accepted by a department that is ESRC recognised. The department will then support your application to the ESRC for a studentship in the open competition. It’s up to the ESRC who they give places to through the open competition.

Hope this helps

The University of Essex has a very good reputation, especially for economics and social sciences - the economics department at Essex got the highest possible rating in the last Research Assessment Exercise.

Essex definately sounds like a good university to go for this course and I would have thought it would definately strengthen your employment prospects.

I guess that there will be a lot of competition for places at Oxford and getting an ESRC funded PhD there will be very difficult. However, if you have a first class degree you will have a chance and there is no harm in applying.

Applications for both 1+3 and +3 require research proposals. However, for a + 3 PhD only a detailed and in-depth research proposal is needed, whereas for 1+3 a much more general idea of what you will do for the three year PhD part is necessary. This general research proposal is still very important and is one of the main things to be considered in applications.

If you are planning on applying for ESRC funding this year (to start in September/October) then you had better hurry up! The ESRC deadline is in early May but most departments have their own internal deadlines that are normally in March.

Matthew82,

The Prospects website has lots of useful information of putiing together a CV and has examples of real CVs as well.


http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Applications__CVs_and_interviews/p!eefmd

Yes wear a suit. It will make a good impression and will show that you are serious about the postition you are being interviewed for.

Many universities have rules stating that once a piece of work has been submitted for a qualification, it cannot be re-submitted for the award of another qualification.

The MBA is a very prestigious qualification and I doubt very much that anywhere awarding one will give much of an exemption for having a masters, even in a similar subject.

No harm in asking if there is any chance of exempting you from some of the work, I suppose. But like I said in response to one of your other questions, if you want the MBA qualification you will have to put the work in!

You may be able to miss out the first year or even two of a BSc degree, but I would have thought that you will have to do at least the final year, regardless of what qualifications you already have. If you want a degree you have to put work towards it (Belford degrees excluded regardless of the qualifications you already have.

Do you really need a BSc if you already have an MSc plus two professional qualifications? Will it really help you in your career? If not then there is really not much point in just collecting more and more qualifications.

In the UK full time PhDs are treated like a full time job, 37 hours per week (i.e. mon to fri 9am to 5 pm with sat and sun off, with at least 4 weeks holiday per year). I'm going off what most UK Research Councils recommend for this information.

I had no idea that people working for PhDs in India had such punishing schedules.

If people are taking advantage of your willingness to work and put in long hours then you need to put a stop to it! Working with “No social life , no friends and no time to even think about myself” is no way to go through life!

kumawat_INDIA, are you in the UK? There is no way you should be putting yourself through that to get a PhD regardless of where you are based! I'm sure there were people in Victorian workhouses who had an easier time than that!

Apollo, you are correct in thinking that if you drive a car from one EU country to another you do not have to register it initially (provided it is fully taxed and insured in its country of origin). However, after six months it will have to be registered by law (Blue has correctly mentioned this three times in previous posts). Since this is a forum about postgraduate studies (and a post about importing a car, not bringing it to the UK for a short while) I assume people who bring a car to the UK will be here for longer than six months, therefore they will have to register their car. This is not my opinion – it is UK law.

It’s not usually my type of thing to jump into a debate and correct people. However, the consequences of people not registering their car and making sure everything else is in order could be severe if they are stopped by the police – and, contrary to what you believe, if someone is driving illegally the police will care.

oz, please read this UK government webpage about driving an imported car in the UK. You ar giving people very bad advice which could get them in serious trouble if they are stoppedby the police while driving around.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVehicle/ImportingAndExportingAVehicle/DG_4022583

Apollo, that is not the case! If you import a car you have to register it through the DVLA which involves showing lots of documents and paying some fees.

This is not optional - it has to be done by law.

You will also have to prove that any necessary changes such as fitting a rear fog light and converting the headlights has been completed. 'Beam bender' stickers are not acceptable - it must be a
permanent conversion. It is very dangerous to leave the lights unchanged, it can dazzle oncoming drivers and cause
accidents.

On top of all this there is the cost of physically transporting the car from one country to another.

Blue, in my opinion it is not worth importing a Opel Corsa into the UK. Assuming you spend most of the year in the UK the most cost-effective thing to do would be to sell the car in its original country and then buy a Vauxhall Corsa (the same car) in the UK.