As a self funded phd student, your supervisor might not care or give up on you. The supervisor risks nothing in loosing you if he is already famous and doesnt have to worry about research council funding. I was at cambridge and know many stories of people effectively being abandoned. It is also full of academic tourists who are attracted for the name.

Inexperienced supervisrors can be very crap. But they can be more commited and are likely to be supervising a project close to their core expertise rather than "branching out" projects

I am currently a student in London and the opportunities and activities are awesome looking across the breadth of colleges. University of London degrees have a very good reputation.

Also, Vision and computer Game AI will be very different fields of study. The former will most probably end up relying on difficult statistics (not every computer scientists cup of tea) whereas computer games usually end up being about heuristics, logic and prehaps human factors. Also you should consider how crowded each field is and whether you think you can make an impact.

The only thing that would worry me about the funded place is the supervisor. I would be very wary of a supervisor who had not completed his own PhD i.e. had not successfully negotiated the final submission phase. The fact that he has delayed submission would worry me. I would want to know more about him and if there other back-up advisors if youn need them.

But it is generally true that the bigger the name, the less time they have for you. And you are generally less accountable when self-funding because funding bodies hold supervisors acountable for late or failed submissions. I have noticed that, despite costing more, self-funders tend to take longer becaue there isn't the same external pressure to submit.

All the London colleges have good reputations though - and getting funding tends to be well-regarded. Self-funding seems to be more 'normal' in less technical fields.

So I think I'd be swaying toward the funded place if I could be more confident about the supervision.

What kind of background does the no-PhD supervisor have? Has he got lots of industry experience or something? What makes him qualified to supervise someone?

You are talking about £50k worth of funding, which at least shows a certain amount of commitment from them. The offer of a self-funded PhD place doesn't really show you how much they value you, particularly in a field that is relatively well-funded.
I also think that you may end up working on such a narrow topic that the overall subject matter isn't massively relevant to what you do on a day-to-day basis.
The supervisor without a PhD rings alarm bells! I wouldn't want advise on how to complete a thesis from somebody who has never finished one!

whos the oxford supervisor? alison noble? julia schnabel?

Jewel: Penny Probert Smith. No doubts I'd imagine I may be liasing with Alison Noble at some point. Isn't Julia Schnabel at UCL now?


I'd possibly do well to let it slip that the other University in question is City - ergo I'm not so sure on it having an international reputation I could take with me wherever I go [don't get me wrong, it's a good uni!] Saying that a lot of people here have mentioned that work cited in journals and conferences holds more sway than the university you graduate from. Who knows where life takes me later on - ideally I'd be looking for a career in higher education with the expertise and "expert label" to dabble in research and consultancy, I may look to travel elsewhere afterwards, yadda yadda.

The supervisor has industry experience, but no PhD yet. afaik he's been delaying it quite some time.

I will say this - despite everything my interests lie more toward CV applications, that's where I want to take things. From the perspective of what I'd _rather_ spend three years on - the medical imaging fields are where it's at.


I fully appreciate everything everyone's saying, dammnit I wish there was more consensus to the school of thought that sees me forking out £40k, lol ;) [j/k - I value everyone's opinions here and I'm grateful to all with the experience and know-how and insight to allow me to make an informed decision. It seems the issue of funding is one of the most important now, as is the question of the supervisor's ability.]

Ah, you will be working on HIFU then? Julia Schanbel moved to Oxford last year. I'm surprised that there are no funding options open to you in Oxford.

If the City guy has industrial experience then that sounds fine. It is a topic where I would imagine industrial experience counts for a lot.

Up to you what you want to do I guess.

Presumably HIFU. Competition for funding is fierce (and scarce according to a conversation I had with Alison and Penny.)

Are you there already Jewel? You sound like you know the department well.

Yes, I'm at Oxford.

To the point I guess.

Whereabouts, what do you do, etc, etc? If you're at the same department would you mind if I ask you a few questions? Can we liase through emails?

I had an interview a while back and the last thing the [potential] supervisor said was he had only just handed his PhD in himself!

That put me right off but there was another supervisor to oversee the entire thing.

Option 2 all the way! if you can afford the money or get a loan. 3 years ago I went for option 1 (had no money, no option of getting a loan being from abroad). Now I'm still stuck with PhD, supervisor not interested in publications or good quality lab work, just wants a few data to complete funding proposals, and then very difficult for me into a coherent piece of work. Does not care, if I encounter a problem I get the answer: "do not pursue it, leave it out" I get the impression that supervisor does not care about me finishing/viva, quality of PhD. My experience is that many young supervisors, with no research group of their own, just want to get promoted and the fast track for that is getting funding! They'll suck up your ideas, your work will be directed towards finding new ideas (sources of funding) and not to do systematic rigorous lab work.How many times I heard about my supervisor's newest idea (just a repeat of what I suggested -and was laughed at- a month before). Good luck!

It's not really a great solution, but why not take the funded studentship at City for a while, and treat it as a trial. Then after 6 months, if its not working out, contact Oxford again and explain the situation. As its self-funded, they may still want to take you on.

PS I think City is pretty good for AI and CS in general.