Hi all,

I'm in the stage whether going a university that the ranking is not high is worth the time. What do you think about this topic?

Thank you

Hi all,

I've been having this question in my head about 4th year in a PhD program (3 years funded PhD).

Correct me if I'm wrong, in the 4th year when you are unfunded, do you pay for the tuition fees for the 4th year?

Can there be any funding to support the 4th year?

Thank you.

EDIT: I think the title is misleading a bit. I've got 3 year funding, in the fourth year do you pay tuition fees or not?

Hi,

Thanks for the kind posts. I'll see what happens, I hope it goes well.

Hello everyone,

I want your opinions on whether it's worth appealing. I'm a first-year PhD student and I just finished my first-year report submission (2nd time round) and my examiners are not satisfied with the work I've done so far. There is also the other problem that they tested my maths knowledge and I had problems presenting basic notation but really I felt a little stage fright and my mind was completely blank. I don't know what happened to me but they think I should terminate my studies.

I also have to mention for this year, I was responsible for taking care of a toddler. Dropping/picking her up from school was very exhausting and demotivated me. However, the responsibility has been drifted as the toddler will be moving to a closer which means more to on my research and catch up. I also did everything my supervisor wanted me to do (attended meetings nearly every week and we get weekly todo list).

The responsibility drifted occurred after my report submission and presentation. My panel has mention I have the chance to appeal. I personally think I should appeal as I think it's unfair that you are not giving me the chance to catch up on the additional time given to me on a daily basis. It's quite hard to prove by documents that I have picked up and dropped of a school. Now sure what to do here?

The types of docs I'll be providing:
- Email communication with my supervisor to prove that I presented weekly updates on the work
- The number of commits, the point here is to show I've been occasional updates on the report show the comparison of work between the times I had the toddler responsibility and without.
- Copies of work done in the past weeks: this will show I made progress on my work and improving my maths knowledge. Also, show a list of future goals that I wish to complete. Also results produced, perhaps new paper suggestions.

What do you think?

Hi all,

I sadly got some bad news and feel really sad. I've got told that my PhD should be terminated. Unfortunately, my personal circumstance effected me this year which is not something I do not use reasoning on why I was behind. My main reasons were for termination:

1) Lack of knowledge:- I really didn't know how important the background knowledge until it was too late.
2) Not enough work:- they refer to the research as "heuristic" and not much work involved.

They gave me a chance to repeat the process but unfortunately my personal circumstance and catching up my work didn't give me enough time to reflect time on going over the maths. I did however managed to get the personal circumstance resolved but the time was too late.

I did get told I can appeal but I'm not sure if the effect is worth it? My personal circumstance is probably going to be ignored and I think my relationship to my supervisor is sort of drifted away (he doesn't seem to care anymore).

The "not enough work" confuse me the most, I was doing exactly what my supervisor wanted me to do and yet I get the result?

Anyway, I feel really sad about the news but also I actually put a lot of effect on the research when the personal circumstances and it was a lot of work. That's just gone down the drain.

Hi everyone,

I would like some advice from other researchers. I applied for a funded Ph.D. last year. Now one year in, I had my first-year viva presentation which presented my work in that year. Afterward, they start testing my background knowledge on my maths. After a couple of days, the department said that my examiners were not satisfied. They make their judgment on my background knowledge rather than accomplishments achieved. Here what bothers me, the research proposal didn't mention anywhere that I need maths background. It was solving problems what a company (partners) were facing.

They didn't have concerns about what I did (that current) but my background knowledge in maths which they tell me 12 months (in) doing the research. I feel like I'm being judged on the wrong elements. They are judging me on elements that were mentioned in the research proposal and tell me 12 months in?

What should I do? I do believe this is a major concern (want elements that were not required and tell 12 months in)? This is not very fair at all.

Tell me your thoughts?

Thank you.