It's going to be tight anywhere but if Dublin then I really think you would struggle badly. Are you an EU / EEA citizen or would you and your wife also have potential restrictions on working to earn additional money?

Or which language community if you don't want to name the university? Do you mean you are starting a PhD or doing the Masters leading to a research degree? If it's a PhD proper and a francophone university then the FNRS is one source. www.fnrs.be

This is obviously disappointing but I think you still have a chance. You don't know how many people were making multiple applications to hedge their bets under the new ESRC system - the two chosen ahead of you might have offers elsewhere they prefer. With it being a new system, it's going to be really hard for anyone to give you reliable advice but do you know your prospective supervisor well enough to ask what they think the chance is? Also your application was clearly good -if you were applying for some sort of 1+3 funding, is it worth asking the dept if they have any funding available for the research methods MA / MSc year as they know you'd be a strong candidate for +3 the year after?

Did she sign any sort of contract? If so, it might be very worth while reading it carefully to see if there are any clauses covering this situation. From what you say though above, if there's nothing else she's signed, it sounds like your friend might have a pretty good case for making the university continue to fund her by threatening breach of contract. It sounds like she needs some legal advice fast. Is there any sort of student advice centre in your students' union? Or a legal clinic connected to a Law department? It would be good to see if she could get some help from someone qualified to work through all the paperwork she has, to figure out where she stands. THe Citizens Advice bureau can also be a useful contact.
Has she got a first year review pending? If so, because of the proviso of acceptable academic progress, it might be wise to make sure she's registered her concerns with someone outside the department beforehand. One possible way to do this might be to contact the international Office and say she's concerned about her visa situation given this situation.

Hi

Is there someone responsible for PhD studets in your dept or school? That person might be a good person to ask how best to proceed. Incidentally, I'd be careful how you phrase your problem with the internal. I know someone who rushed in feet first in a similar situation and accused the internal of laziness, contempt for students etc - it turned out her husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a month earlier. To say he felt awful when he was told this was the understatement of the century.

I think there are also huge variations in subject areas as to whether a PhD is a essential criteria for getting a lectureship or not. I think in Art and other creative subjects, Law, Education and Management for example professional experience would possibly be seen as equally important. I think so long as one member of the supervisory team has a PhD, it's OK - particularly if you are working in a subject area where PhDs have not been standard qualifications for that long.

UEA definitely has the repuation for development - what sorts of questions are you asking? Maybe if it's for things like reading lists, it's because next year's are not yet prepared? The other thing you perhaps need to be aware of (particularly if you did your undergrad degree at a LAC in the USA), that in Europe generally students are expected to be more independent than in the US, so it might be that there are genuine cross-cultural communication problems occuring i.e. that the staff view your questions as inappropriate and hence are responding in an off-putting fashion. That said the British depts tend to be so international, that there's a good chance that the people you are in touch with aren't British anyway.

I didn't even know Bath did a course in int devpt but it's a nice city! Newcastle is known for being good on the international political economy side if that's of any interest - I have a friend who did am MA in IPE there and thought it was fantastic and that the staff were very friendly and helpful. Again a great place to live - much more of a city vibe though than the other places.

I think the uni travel insurance is worth trying. I know I was covered for conference trips. Try searching your uni website for insurance - mine had a summary of the cover provided online.

I know a few people who've done it. I think there's two options depending on your circumstances but both have drawbacks.

1) If you currently have or could get a part-time job that pays well then studying part-time is a good way to minimise the financial struggle. It is doable if you have a fairly lucrative skill for example. E.g. a friend was an accountant and did that part-time throughout and didn't really struggle financially. She did complain about being always passed over for the teaching, RA work etc that helps make you more employable in an academic setting post-PhD though, like bilbobaggins pointed out. Part-time on minimum wage / low pay jobs is a nightmare as you are constantly having to work more hours to keep your head above water and then the PhD gets neglected. Fieldwork / lab work can also be complicated if you are part-time depending on topic. You also need to be very motivated as it goes on for such a long time.

2) If you have significant savings to cover the fees & well-off family / partner who would help you financially, then going fulltime and picking up as much teaching / RA type work as possible to pay living expenses, might be an option depending on the type of department (and assuming you choose a cheap location and live like a poverty-struck student). The snag here is that you tend to end up neglecting the PhD because of the constant search for income. Hourly paid teaching looks well-paid at first but actually isn't as you only get paid for the hours you teach so there are huge income gaps in holiday periods etc. Most people I know who did this were mature students with partners who were prepared to pay the mortgage etc while their OH studied. I know younger single people who started this way but almost all had to either drop out or go part-time as the budget didn't add up. Oh and some people tried the career development loan route but ended up in real trouble financially, so I really would not advise borrowing money with interest rates and instant repayment requirements as those are the real horror stories (that's assuming banks are still lending - they did pre-crash but may be more careful now).

I think the other thing you really need to consider is that if you self-fund, you are going to be paying out a lot in fees and lost earnings for a qualification that may not help you find well-paid work at the end of it. How bitter would you be if it didn't work out? Look at all the people on this board who are struggling to find work post-PhD - it's not straightforward at all, even when there isn't a recession. At least if you are funded, you can say oh well I got a qualification out of it and view it as a not very well paid 3-4 years in your life. The odds of getting an permanent academic job in particular are very poor, so if you are not in a field that would translate easily to non-academic employers then personally I would not risk it (unless post-PhD employment is irrelevant e.g. you're nearing retirement or have no need to work). I know too many unemployed / underemployed recent Politics PhDs to recommend it for my own subject anyway (seem to remember you were asking about ESRC so it might be relevant).

When you say this is your industrial supervisor who has published your work, is this something like a PhD sponsored by a firm? If so, I'd advise talking to your academic supervisor and getting his/her take on this - just say that you're a bit confused by what has happened and could he/she explain where or with whom the intellectual copyright to your work resides. I know SOME industry-funded PhDs have odd intellectual copyright agreements attached although this does seem excessive - does your contract / letter of appointment say anything enlightening perhaps?

Yes, they could withdraw it, if it's an offer of funding conditional on you getting a merit and you don't get one.

OK. That's ESRC territory for funding I'd have thought. If so, I think it's not very likely you'd get a funded place with a 2:1 and a pass, unless there are specific strengths to your application unrelated to marks. We are being told for our ESRC DTC that the expectation is that students will either have a first or distinction to stand a realistic chance, as there are now so few funded places for social sciences in the country and so many strong applicants.
I'd ask Birmingham directly whether they would consider a student with your profile, then if they do have some arbitrary cut-off at least you know. But I'd also ask your current lecturers to be brutally honest with you about whether they think it's a good idea or not for you in career terms - I don't know whether a PhD gets you anywhere better in non-academic careers in that field, but as you'll probably know things are not good in universities as far as jobs are concerned. I personally certainly wouldn't self-fund a PhD in any social science in the hope of an academic job in the UK at this moment in time (unless I was very rich and had nothing else I wanted to do).

Very subject dependent I'm afraid. And on the sort of institution you're looking at, and whether you need funding. Can you give a little more information? Broadly speaking, this seems to be much less of a problem in the sciences.

Hi Hadi,

Chester is lovely but for Northern England quite an expensive place to live (but much much cheaper than the southeast / London). You will find that some areas of the town are much cheaper to rent in (but not as nice) than others. If you are willing to travel, some of the surrounding towns eg Warrington are cheap to live in but then you would have to budget for train fares. I would not personally rely on being able to find part-time work. Unemployment in the UK is very high at the moment (20% for young people nationally) and while Chester is much less troubled by this than many places in the Northwest, it is still quite hard to get any jobs.

My older sister got a distinction in her MA degree in 1988 and it wasn't new then (according to her anyway). Haven't heard anything about them changing to undergrad grading - given they're very keen to find ways of scrapping the undergrad system as it's no longer viewed by most academics as fit for purpose, I can't see why they'd introduce it to masters.