Ps. As a general rule, to increase you chances of finding somewhere to rent with animals, offer to pay a double deposit & get the place professionally cleaned at the end of the tenancy & look in not so popular areas/ex-council flats (cheap, but not much competition and many people who would like to rent them have problems getting sufficient housing benefit to cover the rent as the council knows what they rent them for and private letters rent for much higher!). Also, keep an eye on rightmove.co.uk for properties in the area you are interested, watch for ones that seem to 'sit there' for some time and approach them. Many will take pets even if they initially say no. Landlords have mortgages to pay!

Also, where are you shipping from? Some ferries have kennels on them and you can book those (although my info is quite old and I choose not to take mine in the end) or travel by car and leave them in the car for the journey. I don't know anything about flying with dogs but I think the DEFRA website might have some info.

Hi Shani, whereabouts are you looking for accomodation?

I have just been through exactly this situation as I have a dog. It took me a few months to find the right place (although, had I been prepared to live in a 'not so nice' place, it would have been quicker). Finding accommodation with a dog/s is definitely more difficult but it is also not impossible in most places. I think it would be easier if you were able to work from home quite a bit as the dogs are less likely to be left alone or could take your dogs with you (mine sits in the car during the day and I am allowed her in the office out of hours).

I don't want to sound mean but, to be honest, if you have run out of time to complete your lit review by the deadline then that is your problem and reflects poor time management skills and/or lack of communication. (But I have every sympathy as I am shocking at meeting deadlines too so I am condeming myself too here)...

I am most definitely with Jouri on this one. I think it is wrong to expect the supervisor to be available 24-7. Academia is a job and people should be expected to be able to have downtime. One of the greatest work place stressors has to be the inability to shut off from work and being expected to be available like this is really unacceptable in my book. I have my supervisor's home telephone number & mobile but I would never use either unless I had been specifically asked to call him on one of them at a set time/date. Before joining academia I had one job which I left as I was expected to have my work mobile on 24-7 to deal with work issues. 8 months late I felt ill from lack of quality time away from work.

So working as a tutor to help fund my studies would be unlikely to be a prestigous career move then

Hi,

Just been surfing and came across these two organisations offering degrees and higher degrees. Has anybody heard of them?
http://www.warnborough.ie/
http://www.acsedu.co.uk/
Curious!

Hi, I think you can do a PhD part time by learning contract at the University of Lincoln and I know they have people interested in entomology. You could always register part time on the MPhil, complete the first year and when you have got your confidence up enough to take the plunge, give up the job and go fulltime!

LMAO - I am really sorry Eddie but I just burst out laughing when I read your post. I am two months into my PhD and I have been feeling the same way and I know the other PhD student in my office (started the same time as me) also feels like this!!! In fact, having thought how great one of my suprvisors was, he always seemed strained to see me, so I convinced myself it was become I was so utterly appalling that he was regretting ever taking me on and wanted rid and when he didn't respond to my emails I was convinced he was gearing up to sack me! (He wasn't - just suffering from a huge workload....). Don't worry - I think we all have crises of faith during the PhD - be more worried if you think you are perfect

I think you should listen to Sylvester. As an undergrad, I challenged the rules, got threatened by one of my lecturers that "I should think very carefully about what I am doing" & "he felt he had a duty to warn the academic comunity about me". I persisted and took it as far as I could - only to lose at the final hurdle two years later when a crucial email was produced at the 11th hour. I went to hell and back and, although I feel very strongly that I did the 'right' thing, my emotional health suffered very badly. I have just started a phd but my career took a 3 year 'diversion' and I dread the first conference that I present at incase I am taken apart by people with old scores to settle (or friends). Maybe I am being paranoid but it fels like a real enough fear to me. Make sure you are up to the fight because it will be hell!!!

Uep - sorry Pamw - very rude of me. I just forgot about the nature of the enquiry and got carried away with answering the replies given...

continued...
Given how much debt students are accumulating to undertake a degree I wouldn't be suprised if we see growing numbers of students making formal complaints against the university for the quality of teaching provision. Certainly in my case, I feel very strongly let down in relation to the module I took. It was supposed to be taught by an academic with about 50 papers to his name and an international reputation and, at the last minute, this switched to a postgrad in the first year of their Mphil and a individual who was not even a postgrad and had no industry experience since graduating with a second class degree! Sorry to offend all you postgrad teachers/seminar leaders out there but I think this is unacceptable!

Hey O Stoll - I agree to a point but... isn't the university also failing the student by using PhD students who don't even, by their own admission, know anything about the subject that they are being asked to teach? The students would learn a whole lot more in the 3 years with teachers that know about their subject than teachers that don't. I had the 'pleasure' of being taught by a postgrad that had grasped the suject well enough to put together a weekly presentation on the topic but it was hardly the inspirational guidance that an experienced academic would have given. If the lecturer is not going to impart anymore than can be easily obtained from a book what is the point of the lecture (other than to tick a nice little box somewhere saying contact provision with students has been x hours)? The system sucks and we postgrads help to perpetuate it by agreeing to teach modules we know nothing about for some extra cash.

Goodluck to you too "Perhaps"

Ps. Do you really want to work with animals that much. You can avoid them with a judicious choice of phd project. I had no choice with public speaking. Its present or perish. I even promised myself that if I didn't get over the phobia I would train to be an accountant as accountacy was so boring that I'd never get asked to present. It was a promise I did not want to have to keep