FFS, I was looking at some student accommodations in Leeds, and some of the student halls (note; privately run student halls, not shared rented houses where the sitting tenants express their preference about a new housemate) have a stated maximum age of 32. Is this even legal?

Not to put to fine a point on it, age discrimination does happen, maybe not in computer science, but certainly in the social sciences. I received some great feedback during the summer when I was emailing potential supervisors regarding my PhD. This senior academic from a respected university gave me some very useful information how to go about it, even though my topic wasn't outside of her expertise/interest, and so she could not supervise my thesis unless I make fundamental changes . Along with the helpful advice was the comment that in her experience (and she did say that she shouldn't really be saying this), funded places are usually for budding academics, and so younger applicants (those in their 20s and early 30s) tend to be looked upon more favourably. That is not to say that us oldies have no chance of funded places, just that with all things being equal, younger applicants do tend to get the nod.


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Are you having trouble getting in a PhD programme per se, or do you mean difficulties in getting a funded place? The former should be relatively easy, but the latter really needs top grades, plus a large slice of luck in that competitive that year isn't particularly high.

A lot of places would accept a 2:1 plus a pass for self-funded PhD places. Go for it, and good luck!

In the same boat here, but our lot (NINE DTP) wont tell us where we are in the queue. I took that as a polite 'no', and am looking at alternatives.

I dread to think that all stipends must be paid back if the PhD does not work out. What happens if someone got awarded an MPhil after defence, or fail, or simply do not finish during the duration of the studentship? I can't really see that any uni will be foolish or vindictive enough to ask the candidate to repaid nearly 45K. And what about the tuition fee? Will they want that repaid as well? With the stipend. that works out at about 60K over three years at RC fees.

Good luck with any uni trying to recover that amount from an unsuccessful PhD candidate!

It is standard for taught Master dissertations to be written over 2-3 months during the '3rd' semester in the summer. I did mine whilst working 50-60 hours a week running my own business, and submityed it two weeks early (had an two-week extension due to being called up for jury service). So, yes, it is very much possible to write a MA dissertation in 2 to 3 months.

Seems to be quite informative to me, except for the exact marking criteria, it does list all the important things.

Good Luck!

I am being as polite as I can to someone inhabiting an alternative universe, but all water under the bridge.

This may be different for individual DTPs, but in my case, all applications for studentships must be via individual institutions, and cannot be made directly to the DTP. I asked my supervisor about my chances, he said it was decent, and then we applied. I said 'we', because the application depends on the support of the supervisor/s, who have to fill in part of the nomination form about their expertise in the topic, and the fit of the supervisory/research environment in relation to the topic.

The main process is as follows (which you seem to know already, but here goes):

1/ Your department does the initial screening of your studentship application, and if they think it has a reasonable chance of success, they put it to the next stage. You must either have an offer of a PhD place from an institution, or proof that you have applied for a place to get to this stage. It would be tempted to think the the two (funding and place) are linked, but I have been told that the offer of a place is independent of any funding applications.

2/ Pathway review: Made up of all the different institutes, and rejects applications that they think may be too weak to be funded. The rest are then submitted to the DTP studentship committee for consideration.

3/ DTP studentship committee: The body that grants the studentships. Usually made of academics from the different institutes, and a number of external academics.

The marking criteria for ranking the applications are clearly listed on the relevant DTP website (or at least, it was in the case of the DTP that I'd applied to). Whilst I can sympathise with the lack of control in the marking process and the wait is very stressful, I fail to see how the system lacks transparency or is hard to understand.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your application/s, I am keeping my fingers crossed for mine.

If you apply, you have a chance. If you apply to more than one dtp, you have an even better chance. If you don't apply, you have no chance.