I think it's a dreadful idea. This may be a cynical view of PhDs, but they can be seen as a relatively cheap way of getting some research done. Assuming all goes well during a PhD, you're doing 3-4 years of research, making a contribution in your field, possibly adding to your supervisors' list of publications and making a contribution to your department. The pay-off for the PhD candidate is having basic money to live on and getting a PhD (which may or may not enhance career prospects). I oppose the idea that PhD candidates should effectively pay to do research - as others have mentioned, this is likely to lead to a further skewing of PhD availability in favour of the independently wealthy, and those who do need to take on this loan will need to supplement it with other earnings (if it's £25k for the whole period, as it reads to me).

I would be tempted to raise it with the NUS, the UCU or both as I think it's an issue they should be concerned with. However, in practical terms I imagine you will have to start paying. Was the reduction in response to you saying the fees would cause you hardship, or is there still an option to try to go down this road?

Hi there
I had some concerns when I read your post, because you have used some very self-critical words and it sounds like you may be very unhappy in your current situation. When that is the case, it is possible to see something else (like a PhD) as a magical escape route that will make everything better. I think only you can make the decision about how important a PhD is to you, but I would encourage you to give some thought to what you will do if you don't get an academic career (most people with PhDs don't). I am not saying don't do a PhD, just try not to pin all your hopes on one thing. There are many possibilities in life and I agree about not staying in sales if it makes you feel so unfulfilled.

I'm not sure if you need a technical term to find this kind of research. In my literature searches for my field, I've come across papers based on interviews with professionals who work with people - I think if you just vary your search terms, you should find them.

The early stages can be a bit like that, when things are held up and you have a quiet period. Are there any interesting workshops or training events you can go to, as this is the time when you actually have time to brush up on anything you might need for later? Also, although it's a bit dull, any extra reading/writing you can do at this stage will help take the pressure off later on. I would probably just try to think of something I fancied doing to be honest, rather than asking supervisors for work, as one of the luxuries of the PhD is that you can take your own little wanders when it's quiet!

Sounds like a good start! Clearly it's in their interests to have a finished PhD rather than an unfinished one, so I hope you'll be successful in negotiating the payments from now on. I wonder if this is something the UCU would be interested in? (I know they're not strictly a student union, but there is such a big overlap between doing a PhD and being a university employee in some capacity, and they have plenty of PhD student members).

The university has something to gain from accepting your corrections, since they will have another completed PhD for their stats. Good luck!

Congratulations GM! Although it seems like a dilemma, what a great position to be in! I would take the postdoc, and if something better/more secure does come along - well, they must know people will move out of temporary posts if and when they can.

This does seem very steep. As far as I know at most universities, it's an annual continuation fee of a few hundred pounds at most - I haven't come across one that wants a monthly continuation fee before. Can you speak to someone at the uni and explain that this will cause you real hardship at the end of your PhD? It would be such a shame to give up, especially as you don't need another viva.

I would put the lit review first, because it leads nicely into the research questions and then you can describe how your methodology will help you answer the questions.

Have you talked to your supervisor about whether or not this bit should be written up as research? I had to abandon an early part of my research proposal as it was clear the recruitment was not going to be straightforward and it was going to take too long, but I'm writing it up as 'suggestion for future research', rather than including it with the research I did. For the bits of my research that did go ahead, I'm going to include things like numbers of gatekeeping agencies I approached, number who were able to help, reasons given for not being able to help, etc.