Urm I did my undergraduate degree at a small university in Wales (University of Wales, Lampeter) so I headed to something bigger for my MA. When looking around for a MA course it HAD to be a city! Yeah, I did look around for my PhD, but there really isn't that many institutions that do a PhD in Museology, although I could have applied to Durham, Newcastle, Leicester or LSE. I applied to two of these for my MA and decided to not take places because I felt Manchester offered a better course.

What/Where are you thinking of for a PhD?

I start at the University of Manchester, Centre for Museology in September. I did my MA here and knew that I didn't really want to do a PhD elsewhere because I had a great supervisor for my MA dissertation and wanted him to be my PhD supervisor.

Hmmm, things run generally smoothly at Manchester Adem, but there was once a small problem with a Postgraduate Skills Asessment (SAGE) software: namely that we were supposed to fill it in during the orientation weekend and due to teething issues nobody could fill it in until around 9 months later!

But that is small fry compared to other things like decent resources, a good supervisor and the wonderful city of Manchester.

It sounds like a lot to juggle, but I was thinking that four days a week would be workable too. Five year seems a long time, but I bet it will be jam packed with stuff. I can't wait (but I'm a little scared too!). Thanks for your comments.

I have a place for a full time PhD in September, which I'm really excited about. But I can only really do this full-time if I get AHRC funding which is unlikely given the competitive nature of funding and number of applicants. I would be interested to know how any of you funded part-time PhD's, how you balanced work and (well!)...more work! It's so nerve racking waiting to heat back from the AHRC (2 months of waiting left!) and being the eternal pessimist I think I'll be probably faint when the letter comes!