See our Funding and PhDs Explained sections for links and information.

'Get your own funding' doesn't mean you didn't make the grade/cut. Funding is simply hard to come by and many people finance their own PhD study. It is usually the academic offering the place who has been unable to secure funding for the projects they wish to pursue, not the student applying. This doesn't mean the academic is no good either. They may have funded projects in other areas - most academics have far more research questions they want answered than there is funding available for.

Whatever the reason for no funding being available most academics will only accept students who they feel are capable of achieving a PhD - those that aren't present them with too much hard work in the future and with a poor investigation of the questions they want answered.

Find the RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) rating of the department in which you wish to work. 5 and 5* are the best, but many a great academic can be found in departments with lower scores. It is very likely that your fees will be paid and the 14K is all for you to spend on bus fares and crisps. If your studentship is from a research council then this is definitely the case.

Your supervisor will have the best ideas, as funding is very often subject or institution specific. See our Funding and PhDs Explained sections for links and information.

See our Funding and PhDs Explained sections for links and information.

Unless you are an international student with funds from your own government then you almost always need to be accepted for a place before you can apply for funding.

An MBA takes twelve months as a full time course, a PhD takes at least three years full time and is a higher academic qualification. The PhD research topic you choose will have a large bearing on whether or not it is of more relevance for a career in business than an MBA.

There's no harm in writing to them to ask when you can expect a decision.

See our Funding and PhDs Explained sections for links and information.

The AHRB is now known as the AHRC and their postgraduate scholarships are available only to UK and EU students. The Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards invites PhD students from India, China, Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil and Russia and the developing world [as defined in Part 1 of OECD DAC list] to apply to study in the UK. A full list of eligable countries and details of the awards can be found on the Research Councils UK web site. 160 Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards will be awarded for study in 2005.

Contact the supervisor who has offered you the place for advice on funding. You should also contact the British Council in Nepal and the Nepalese Department of Education for advice.

With a third and a Masters degree you will not qualify for a UK research council studentship. You should contact your local university to ask whether or not you would be liable for overseas student fees or the cheaper home fees.

You're right, it's not the done thing, but as it's a voluntary position and sounds quite interesting we've left it on.

You should have some relevant experience or training for the field you wish to move in to. However you do not usually need to have experience of very specific techniques.

You would qualify for a BBSRC PhD studentship, but I'm not sure if you'd get a grant to do a second masters degree. The 2.2 is important though - if you had a third and an MSc you wouldn't qualify for the PhD grant.

You can't acheive a PhD in less than 3 years - particularly not a part time one, sorry.