I'm sorry to hear about the situation. I don't know what country you're based in but I think it's unlikely that you would be fired if you discuss this matter with your PI.

I'm afraid that, although it may be unfair that someone else ran with your idea, you yourself have some responsibility. It is not a good idea to present novel findings while having no documentation at all. I'm a little puzzled in fact at how you have no documentary/photographic proof of your findings - good scientific practice demands good record keeping as much as conducting good experiments.

In this situation I would recommend discussing with your PI the situation, pointing out that you made this observation a year ago. Be careful not to sound bitter and/or accuse your colleague; very few of us have truly unique ideas and ideas alone are no good if not followed up properly. So I think the best you can hope for in this situation is maybe to see if you can get co-credit, and learn from this experience so that you take more care in the future to be active in your ownership of work.

It depends on the university and the terms/conditions of whoever is providing the funding for the project. It would be best to contact them directly as we can't be sure.

If it said it's open to students from all countries, it's likely that they will cover the extra fees, but you really need to ask them.

======= Date Modified 19 Feb 2012 15:49:39 =======
I think the best way to decide is to try to work out what kind of jobs you would like to do in the short to medium term and then find out if a PhD would help you or hinder you. For example, in some fields, having a PhD is very useful for consultancy work (I have a friend who did a PhD in molecular genetics who is moving into that area). But in some fields, industrial experience might be considered more valuable. If you do decide to do a PhD and you know you don't want to stay in academia, then I would recommend choosing a project with a very clear applied component to it. If you do something totally theoretical, perhaps future employers won't see the value in it. But I am not an expert in IT so you should get guidance from someone who knows your area better.

Good luck.

[Edited to add - you might also want to look at your university's reputation for research/PhDs. Talk to existing PhD students about how much support they get and what they plan to do next]

Ask other students in your dept what societies they belong to and how they fund conferences.

They're generally not too difficult to join, but some are more beneficial than others. Don't get too carried away as the costs will mount up.

It's also likely that your uni will have some funds available for such purposes but look at this now as they sometimes have limited deadlines for applications.

Hard to comment without knowing more about the context, but it may simply be that they have all the help they need right now, especially if lots of people are trying to boost their CVs with voluntary experience.

Also, volunteers still come at a 'cost' to some organisations, if only in the time required to manage them/process whatever admin needs doing, so it's not in an organisation's interests to just keep on taking volunteers indefinitely.

Is there another organisation that might appreciate your skills/qualifications?

Belated congrats, Dr Sneaks :)

======= Date Modified 11 Feb 2012 00:26:56 =======
I think the reality lies somewhere in between your two perspectives on this.

Bewildered, international (non EU) visas have been significantly reduced in recent years, to the concern of some senior academics:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11490403
So yes, departments have a healthy international mix, but many of those academics will have come here before the rules tightened. I don't know if it has become harder to appoint new non-EU people as a result.

Human, I suggest that for any job that you think is suitable, unless it clearly says that it is for UK/EU only, you are probably fine to apply. If you are the best person for the job, then you will get it. If you're in doubt then you can always email an administrator before you fill out the forms.

For PhD funding the picture is a little different - as you will see on findaphd.com most studentship are UK only or UK/EU only. But things are more open for post doc jobs.

Sure, but equally sometimes we make the task expand to fit the time available. Sometimes rather than slowly hacking away at something while feeling jaded, it can be more efficient to down tools and go and do something else for a short while, then return to the task with more enthusiasm.

Given that one of the main issues was the thesis length, and there has been the option to address this in part by simply removing some chapters rather than having to find words to cut all over the place, it seems to me that it is entirely feasible to finish this before the year is up. But it requires the right focus, and perhaps a proper week away from looking at the thing might help Pineapple to do this.

If I recall correctly you still have 5 months to finish this. And most of the revisions are to do with reducing the length of the thesis and tightening it up, rather than having to carry out more work.

Would it be such a bad idea to take a week or two's holiday now? You sound pretty jaded and worn down by the process. Maybe a break would help you return to it with more enthusiasm.

First of all - DEEP BREATHS! :)

Now, regarding your anxiety with regard to dealing with the corrections - do you have a friend in your department/group who could look over a sample of them with you to see if they think that you've addressed them correctly? It sounds like you could do with the reassurance of a second opinion.

*IF* you are in a subject like maths, or if you don't have to do novel data collection, or you were able to hit the ground running because of previous work on the topic, and you don't go down too many blind alleys then yes it might be possible.

But for the sake of your sanity I think it's probably better to reconcile yourself to doing it for 3 years, and finding ways to make it more interesting for yourself. You also need to factor in the fact that even once you submit there can be quite an interval before the viva and final acceptance, so bear that in mind.