No personal experience but it sounds fine in theory. As you probably know, you won't get PhD funding with a 2.2 alone, but I would have thought a good Masters would rectify that.

Kind of depends on what the competition is like.

Forgot to say - you might well have to pay your stipend back. I left after 18 months, a bit before the end of a quartly installment and ended up paying back about 10 days worth. But given that, by your own admission, you haven't been there long and haven't really done anything, I wouldn't be totally shocked if they asked for the money back.

I spent ages trying to find out that kind of thing from my funding council's website, but to no avail - they don't seem to be geared up to what to do if someone quits!

I'm a PhD dropout but my circumstances were very different to yours. Before you take any action I would suggest some or all of the following:

1. Bear in mind that you've only been going for a few weeks. That probably isn't enough time to get a feel for what doing a PhD is like - I'd be reluctant to be sure that my heart wasn't in something after such a short time.
2.Talk to other students in your subject area/the graduate tutor in your department/your supervisor and see what they have to say.
3. Think about what made you want to do a PhD in the first place. This is really important. In what way has your experience so failed to reflect your expectations? Is this mismatch rectifiable? Do you *want* it to be rectified?
4. Make the decision for yourself. Guilt tripping yourself because of other people's expectations/the university's funding isn't going to make you not feel miserable if the entire path is wrong for you.
5. Consider a deferment of some sort - asking if you can suspend your project for a few weeks/months while you have a break and some thinking time. Would be better than throwing away the opportunity entirely.

Good luck!

Hazy

Everything A116 said.

You might also like to involve a student rep/someone from HR in any face to face discussions you have with her. You'll probably find she'll be incredibly nice and supportive if there's an official witness!

I know an MRC-funded student who had 6 months paid maternity leave via her studentship. There is no reason for this to be an issue.

Don't know what field you work in, but if it's lab based, make sure that none of your work would adversely affect your pregnancy.

Oh, and congratulations! :D

EVERYONE who works in a lab screws up experiments from time to time. I'm sorry to say that this won't be the biggest mistake you ever make!

Whilst your supervisor's cashflow problem might explain her reaction, it does sound like she is taking an unreasonable amount of her frustrations out on you. Given that she's getting a free research assistant out of you, this is somewhat stupid.

Is there any reason you've not applied for a paid job? You sound more than capable of getting a research tech, if not research assistant post. It sounds like you would also benefit from having a more encouraging mentor. Plus working in a variety of places can be a useful experience.

If I were you I would go and get paid work elsewhere, until you start your PhD. And don't think of working with her for a PhD unless she sorts out her funding issues and her attitude.

In terms of picking up vocabulary, the best thing you could probably do is read, read, read! Pick up a bunch of papers from your field and make a note as you go along of any words that you wouldn't normally use yourself, or aren't confident you know the meaning of. Try incorporating them gradually into your work.

Get people who you trust and who have good writing skills to look at your work from time to time and offer honest feedback on how you're doing.

Go to a decent bookshop and have a browse of books in the grammar/style section. Only you will know what suits you and is written at the right level for the skills you want to develop.

Be aware of the audience - you must pitch your writing differently according to who is likely to read it, and what kind of writing (essay, journal article, lit review, informal article) you're supposed to be doing. I hope it doesn't sound patronising to point this out. It's just that I've recently been doing some editing or a magazine written by undergrads, and the number of them who don't know how to write *appropriately* for the type of piece that they are doing is quite depressing.

Finally

Just in case walminskipeas struggles to remember the name...

Have you tried Googling hospital management research? I think you might be more likely to find an answer than you will on here.

A piece of advice for making applications to the AHRC:

I don't know if it's the same in the arts, but in the sciences very few academic positions are *just* research or *just* lecturing. Most jobs involve both. So, in writing a personal statement about your aspirations, you might want to seek guidance as to how much to emphasise your desire to be a lecturer. I don't know if funding bodies consider that to be a plus point, or would rather that people had more of a reserch interest. Just something to think about when constructing your application.

Flippin heck Jouri, that was a bit harsh. There are plenty of people who have complained more about less on this forum.

The money thing is a problem I've seen elsewhere - stipends being paid weeks after they were supposed to, resulting in students having to borrow money to pay rent. There do seem to be different sets of rules dictating how one is treated according to whether one is a staff member or a student.

If you have a departmental graduate tutor, maybe it's worth having a chat with him/her. Or seeing if other PhD students in your group are having similar problems. If these things are affecting a number of you then maybe someone will take more notice if you present your case together.

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Perhaps I'm missing something but I'm a little unsure as to why you're considering doing a PhD, beyond the fact that you're an intelligent person expecting to do well in your undergraduate degree. Progression from bachelors/masters study to PhD is by no means an easy or natural progression. Generally it is pursued by people who have a passion for research in general and/or learning more about a specific topic. It also helps if you have an aim in mind (e.g. doing a PhD will help me become an academic/improve my job prospects/fulfill a lifelong ambition etc).

If you're thinking about it because you can't think of anything else to do and cos it seems like the default for smart people, I would advise against it. Sorry to be blunt, but you'll save yourself a lot of despair in the long run. If, however, you have other motivations, then I would suggest getting some experience of a research environment (e.g. as a research assistant) and/or doing a Masters. If you can't work out what kind of speciality you might choose in a Masters, it's not looking promising for you to find a PhD project that would suit you.

It's not too late at all to apply for a Masters for next year. In fact some of the adverts might not be out yet. Have a look at www.findamasters.com as a starting point, but also look at the websites of individual universities as they might have additional courses not (yet) advertised.

Regarding likely working hours, it will vary from project to project and in different fields but I think the general expectation is a minimum of the equivalent of Mon-Fri 9-5. The reality is usually (a lot) more.

Good luck with your deliberations. :)

If you've been going through a difficult situation, then e 3 day break is hardly anything. You need some proper time to recuperate.

Might be worth going to your GP, particularly if it persistss for more than a couple of weeks. You never know - you might be anaemic or something. But any medical thoughts should come from a doctors, so make that your port of call pretty soon.

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I do know people who have done part time lab based PhDs but the other half of the time they are working as research assistants in the same lab. Therefore they do have a bit more flexibility over how they manage their time and dual projects - they could set up a PhD experiment and do some RA work while it's running, for example.

I don't know if it would be possible to do it part time and literally only be there for half the week. If it is possible at all, then I would imagine it would work better if you were willing to give 2-3 whole days a week to it, rather than 5 half days. The latter is the path to insanity and frustration, when you turn up and find a piece of equipment on the blink, or an experiment over-runs. It would take you way more than 6 years to finish doing it that way, and you would waste a lot of time.

Have you actually checked whether a PhD will improve your career prospects? It might not be crucial. Certainly doing one just for the sake of ticking a box on an application form won't give you much joy.

Oh, one other thing. Another advantage of working as a tech/research assistant first is that it gives you a better appreciation of (i) the reality of the projects and (ii) the kind of group you're in, before you commit yourself to a PhD. Having dropped out of a PhD myself (and looking to do another one in the future) I cannot emphasise enough the need to feel assured about both the nature of the project and knowing what makes you tick as a researcher, as well as assessing how you interact with potential supervisors.

Try http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ as a starting point.

If you want to do a PhD in biology, then you don't *need* a masters (unless you want to do a PhD in a topic unrelated to what you have previously studied) although doing one may be beneficial, and a 2(i) is fine.

What I would recommend, however, is that you get some experience before you launch into this, particularly if you have confidence issues. A PhD is not the pathway to personal affirmation and reassurance. Which doesn't rule you out of doing one if you lack confidence or have been depressed (I speak with some experience here) but it would be really beneficial if you came to a PhD well equipped in that regard. And I think the best way to do that would be to get some research experience without the pressure of a PhD first. So apply for some research technician/research assistant jobs, get stuck in, start learning, and feel your confidence grow as you develop skills without having the whole 'Oh my goodness my funding runs out in X months/years and I have no data' stress of a PhD.

If you do think of doing a Masters (which you're too late for this year, but could do next September, either self funded (you have 12 months to save, or apply for funding)) then choose wisely. Pick something that is actually going to plug a skills or knowledge gap, rather than just doing one for the sake of it. If you don't manage to get any research experience before then, consider doing an MRes as this might help you feel more confident about applying for PhDs.

Good luck! Anything is possible.