I've just had a reply from a US national park offering to set up some rangers and managers for me to talk to on my forthcoming research trip / holiday :-)

(Good end to a very long and tiring day spent in undergrad degree boards)

Take a look at your institute website - they may have masters which you can get exemptions on - or you can ask for APEL on otehr courses (I was exempt from the finance moduel on my MSc)

I started my maternity leave at the begining of September 1998 with only 600 words of my MA dissertation written. Handed in 23,000 words (including appendices) 31 September, went into labour on 19th October and gave birth 20th. It was tough but I did it.

You can do it but you will need to be spending evenings and weekend days as well as your one day a week (and forget going out). I was lucky when I did my MSc and was in last minute panic an working on it 20 hours a day for a week (yes really) - my husband used to cook me meals, make cups of tea and did all the looking after children and ferrying them to school and nursery. Do you have anyone who can do all the domestics and looking after you?

Good Luck!!

This is a great thread - we should all celebrate good things (even if they are only small).  Here's mine:

Although I spent three and a half hours in a degree classification board two of my students went up a classification (they were borderline) so I was really pleased

I redrafted a short piece outlining my research for a journal published in my uni (and which I can expand on for a piece for an international journal I have been asked to write an article for and which i was really struggling with)

I spent some time with my children (who are now tidying their bedrooms)

It's a lovely sunny day

My husband is back from his business trip (Ok so he came home yesterday but today was the first day for a few days I woke up next to him)

I had a facebook message from a PhD student in Australia who I met at a conference

Another thought - just because your was submitted first it doesn't follow that you couldn't have copied it - all that proves is you handed it in first (I used to leave it until the last day to hand something in, in case I wanted to make changes) - save everything (& print them out) in case you ned them.

I'm afraid you are being naive if you think a so called firend is going to just look at your structure (and I'm a bit concerned that you "think" you knwo who it is - how many people did you share your work with). I often ask students if they would leave their credit card and pin with another student and quite a few of them are horrified at the thought - how much more valuable is your own work than a credit card?

A couple of years ago I was teaching a research methods course and (again naively) shared the literature review for my completed MSc dissertation (another university, unpublished) as they were unsure about structure - one of the students copied huge chunks of it (including a layout typo, a diagram I adapted form a book published in 1974 which is not in our library). She still denies it depsite bein found guilty at the hearing, but since then I have become much more wary at sharing anything. I share very little now (see a previous posting about how much you should share of your research at conferences when again I have decided I am a bit naive)

I would keep anything you have - I would expect that you will be interviewed at some point. You can legitimately ask the university how long the process is going to take but you may just be told by the course leader that they can't talk about it to you and that a central person (academic advisor or similar title) is looking into it.

Universities have charitable status but that is only for donations ie not where you get something in exchange so that one isn't worth pursuing.


The best chance is for them to put it through their books as a cost of staff training which can be set against their corporation tax.  It would not be classed as a benefit in the same was as a car as the employer would be deemed to be getting benefit.


Any expenses that are solely and necessarily incurred as part of your employment can be offset so a PHD or masters is unlikely to be allowable - you would probably have to appeal against it and woudl be unlikely to succeed as it is not necessary for your job. The revenue are getting tougher on allowances now.  Professional fees are a different matter as they are required in order to work in that profession (eg accountant, doctor, lawyer etc are required to be registered) and so are necessarily incurred.


It been a few years since I worked as an accountant but if anything things are getting tougher to claim. Also note that when you claim against tax you only get tax relief on it so you don't get the full amount back, just the tax element (at your marginal rate). 

I think you need to be a bit more specific eg subject area, lifestage (eg mature, with/without kids, full / part time, qual/quant methodology ) Generally if you have a query people are pretty good at helping out but short of trite comments such as choose a topic that interests you, you'll get out of it what you put in, etc I can't think of anything particular advice.

To claim back VAT you have to be a VAT registered company or trader (selling goods which are Vatable - hence the difference between zero rated (vat set at zero so input vat can be claimed back) and vat exempt (no vat so no input vat reclaimable)). Individuals can't claim it back (there are different rules for non-EU tourists which can claim back VAT at the airport but then they shoudl declare what ever they buy when they go home and pay import duty on it).

My mum was once in a lift with Tom Selleck when he was filming Three Men and a Baby and apparently he is even more gorgeous in real life.

What usually happens is that both students are contacted and possibly interviewed - we had a situation a couple of years ago where two students who shared a flat handed in the same piece of work - it was indisputable and so they were both told that they would both be penalised - the one who copied fessed up and the other one was let off.  It sounds like they are focussing on the other student. If they don't fess up then you might have to be interviewed as well - it's fairly easy to find out who is the innocent party - you just need to ask a few questions about sources, what they were thinking etc.  If you have any previous drafts of the work or evidence of library usage (downloaded articles, or list of books you borrowed then you could mention those. Don't worry, you are innocent and should be able to prove it.

Coronation Street - whatever the disaster or whatever else there is always humour. I gave up Eastenders about 15 years ago - did flirt with neighbours when I was on maternity leave (having given it up after I graduated)

How it works at my univeristy is that I gave a letter from my employer confirming they will pay my fees, the university then raised an invoice which my employer paid. The employer then has an invoice/receipt which can be put through their books so although there is no VAt the cost should be allowable (but they shoudl check with the tax authroities in their country).

But it is very unusual that people are at home during the day - most people are out at work and so the noise of a child is not going to affect them.  I'm sure she would love a house with a garden for him to play in - most people with children don't chose flats; they have them because that is what they can afford / the council allocates them. Do you have any friends who are out at work in the daytime so you could camp at their place (in exchange for leaving making dinner occasionally)? Or as I said in my previous posting university libraries are dead at the moment - I was in mine last week and there were more staff than students!


I'm not unsympathetic as I am totally incapable of shutting noise out (and for that reason wouldn't live in a flat) - when I lived in London the neighbours who backed onto us were out in the garden every warm night in summer playing loud music and it drove me completely insane.  It's always difficult because different people like different music and I don't think most people are sensitive to other people - I hate noise and spend all my weekends turning off tvs and radios which my husband leaves on in any room in the house (AND HE LEAVES MY CAR RADIO ON RADIO 5!)

OK so I'm probably goign to get shot down by everyone else but here is my two penn'orth - I do have kids (11 & 9) and so have more experience of them than other posters and while I agree many parents don't discipline their children enough I think you are being unreasonable - you can't expect a toddler to sit still (and they are too young to reason with) - the only way that he will stop running around is if he were put in a playpen (very popular in the sixties) but that is hardly fair to him - he has probably only been walking properly for a few months and children need this running around as part of their development.  Why should he learn not to ply in his own home? Isn't there somewhere else you can work?  Most adults don't understand the demands of a PhD so how do you expect a child who can barely talk yet to?


Can't you decamp to someone else's house (who is out at work all day),uni libraries are dead now that undergrads have gone or failing that a cheap hotel?