No notes - no problems

People who ask this type of question should not be allowed to enrol on PhD programmes. This is because it is a foolish thing to ask. If you seriously belive to need more than ten years to complete the PhD, even in the US, just don't start, don't waste your supervisor's time and, most importantly, don't waste your own time. Life is too short for a decade of misery.

If you wish to study in places like Oxford, Cambridge or LSE, however, then you need to present a rational reason for this first. As you can see, on this forum there is a debate whether it is better to study in such places or not. Regardless of the debate, you should be aware that there will be more competition for PhD places in those institutions, even if you are self-funded. Better supervision is not always guaranteed, therefore look out for the most suitable supervisor first.

As others have said previously, at Ph.D level, the most important choice is not the university. Rather, finding the right supervisor will affect your studies and success. Therefore, I recommend that you focus less on university rankings and more on potential supervisors. Check online profiles, email them, phone them up, try to talk to them in person. You will then quickly see if a basis for future collaboration exists or not.

As you are self-funded, there is no barrier to you being accepted as a PhD student in the UK, in principle. As long as you show language skills, any second or third tier university will be happy to accept self-funded students as long as they can guarantee appropriate supervision capacities. Quite often in those places, all you have to do to get accepted is fill out an application form and show evidence of your bank account and funding. Plus, you can usually choose your own topic.

At the risk of appearing like the bad guy of the forum I would still like to indicate the following. From your posts, Bedr, it does not seem like you have sufficient grasp of the English language to pass any language test at this point in time, time pressure or not. Therefore I would advise you to take a private language course, study hard and re-take the language tests. You got to be honest to yourself, your English is full of mistakes.

Depends on the project and the overall word limit. If 80,000 is the target, your literature review would be anything between 20,000 and 30,000.

Well, I apologise for my somewhat harsh response this morning. I blame the CocoPops. Anyway, can you not retake the test? Why Oxford or Cambridge - any rational reasons?

My Engligh certainly isn't. My English isn't either, but that's not the point. The Original Poster doesn't fulfil the most simple of all criteria for PhD studies, hence a focus on learning English might be more appropriate thank asking if it was possible to start a PhD without said language course. He or she wants to do a PhD in Economics but doesn't even know how to spell that, quite shocking, actually.

Beverley, didn't see your whole post, sorry.

What I find remarkable is that no previous poster has told the original poster to learn the English language. Proficiency is likely to increase the chances of success in the PhD studies. In plain words. Learn English and don't post silly questions!

Good point, Shani. Between 1946 and 1985, my grandmother worked full time, despite being married. Between 1968 and today, my mother has been working full time, despite being married. I think this "burgeouis elite" as you call it must have been really tiny. In some European countries, it probably never existed as such. Also it would be interesting to see differences between European and North American countries.

I'm going through the same phase, for the last two weeks. Instead of working, I am currently wasting a lot of time and destroying the progress I made over the last few months. Last week, I've been to the beach every day instead of working. Today, I've been cleaning my car, inside, outside, every single wheel trim and so on to avoid actually doing some work. It's really bad.

In other words, the game exists, many do it, many opportunities exist with long working hours on the increase, but three factors equally remain. First, the game stinks, second, no one is forced to attend all the social events, people get paid for work, not for socialising, third, nobody will move up the ranks if they just participate in this game. Those people who are CEOs or School Deans or Prime Ministers are "usually" (with exceptions) the ones which stayed away from this type of thing.

We all know that some Undergrad girls or boys like to flirt with young lecturers to get better marks. If said member of staff chooses to play along with it, he or she displays professional misconduct, in my opinion, and takes advantage of the position of power. If it's true love, this is still the case, in my opinion.

Even between Phd Students and Research Assistants, it's not what I would call a career-enhancing move.

I think gay or straight is not the point here. In my opinion, I second everything Olivia has said. Everybody on here sounds so unprofessional. I never go to work socials, find excuses for not attending christmas parties, don't gossip and don't run into trouble. And still I see exactly all the stuff that is going on in my department, with the 60 year old married lecturer dating 18 year old students every single year and getting away with it despite being an open secret. I think such people are unprofessional. Dating at work brings nothing but trouble for the career, so if you can, try to stay out of it.