My sympathies and provided you did exactly what the external examiner wanted (you did do this, didn't you?), what a strange decision?

You can appeal on the grounds that you did exactly what was asked of you, however, be aware that the best outcome you can hope for is re-examination and re-viva by two different examiners.

If you exhaust all forms of internal appeal, there's the University ombudsman.

http://www.oiahe.org.uk/

However, the ombudsman should only be contacted once all other forms of appeal are exhausted. Any appeal would have to be over procedure rather than the result itself and again the best outcome would be re-examination by different examiners.

Ian

My predecessor suffered from dyslexia. I'll e-mail him and ask if he wants to get in touch.

Ian

There's already been some good advice given, so all I'll add is most people will find sometime in their lives they come across a stumbling block they struggle to get past. In your case, you already have a 1st class degree, on the basis of which they've accepted you outright. You're struggling with one unit of your Masters and that's not the end of the world. Do the best you can, get your pass mark and move on.

If a Desmond like me (albeit backed up later with Masters) can obtain a PhD with minor corrections, you'll have nothing to worry about.

Ian

Unless there are personal reasons why you need to stay in London, then as already mentioned I would look outside if money is an issue. I will counter that, however, by saying that the further away from London and the south east you are (with exceptions such as Aberdeen for the oil industry) , the fewer opportunities in general that exist. Even with me realising the above points, because I live up in NE England it still took me nearly a year after my second post-doc to find an industry-based job.

Ian

I wouldn't rule out other post-docs in different groups or Universities, simply because you had a bad experience n a certain lab whilst you did your PhD. There's good and bad out there, as I know from a good PhD and first post-doc experience at my PhD Uni., but a poor experience at my second post-doc Uni.

I have made the transition to industry, though there was an element of accident rather than design due to my poor 2nd post-doc experience. In my case, I fell back upon pre-PhD skills to finally find myself a job as I'd come from industry to do the PhD.

1) You need to take a look at what skills you have acquired during your PhD and elsewhere. This will give you an idea of the kinds of job you can do, both within and outside academia.

2) On applying for jobs, it's not that likely you'll find a perfect fit for your skills to that job and employers are aware of that. You thus look for a close match that will give you a fighting chance of getting to interview stage. Training for the job will probably fill in the gaps.

3) Tailor your CV and covering letter to show, whilst remaining honest, a potential employer why you might be a good fit for the job. Use language that sells you in terms of "goals" you "achieved" rather than your CV or covering letter being a bland statement of jobs you did. Team or group achievements also sell better.

4) On gaining an interview, continue to sell yourself and use positive language about your life, experiences and achievements.

5) A willingness to work is also a big plus. In the short term, be prepared to take any job you can do rather than looking for your perfect job. It is better to be employment active whilst looking for that better job rather than waiting 18 months on unemployment benefit. Even voluntary work is better than nothing.

I'm going to disagree here.

If you're going to chase this up, ONLY do it via your supervisor and then check by say every six weeks or so at most just to let people know you still exist. The last thing I would want was a candidate coming back every couple of weeks when I have to fit re-reading an entire thesis in with my other work (lecturing, marking undergrad and masters work, research, administration, etc.).

I'm afraid it's submit revised thesis and then get on with your life, find a job, resume whatever activities you did in your private life from before. At some indeterminate period in the future, they'll get back to you when they are good and ready.

Waiting for examiners to read the thesis in the first place (prior to initial viva) and re-read in the case of resubmission can take three months in the first instance and even longer in the second. It's better to be a patience than a pain, especially if he's pedantic like you say.

Ian

I guess it depends upon the quality and quantity of data produced during your PhD, whether included in the thesis or not. The experimental rig I was using seemed to literally print the original data itself (commented upon by my predecessors), so I think my experience at least once the PhD was finished was very atypical of that faced by PhD and post-doc researchers.

2 papers were published during my PhD and one immediately after, where I was a contributing author (I'm strangely listed as first author on two, though it was largely someone else who wrote the papers), with the data from one of these also appearing in my thesis. This fits in with the expectation of a PhD student, with the publication of two or three papers either during or after their PhD along with a couple of conference proceedings being typical. More often or not, this ends up commonly being one paper (less commonly two) plus a conference proceeding and a couple of posters.

The time pressures during a PhD mean that there isn't the scope to write large numbers of papers for journals. Some people wait until after the PhD to publish a paper or two when there is more time to review the data and the pressure to finish is gone.

The large amount of data generated in my case meant once the PhD was finished and I had time to review the data, I managed 6 journal papers as first / corresponding author with a further short communication unpublished (but downloadable). One paper used a substantial study not included in the final thesis due to time constraints. In addition, a book chapter resulted from the thesis and related data.

It looks better on your CV or resume if you can print to as high an impact journal as possible preferably as a first and / or corresponding author. This improves your profile at least in applying for academic and University-based research posts.

Also remember to compress from thesis to key literature, data and discussion only for journal.

Ian

I got to two post-docs before leaving for the outside world. I will comment, however, if it hadn't been for a particularly nasty second post-doc with some bizarre personalities then I'd have been happy to push the academic route a little longer as I was enjoying the research component at least.

As Hazy Jane says, your skills may offer you a wider range f options than you think. When you browse job adverts, look at it from a point of view of what jobs you can do. You will realise there are more options than you think.

The hard part is you're a PhD holder entering the real world. The PhD will put some people off. With respect to this, fill up the first page of your CV with works experience and skills, demoting your PhD and other academic qualifications to the second page so "Uni. Uni. Uni." doesn't scream at them from the first page. Taylor your skills on your CV and covering letter to the post you are chasing to appear the ideal candidate for the position and tell the potential employer what they need to hear.

The subject of PhD, moving on when something better comes along and / or being bored easily with the post will come up if you reach interview. You therefore need to explain why this is not the case and why you find the post advertised an interesting one. Add why you want to change direction from academic to industry. I commented in interview that I was looking for a change of pace in a move to a more challenging environment, though the answer you give may depend upon what job you are moving to and what you feel is the right thing to say.

Finally, as much as you may be tempted do NOT remove your PhD, passing your PhD off as a research assistant post, as this can be seen as dishonesty by some employers.

Ian

Once again, I'll post up a link to my blog. :-)

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net

The masters will bump you up one notch from 2(ii) to 2(i) equivalent as SimonG says, giving you the bare minimum for PhD consideration. This would normally be a minimum for funding, however, you'll have to check on this with you not being an EU national. I will note that with there being more 2(I) qualified people with Masters up to at least merit level, competition has increased.

The University you qualified from in Nigeria will have some bearing. If it's an established, well known one then that will be a big help. However, there are organisations in Nigeria which are little more than institutions on paper and this makes Universities wary elsewhere in the world.

I'll comment my PhD University had two Nigerian masters students who were really top of their game. One of my colleagues and I tried to persuade them to remain for PhD. They decided to return home to start careers instead, which is a shame as one of them at least could have gone on to be a top notch scientist. They'd come from decent Universities in Nigeria and the quality of their work showed that.

Ian

The expectation will be that the University copies for the library and supervisors will be black and gold leaf print.

However, your own copy can be any colour you like.

However, red and white stripes and the below badge was not possible for the cover of my hard bound copy (Mackem -> Sunderland -> please feel free to take the p*ss). :-)

Ian

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/77/Logo_Sunderland.svg/1229px-Logo_Sunderland.svg.png

Hmm, I could get into the eternal argument of "easier degrees", students given too much of a helping hand compared to the past, modular assessment rather than exams at end and reduced exam contribution to the overall mark making courses easier to pass, however, the arguments are far more complicated than that. As it happens, the old exam-based system to me tested memory rather than critical analysis. Whilst exams have their place, I'm more interested in the critical analysis skills of a person than some obscure fact they crammed for an exam that they'll never use again. I'm therefore a fan of coursework and think the problem lies in difficulty setting and possibly over lenient marking in the case of a very few members of academic staff.

Whatever the content and assessment regime of your course, you still have a first class degree and that is an achievement in itself. You therefore already have a set of background research, the motivation to seek out extra information above and beyond that lectured to you (the difference between 2(i) and a first) and critical assessment skills that will help you in your PhD that you will have used to achieve your first. So if you want to do a PhD, give it a shot as I think you're worrying unnecessarily.

If this is down to not being sure what a PhD entails, have a look at my blog and have a read through.

http://www.wearthesis.talktalk.net

Ian