Hi PhDer

I've done some book reviews in my time - they don't take quite as long as you might think, but they're very easy to keep putting off (!).

I'd set aside some dedicated time and try and get the book read in a few sessions, making notes as you go.

I tend to structure actual reviews as summaries. Introduce the material, then offer a precis of the main arguments on a chapter-by-chapter basis, assessing any strengths or weaknesses as you go. This is helpful for readers as they get a sense of what the book actually covers as well as your appraisal of it. It's also quite easy to organise and write a review this way. You can sign off with a general summary of the book, suggesting who it would be most useful to, what further avenues for inquiry it implies and any significant limitations or potential it has.

Hope that helps a wee bit - happy to try and help answer any more specific questions.

Mark

Hi Confused

I'd certainly not sniff at the Oxbridge reputation, but I would weigh it up with a few other factors. When you come to apply for academic posts the experiences and development opportunities you gain during your PhD will be just as important as the awarding institution - if not more so.

Think about who you'll be working with, how well the the research culture of your department fits your project, etc. Institutional reputation isn't necessarily as important as the more specific reputation and experience of your supervisor and department.

It can be hard to assess all this as a prospective student, but it's worth having a go.

There's a lot to be said for having full funding too. It'll make your experience of the PhD a lot more pleasant and rewarding (as TreeofLife points out) and having won and completed a research council scholarship also says something about your quality in and of itself (and, potentially, your ability to win further project funding as an academic).

Hope that helps a wee bit

Mark

Hi Kyle

29th May was the deadline for the end of an open consultation process, during which the government invited feedback on its loan proposals. There should be a report on the results of that consultation within the next week or two - we'll be keeping the information on FindAMasters.com updated:

A final reminder for this folks:

The consultation process ends tomorrow, so there's one day left to take part.

There's been some very vibrant discussion of funding and finance related topics around here recently - if you're eligible to contribute to the consultation, you can let the government know what you think about their own plans to mix up the economic landscape for PGT and PGR students.

Hi Dodottung

I'd admit I didn't know and make a note of the suggestion. That's the honest response and it's quite a common one.

Questions at conferences are often quite exploratory: 'what do you think of / have you considered x' rather than 'tell me the answer to y, now!'

People often ask questions because you've sparked their interest about something or touched on a related topic they know about. They almost certainly won't be looking to try and catch you out.

It's also fine to take a moment to collect your thoughts before answering. Noone's going to judge you for thinking at an academic conference ;)

Hope you have a great time - the first conference experience is pretty exciting.

Mark

Hi Mes

I applied for a mortgage successfully along with my partner in 2012 - albeit as a part-time PhD student.

The difficulty you'll have will be getting around lenders' hesitancy re. short-term contracts (this is how they'll probably view a funded studentship or other work such as casual teaching assistantships). If you can present income in the form of an ongoing contract you'll be in a much stronger position.

We succeeded in the end by going through a broker. They charged a small fee, but were more than worth it. My advice would be to try something similar - they'll be better placed to take stock of your situation and present it to banks. Ours didn't actually charge anything until they'd found us a mortgage.

Hope that helps a bit - it's not impossible, but it may be tricky.

Mark

Re. the under-30 limit for the UK loans - the Government is justifying the cap on the basis that under 30s apparently face the greatest financial barriers when considering further study. They've released evidence and rationale for this, which may be of interest:

Hi folks

That's an interesting suggestion re. the search feature - I'll pass it on.

There is currently an option to filter searches by EU (non-UK) citizenship (you can select this using the 'funding' options). That should remove any projects that don't offer any funding at all to non-UK nationals.

However, the amount of funding available may still differ between individual projects. This is partly because a large number of PhDs in the UK are supported through the UK Research Councils.

The funding they allocate is public money, derived from UK taxpayer revenue, etc. EU regulations require that all citizens have equal access to public funding for degree programmes, but that doesn't extend to the maintenance grant (which doesn't pay fees for the degree).

This general policy only applies to Research Council funding; individual universities are free to provide fees and maintenance awards to students of any nationality, at their discretion. Some may also choose to supplement Research Council awards for EU students.

I appreciate that this can be frustrating for EU students and that it's crucial to be aware of funding criteria when applying for a project. I'd suggest confirming funding details early in the process.

Most of the projects on FindAPhD.com will have information on funding in their project descriptions, but you can always use the email enquiry feature to query or double-check this.

It's also possible to combine funding from a range of other sources. Our sister-site, www.postgraduatefunding.com lists a large number of awards available to 'top-up' PhD funding.

As I say, I'll pass on the feedback re. search filtering.

Thanks

Mark

Just a quick reminder about this, folks.

However you feel about the recent election result, the government will be pressing ahead with some pretty significant postgraduate finance reforms - for Masters and PhD students.

If you're likely to be affected, you've got two more weeks to make your voice heard as part of the open consultation.

Cheers!

Mark

Hi Spidermanspiderman

You're right that the credits for a Masters degree and a Postgraduate Certificate break down that way, but I'd be quite surprised if an institution allowed you to gain the PGCert by just submitting a dissertation.

The dissertation component of a Masters is what differentiates it from other postgraduate qualifications, as the candidate carries out independent academic research or professional project work.

The PGCert and PGDip, on the other hand, are more concerned with acquiring a more specific suite of advanced skills and / or academic subject knowledge.

In addition, as chickpea, points out, the taught component of a Masters plays an important part in preparing students for the dissertation phase.

If I were you I'd take a look at some Masters programmes in subjects you're interested in. You'll probably find that they actually allow (indeed, require) a fair amount of independent and self-directed study even during their taught components (scratching that research itch). Most courses will also allow students to enrol part-time or by distance learning.

Hope that helps a bit

Can you chat to your MA thesis supervisor about it? Mine was a big help when it came to selecting and re-framing a chapter of mine.

I suspect that depends on the journal and the field. In my area (humanities) I'm aware of at least one journal with a fairly long waiting list. I'd imagine science journals need to pay greater attention to the timeliness of the research they publish - particularly for data-centric pieces.

Journals may have something of a bottleneck, as large numbers of academics seek to place publications in issues that come out in time for a REF. I've never seen this given as a reason for rejection myself though.

I'd have thought it would make more sense for an editor to simply accept a paper for a future issue?

Do you mean conference papers? - I tend to leave myself sufficient time before the event to plan and write them. They're usually derived from whatever I'm currently working on, so it's not a major detour. A 2-2.5k paper typically takes me a day or so of writing, depending on how much of it draws directly from existing work.

Publishable pieces take longer, but, again, I tend to dedicate blocks of time to them - usually between PhD chapters, etc.

Hi Nesrine

I'm also Humanities and have published a few pieces during my PhD. With the exception of one journal article that was a polished up version of my MA diss', they've mostly been related to my thesis. In my area it's not necessarily a problem to incorporate previously published material in a monograph (provided its reworked and acknowledged).

To be honest, you seem to have the right idea about this. Publications look great on a C.V. and may make some difference in a competitive job market, but they involve a lot of additional work. Even if the material you submit is strong, you'll still have to devote some time to responding to peer review. Having support from your supervisor will probably make that easier.

One thing to bear in mind may be stage of the REF-cycle you're planning to enter the job market at. Having some existing publications may make you more attractive to institutions looking to boost their submissions (particularly smaller universities) but larger universities may not be too concerned (they'll probably have a stable of academics with strong monograph entries ready to go).

Hope that helps a wee bit - as I say, it sounds like you've thought this through quite thoroughly already, so it probably is down to your workload.

Mark