*to

Jouri, it's probably best to ignore these types of posts rather than getting annoyed at them.

A few large threads have been deleted recently that people have took time out of their busy schedules to contribute too...for that reason I'll be less active on here.

I guess this will be deleted too...

Jouri, I've noticed unduly heavy editing too.

I'm not accustomed with this approach to submitting articles to journals.

But, if I were doing this, I would agree with what your supervisor says. I may consider adding an additional page with a short abstract or synopsis so it's easy for the editor to decide who are the most appropriate people to read it.

*data

Hamilton, your research experience may prove useful for the police as they now do lots of intelligence work e.g. date analysis and reports. A friend of mine worked as an intelligence analyst, and found it very interesting - some of the department were coppers and some were civvies.

I'll be taking whatever I can get!

Ideally I'd like to work in academia for 1/2 years, then go into the corporate world (although it depends how the corporate world responds to someone who will be in their 30s and not 20s... I think N. America is less ageist with respect to entry position jobs...so probably I'll have more luck there).

I've heard some stories of graduates having job offers withdrawn or contracts cut short due to the credit crunch, so an academic career is probably a more secure place to be at the moment.

The second source of funding comes from 7 Research Councils (divided by disciplines eg. ESRC or AHRC) which also distribute public money. The Councils deal purely with research and not funding for teaching. They offer individual research support rather than broad funding like the HEFCE. E.g. a small number of faculty members may apply for £100k for a two year research study, or a research centre may apply for £2 million.

Finally, research to a lesser extent is funding by charities (eg The Wellcome Trust), the European Union, the Commonwealth, the private sector etc.

It would interesting to know how the United States differs...

@Olivia, the main source of funding for uni's comes from The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) who distribute taxpayers money to all the universities for both teaching and research budgets. All UK universities, apart from the University of Buckingham, are publicly funded. The HEFCE works on behalf of the government. How exactly the division of public money is decided? I'm not entirely sure! But I know the RAE results play a crucial role in this allocation (...must find the exact details of this). This is why publication/research output is so important for university departments, and often quantity over quality is favoured.

Yes, I agree with HazyJane. Arrange a meeting asap, and contact your 3rd supervisor now.

Also, I forgot to add. Have a fellow science PhD or friend at the ready to proofread your thesis in early Sept. It will really save you some time.

^^ you're probably better starting a new thread to ask that question. Quite a few people have posted lately regarding PhDs and working or not working for pharma companies.

Lara, is the email in response to work you have given them? i.e. are they still planning on seeing you the coming weeks and sign forms etc, because the email doesn't seem to confirm that.

I think you need to determine exactly what their availability is and when they'll be back in their offices in Sept. You should definitely make use of your 3rd supervisor.

I'd say concentrate on the strengths of your thesis, and don't use your time learning stats. It's better to have stronger chapters, and one weak stats chapter than lots of weak chapters and a good stats chapter (although I'm not a scientist so I'm entirely sure just how crucial your stats chapter is).

Normally, students only swap universities if their supervisors move, and quite often you can't even move when that happens.

Unless you have a very good reason eg. the supervisor moving or research unit moving, I don't think it's possible. You'd have to check with the university you are thinking of moving to.

@Olivia, the RAE are probably the most objective assessment of universities in the UK. Everyone gets nervous because the rating determines how much research money each department gets for the next 7 years. If remember correctly only 8 of 70-odd law schools got a star last time.

The RAE is also used by The Times university rankings, and as you may know being in law (I think you're in law anyway?) LLM students are obsessed with the rankings.

The upshot is, come Dec/Jan, lots of hiring and firing will be done as departments adjust their budgets. I'm sure there will many nervous HoDs.

Well, my work has come to a stop over the past weeks, so I may have to join you guys on this thread! I need some accountability, or preferably a bomb up my...

I'll check in later with today's work!