Hi, I cannot get the first two either, but I have access to the European Human Rights Law Review. Drop me a PM with your email.

I read the abstract first, if that grabs me or it is relevant then I read the introduction and the conclusion. After that I put it in either of these folders: ***=very important, must read; **=seems relevant, skim read and see; *=not directly relevant, but might be an interesting read. So far this system has worked quite well for me.

Last week I broke my right arm (don't ask...), I have a lit review due next week, so decided to invest in a dictation software. It's absolutely brilliant! Makes taking notes a lot faster. I managed to read through 4 really important articles yesterday, I was setting aside 2 days for that originally, when I wanted to note something I just dictated it and it saved me loads of time.

Another great gadget is my Kindle, makes life a lot easier (and travel a lot lighter).

Agree with the others. You should definitely get in touch with them, the sooner the better. Just tell them that you are very sorry, but your paper needs more results.

(And please don't lie to them. In the last two years I've been helping to organise a postgraduate conference at my uni. We received an abstract from a PhD student last year and the year before that as well who pulled out both times in the very last minute. His excuse? His dad has just passed away. Both years just 2 days before the conference...)

I'm at UCL, but I have a friend who is at Durham. Durham is definitely cheaper, and to tell the truth my friend seems to enjoy his MA at Durham more than I enjoyed mine at UCL. Of course there is a huge difference from department to department, but I would go with Durham, on the basis of what I heard from him. Btw, he is doing an MA in History.

At the moment I'm on 15.2GB. That includes PDFs and a lot of scanned in/photographed archive stuff that I need.

Sooo... I took the plunge and ordered a Kindle from Amazon on Friday. I think it should arrive either tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday. I tried out a friend's Kindle for a day, and I think it will really help in making my life easier, and I will definitely save loads of money by not printing out all those Pdf articles. Obviously I will still print out the really important ones.

Same here. I'm also at the beginning of my PhD and I contacted quite a few academics. All of them were very helpful, or if they could not personally help much they always recommended that I get in touch with a colleague of theirs. I think the majority of them like it when budding academics contact them and ask about their work, they see it as a compliment.

Yep, I can get it. PM me your email and I send it to you.

I think you would only be eligible for a fees studentship from the Research Councils. But, maybe the uni has something? A lot of the unis have funding for non-EU students, but you might have to be a certain nationality for that. E.g. my uni has a special scholarship for people who are coming from the Commonwealth. Ask at the uni.

I don't put anything in my hair, wash it, let it dry and the comb it. But!!! I have a brilliant hairdresser who cuts it in a way that I don't need to do anything. Although I need to have a cut every 1 1/2-2 months, otherwise my hair looks crap. Btw, I have shoulder length hair with layers.

Thanks Jane. Isn't the Block Grant and the quota awards the same thing? Or I'm just getting confused with all these different award types.

How did you re-apply? Do you have to submit a new proposal? What paperwork did you need to have?

Hi Stressed, thanks. I asked my sup and he wasn't sure, but then I'm his first PhD student, so never had to look into this. In the AHRC guidelines it does say you can apply again, but then my departmental graduate tutor wasn't sure. He said he will look into it, but that was 3weeks ago, and now he stopped replying to emails...

Ok, so I got an interview for a quota place but in the end didn't get funding. I was told however, that I was runner-up by my sup (who, I think, was told by his friend who was on the panel).

Any idea whether I could re-apply for an AHRC quota? So the funding would start from the second year of my PhD.

Any advice greatly appreciated! :-)