I think you get people like that at all conferences. Well done for fending him off so well!

I think they like to show off and assume they know anything. Maybe he fancied you too and was hoping for a 'personal discussion' about the topic lol. - just like the 10 year old boy that punches the girl he likes :p

what did you find out about teetotallers? I don't drink (well I drink about 1 glass of wine every 4 months) - I hope you didn't find they go crazy! - maybe I should have wine tonight hmmm.

my experience over the last few months has actually been that more and more students want to go onto do PhDs - they see it as a great way to duck out of the unstable employment market, avoid tax, yet still receive a salary in a stable 3 year post.

my biggest tip would be watch out for mature students - they WANT to learn so can be a bit tricky - ask difficult questions and have often read ahead of the class. Have a few references to chuck at them if they challenge you - "if you refer to smith and jones 2005, they discuss that in greater detail, however....." It makes them think they are getting more out of the class and makes you think that you are able to handle all sorts of questions!

Prepare really well and take notes with you (although try to make sure you don't need them). To come across more knowledgeable have really empty slides i.e. 1-3 bullet points. This means you have to talk around the subject - which means you come across more intelligent, the students can't read ahead and get bored, they have to come to the lecture to work out what it is all about and they can't prepare annoying questions to stump you!

If you get annoying questions/challenges to what you present then use it as an opportunity to open it up for a debate - then you can tick your 'group working' box.

Mix up lecture sections with group tasks, get the students to do mini presentations/work in groups/solve set problems with innovative solutions.

Don't fall into the 'shouting circle' - don't start trying to shout over them if they are talking. Just be quiet and wait until they listen.

Good Luck - its not as daunting as you think!

I think it depends on your subject area. if you are doing research into things that are considered worthwhile then I doubt funding will run out. e.g doing research on the motivation of employees in financial institutions without the bonus culture ;-)

I think it also depends on other factors - what kind of government we get come the election, will they support higher education or raise tuition fees and undermine the whole system?

A lot of people I know have suggested that the olympics has taken a lot of funding out of universities. Not directly, but the money that would have been allocated to research councils etc. has gone to the olympics instead.

shouldn't the address be https:// to be properly secure?

Full time bug. But I tend to work very independently. I am have email contact with my sup, and I see her around the department in term time, but an actual meeting to discuss progress etc is about twice a year, once in sep and then once in about march. But I always have plenty to do and it all seems to be in the right direction.

Mine is like that - lots of different areas to cover - looks like I might take the same advice and change it in to 2-3 chapters rather than 2 big ones.

take a long good read of the article - you are bound to know more about the area - so why not alter your submission (when you do it) to critique the approach the other author has used. Or use it to demonstrate what he has missed out in his/her argument.

I had a heart leap moment when on google scholar a few weeks ago like this, but when I acutally read the article it was a load of rubbish!

well i have anonymised the interview transcripts - so the participants themselves wouldn't get too anxious (altho it is sooo obvious who some people are even with names removed) its more the organisation that would go mental.

how about a simple compromise - 1.5 space it rather than double space :-)

yeah, that's my worry too - my 1st study was doing interviews about peoples careers in certain gov't departments. Some of the material is very sensitive and would probably cause some kind of internal enquiry or something if it got out, especially to the press (although wish they would, then I could be the person to do it = DATA mmmm lovely DATA).

I did consider getting one of those online storage facilities, but had the same fears. My PhD looks at government data - so obviously I have to keep it as secure as possible.