Depending on your subject and who funds you, it can be as rigid as a full time job - i.e. some Research Councils only allow you 24 days holiday per year etc. I know some people working in labs who have to book their holidays off and be in the lab by 9am every day, and some people who just seem to disappear for weeks on end...

Academics are only really close-knit in terms of field, so you could probably get away with it unless the two PhDs are very similar, or in the same Department!

Male opinion on this thread is curiously absent! I say bugger it all, I'm sure you all look lovely

Cheers Team

Yeah Don't worry Pea, you've got the thumbs up from us (thumbs)

We need the Smiley - PGFT, can you cheer Pea up and make it happen!

There was actually an ESRC-funded PhD project in coffee culture done at the University of Glasgow a year or so back.

http://web.ges.gla.ac.uk/~elaurier/cafesite/index1.html

Seemed to involve talking to people drinking in coffee shops. Nice.

Or EU citizens. Not Yemen.

Oh dear facebook...why write a PhD when you can spend a happy few hours stalking people from the comfort of your own desk!

I believe the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL has a good Condensed Matter group. www.cmmp.ucl.ac.uk

According to their website they have an open day on the 21st of February...

oops browsing, I haven't got my glasses on

My supervisor once caught me brosing this site with my feet up on the desk...

The Environmental field is very competitive so I was always told a Masters would be a good idea, as long as it's quite specific (e.g. an MSc in Environmental Impact Assessment, or Wildlife Conservation) and not a generic 'Environmental Science' Masters. I think they are more like conversion courses for people coming from different areas, though I'm not too sure.

Depends what field you want to go into though. If you wanted to work in an Environmental Consultancy then I get the impression from when I was applying for jobs that a Masters and a year or two of work experience is pretty crucial.

Hope that helps.

Ooops sorry Miss!

It depends on your project I suppose, but on the whole they are very specialised in subject. However, they can be very broad in terms of field, data handling/analysis and other transferable skills that you'll learn on the way.

Apparently Lancaster is quite good and includes a placement project I think. I've had friends do the one in Cambridge and they seem to have done well www.geog.cam.ac.uk/graduate/mphil/esd/