How long have you got left on your visa? If you withdrawal/fail, will they tell immigration?

Hi, if you are self funded, it should be relatively easy to find another department to take you on without asking too many questions.

I wouldn't put 'post grad researcher' in your CV though because that's obviously ambiguous and a possible euphemism for "I started a PhD and it didn't work out'. Depending on your integrity/desperation, you are better off just making up something to fill the gap (maybe by extending the dates of a previous job/degree), or maybe not mentioning you were even in the country and saying you were working in home country since they are highly unlikely to check references then anyway.

But... I'm going to be blunt: you saying 'the original subject interest didn't work out' or that you didn't see eye to eye with your supervisors is a cop out. These things are irrelevant in research. No-one cares whether you like your subject or get on with your supervisors, or agree with their opinions. You should still be able to a PhD with these issues - many PhD students have them. No-one is going to take a student who tells them this was the situation in their previous position and this was the reason they failed.

You need to work out the REAL reasons you failed your MPhil, because if you don't identify, accept and deal with these reasons, then you are likely to have another failure.

They won't formally publish anything about you, but informally people talk so it can be difficult to hide the fact that you have started a Mphil previously.

Sorry to hear of your plight.

I'm not sure what can be done now. Why didn't you want to take the advice of your supervisors in the first place? Why didn't you ask for direct clarification rather than guessing what they wanted from you?

I think they are telling to withdraw rather than have them fail you because that will look slightly better.

I don't think you should look to these people for a reference because they are not probably going to give a favourable one.

Some people do get a second chance at a PhD, but really you need to be understand why this went wrong, otherwise, how are going to make the outcome of any second one any different?

I've never heard of it and I'd be very surprised if it's possible. A PhD is a research project, awarded upon completion of a thesis. You'd also probably need some sort of degree in English to do a PhD in literature.

First of all, congrats on passing the viva!

You can definitely still have an affiliation with your university even after you have graduated, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact I think even after you have left and moved to another institution, work from your thesis is often published under your old institution and just has an asterix with your new affiliation mentioned. Maybe check with your supervisor too?

I think you'll be fine. Most academics are pretty laid back and don't care what you do or how you do it as long as you get the work done. There are few horror stories out there but I think they are in the minority.

What if you submit next month, and take the risk to maybe get a revise and resubmit in one year with another viva? Is that an option? Of course, you may actually fail outright or just get an MPhil...

Is your other option to quit, or can you suspend your studies and resubmit at a later time?

Here is some more information on this. I think it is quite a good idea, especially as it's A-level teaching and provides time for research, although I don't see how one would survive on a salary of 17,000 pounds in London, since presumably this is taxed...

Check out the fulbright website: http://www.fulbright.org.uk/study-in-the-usa/postgraduate-study

They have lots of useful information.

Yes I'm sure there is something at your university somewhere. In my university the handbook was meant for all postgrad researchers - MRes students as well as PhDs. I know what you mean about needing structure too.

It is definitely worth asking your supervisor though, because even if it says you are allowed 6 weeks off, some don't want you to take it and think you should be working all of the time. I'm lucky and my supervisors know the value of taking a break.

Mine said to me it's best to take longer chunks of time off, rather than a few days or a week here or there because it's easier to manage experiments this way, but that very much depends on your type of research obviously.

My advice to you is take all the holiday you can, when you can. Don't feel guilty about taking the odd day here and there, or leaving in the middle of the day. You will make it all up and then some when your funding finishes and you still have a thesis to write! I wish I followed this advice haha

But in answer to your question, I would expect you would get the same holidays as a PhD student as an MRes student, not the same as an undergrad.

Your university will likely close over Christmas and Easter. You will find there will be very few students (and hardly any academics) in during this time. There is normally a good 10 consecutive days including closure days, bank holidays and weekends over Christmas, and 5 over Easter. My university is like a ghost town on the odd occasion when I have popped in for a few minutes during these holidays.

That's a very good stipend! Usually they are less than 14,000 pounds.

You won't have to pay bench fees (this is a fee for lab equipment that the lab gets directly, rather than your uni fees that go to the uni and dept, not your lab) if you are fully funded by the university.

You probably won't get any money for conference fees, but this is ok as most science students have to find the money for these from other places anyway.

there is no link

In my lab, we have one budget for everyone. This is a bit silly of course because some projects have much more expenditure than others. There have been many occasions when students are told they can't do something that month because the budget has been spent. We often have to use sub-optimal, time consuming protocols because the new techniques are more expensive.

My university also doesn't pay conference fees, but every student can apply to the alumni fund to get 400 pounds. We make up the rest by applying to scientific societies for their travel funds. I think this is quite normal. Some labs at my uni that have more money will pay for their students to attend conferences though - it's supervisory discretion.