This is not normal, this is ridiculous. You shouldn't be expected to submit a proposal when you haven't met your supervisors. I'm not sure how campus access worked with distance students, but someone needs to tell you this. At the very least there should be training sessions for you to attend, and it would be useful to know when seminars etc happen so you can meet other postgrads.

I would contact the postgraduate admin person and ask them for advice.

1. It's very rare for people to steal ideas 2. your idea probably isn't that original anyway 3. You shouldn't consider working with people that you think might steal your ideas.

Yeah, I think they are not bothered. Maybe we need to stream movies to use in lectures, maybe we are looking for anecdotes, maybe we are having a social gathering with our students... there's endless legitimate reasons why we could be looking at stuff that might seem inappropriate for our job role, but isn't, so I think they just leave us to get on with it.

What was your job role here?

You can appeal and this might lead to you being able to resubmit work, getting feedback and then getting it remarked. I don't know of anyone who has done this successfully though. Look at your appeals process on your uni website. But yes, I would probably just accept the result and move on if I were you. You got your MA and no one really cares about grading when applying for jobs or PhDs.

I don't think there's any risk of being 'caught' by the uni. I have never known anyone being caught for misuse of a computer. I mean, there's about 30,000 students and 10,000 staff at my uni. I don't think they scrutinise what we look at unless we are suspected or reported for something.

Yup, found my embargoed papers on there.

We don't use GRE in the UK, so this won't help you. You needs IELTS:https://www.ielts.org/

Scores required depend on uni.

If you're self/government funded you will easily get on a PhD.

I've done it (see my previous post).

I reckon if you're just going for a month just go on the visa waiver scheme? That lets you stay there for 3 months I believe, no visa required; of course it's supposed to be for tourism only.

Otherwise, you will need a J1 Scholar visa. There's 2 types:

1) J1 research scholar - This is good for 1 year, with the possibility for extension for up to 5 years total. Once you return to the UK, you would not be able to come to the US on a J1 visa for 2 years (I think this is negotiable though)

2) J1 short-term scholar visa - This is good for 6 months maximum and cannot be extended. However, there is no time restriction on returning to the US on a J1 visa afterwards.

Check this website, as my info may be out of date: https://j1visa.state.gov/. Plus I was getting paid by the US uni and it might be different if you're not.

For me, the university I was going to paid for the visa, otherwise it's about £600 I think - there's stuff for them to pay and stuff for you to pay. You have to go to the US embassy to get the visa. The process started in May and I went to the US in July. Visa turn around is a few weeks I think. Pretty forgone conclusion you would get it.

This website also has useful info: http://www.fulbright.org.uk/

I reckon go for longer than a month - you'll need it.

I think usually it's that you want to learn something from them. At least, that's what visitors to my lab have been doing. I did spend time in another lab as part of my PhD, but that was because they were part funding me and it was prearranged, so that was a bit different.

So, when you're there, make sure you learn what it is you went for, and then they are on hand to troubleshoot and help you afterwards

Wow, that's pretty shocking. So the piece was initially rejected from a special issue without even going for review, then it was reconsidered for something else and peer reviewed and then rejected, but then the editor published it anyway?! That editor can kiss their academic career goodbye then.

I doubt this is an administrative error. I worked at a journal briefly, and it would be pretty hard to make this kind of mistake. Even if the editor pressed the wrong button let's say, accept rather than reject, it would come up again and again as it was going through the publication process and the editor should recognise what articles are and know whether they are correctly included in issues or not. Especially one as high profile as this.

i'd explore other options too, for the reason Tudor says above, but also because you said getting a postdoc with your current supervisor is dependent on her getting a grant, and we all know how that goes...

Jambo, please try not to worry. You can't predict the outcome of your viva, which is completely at the whim of your examiners.

In my research group, I've seen examiners tell students their theses are wonderful, when I think they are average, and I've seen examiners tell students their theses are just acceptable, when I think they are pretty great, so what I'm saying is, it is irrelevant what anyone, other than the examiners, thinks.

This sort of thing happens all the time. If you've done good work, you will be able to articulate this in the viva and the examiners should see this and give you time to revise your thesis. You are unlikely to be awarded an MPhil if your research is high quality and has merit.