^ that's what got me my current job, back in my old department...

Yep, I had that comment from someone today. I'm going to set pre-reading material for next week.

I think the idea is to publish your research... very few students in my field publish until at least their third year. For conferences you can just present a poster about your current research, you don't need many results, but for papers you need something decent to report. I certainly wouldn't worry about it yet.

I've ignored all calls for papers so far as they have all been for random journals so I think they are a waste of time. I look at their impact factor, whether I've ever read anything else from there, who else is publishing in there etc

I took the approach of: do most of the PhD, collect and analyse the data and then see what papers can be written from it. Then I wrote a couple of reviews with other PhD students and with my supervisor - they had the ideas though and I just collaborated with them or wrote the papers based on their ideas.

I've had other PhD students ask me to write stuff with them but I've declined, mainly because they are targeting areas that I feel are outside of my research zone and it will look odd on my CV. Plus they will be in very low IF journals.

Yep... exactly what I'm doing today. We've been given a list of topics to discuss with students, but I don't even know the answers to the questions myself! It is optional though at least, so I can pick the least objectionable topics. This is a bit easier than coming up with novel ideas when I don't have much time.

Are you from the UK? There's some kind of reciprocal tax waiver between the US and UK for the first 2 years of residency. Either you don't pay federal tax or state tax, I can't remember which way round, but it worked out that I was only paying a small % of my salary in tax when I worked there for a year. Less than 10%. It's best if you contact the admin department of the universities and ask.

Looks like it's a five year part time MSc? I can't see the bit where it says you register for a pgdip first?

But it does look like 5 year MScs aren't eligible for funding anyway - only up to 4 years pt is funded https://www.gov.uk/postgraduate-loan/eligibility

I would contact the uni and tell them this and see if there is a way round it, because it's not in their interest to offer 5 year MSc when students can't get funding for them because they will get fewer students. Bear in mind you would only get a total of £10k for the whole 4 years anyway, so you would still need extra funding/income.

The difficulties could be with techniques or with the PhD itself eg lack of access to equipment, experiments not working, balancing workloads, difficult colleagues etc. You want to get across that you are resilient and that you have strategies for overcoming these issues.

Without knowing what the document is, it's a bit difficult to say... I assume it's a paper? I guess you would want to look at the techniques, think if it's relevant to the PhD topic, see if it has any obvious shortcomings, think about the authors, the IF of the paper, novelty etc.

I'd just say I was really interested in that project, any chance I could get involved? And see what response you get. If favourable, then say it more seriously and say you would prefer to be working on that project.

You can quit a PhD any time - you don't need an excuse! You don't have to give a reason if you don't want to; there's certainly no need to think up reasons.

Before you quit though, have you tried speaking to your supervisor and saying that you're not that interested in the project and you want to change its focus, plus you want to get more funding?

People do quit if a better opportunity comes along, but it's better to be honest with your supervisor first and see what options you have.

I'm not sure what you are after?

I'd say there's little point in attending interviews in person if you are in Asia and they are not paying for travel. Yes, it's better to interview in person as it's easier to decide on the best candidate face to face, but there's no guarantee you would get the position, so I'm not sure I see the benefit. You might have to fly over for several interviews.

I know of several PhD students who had skype interviews when others had face to face interviews and the skype interview got the position, so it is definitely possible.

I'm sure a final 2.1 is all they look at.

The option for funding and actually getting funding are two different things... students are often accepted without funding and then have to withdraw when they realise how competitive the funding is and they don't get enough, or any at all.

You can probably apply without your transcripts and add these later if need be.

Bear in mind with a PhD you may find that there's very little direction and you are left to your own devices in terms of research questions, day to day workload, training etc. All the opportunities are there for you but you get out what you put in.

Only you can make this decision. I left a career to pursue a PhD and I have never looked back. I was financially secure at the time, with a mortgage, car and nice things, so it was fine for me to take a pay cut for a few years. Now after my PhD I am finally making decent money again (in academia) so I can start spending for things I need (new car, new clothes etc) that I couldn't buy when I was student on £14k per year. But it could have easily gone the other way and I could be earning £10-15k less than I am now.

I wouldn't do it unfunded, especially not the PhD. Career opportunities in academia are few and far between and may involve movement of city and countries for several years (10?) before the minute chance of landing a permanent position.