I'm sure you'll be fine changing direction from a MSc to PhD. This wasn't a problem for me.

This is a difficult one, because here we would say go to your head of school or pastoral staff member and ask for advice, but it sounds the system there may be corrupt and so this may work against you.

Are you able to ask any other students or academic staff there for any confidential advice?

I agree, I wouldn't write your self off just because you may get a merit. That's still a great pass mark and you have a First.

I think it depends what sub discipline of biology/chem you will be doing. How would you do lab work if you were long distance? Part time hours would be expected to be around 20 hours per week. Most PhDs that are advertised can be done part time rather than full time, but bear in mind you will probably be at a disadvantage when applying as supervisors would prefer full time students.

It seems highly unlikely you will be able to do this as the fields are so different - you would need to speak to your university and discuss your options

Hiya, there are a few recent posts on similar topics in the forum, if you want to have a look for these as well.

Can anyone on here who's been through a similar experience offer any advice?

I think if you do what they have asked you will pass the upgrade.

Different universities have different rules. Some let you start whenever, others only let you start when they tell you. In reality, most are probably flexible on start times. I expect those dates are saying that in order to start by the 1st of October, you must apply by the 1st of August. However, you could still start later than the 1st of October if you wanted to.

It's better to start at the start of the academic year though, because that's when most people start and it's when all the inductions and training are.

I had a similar experience in my viva, although I passed with minor corrections, I feel the external wanted more substantial revisions but the internal managed to convince him otherwise.

Sure, some part of yours and my experience could be lack of clear explanation, but other parts of it are arrogant examiners not listening to the student and thinking they know best. They don't. At the end of the viva, my external asked a question that showed he hadn't understood one of the basic principles of my work - I know my thesis and my verbal explanations were clear - it was just too far out of his area for him to understand.

I would say just do the corrections they ask and you will pass. It's very rare to fail after an R&R. If you did the changes they asked, how can they justify failing you? If you are worried, you can ask for an independent chair to be present in your next viva, or even your supervisors, if your university allows this.

My CV isn't exactly online, but I've put a bit of information plus my publications on researchgate. I think some sort of online presence is important when looking for academic jobs,

Well maybe you thought you did well, but they didn't? Maybe you thought you were being clear but they didn't?

You need to wait for their report and see what they said, then tackle their requests with the support of your supervisors and go from them. Treat this as an experience to improve if you can, but also remember that other examiners might have passed you, so actually your work may be perfectly fine...

I guess what you're saying is, you developed the project, but your supervisor actually applied for the funding and therefore is the project PI. You are not technically associated with the project, hence it could go to another student. For future reference, you supervisor could have applied for the project and named you as a PhD student (or post-doc if applicable) therefore the project would be yours and you wouldn't need to apply.

Not all universities have these 1+3 PhDs. It depends on the supervisor, funding and the project. Mine was only funded for three years but other people in my lab had a 1+3 PhD and other had a 4 year funded PhD.

PhD positions do open at all times in the year, but there are peaks and troughs. As the academic year has just started, fewer positions will be advertised for the next month or so compared to other times of the year.

My university said students were only allowed to do an average of 1 day's work outside work per week if they were doing a ft PhD.

Will your spouse be working?

Yes generally you upload figures separately and not make them part of your text file.

But for a first submission it doesn't really matter - if your paper is accepted, they will then ask for your figures to be uploaded in the proper format. They won't tell you this in the submission instructions though.

You should put your figure legends together in one part of your main text file and then figures together at the end.