I had a similar situ, was upfront about it from day one, and now collaborate with the supervisors (or who would have been supervisors) at both institutions. I think they appreciated the straightforwardness.

However, if it is a formal offer, there should be a set deadline for accepting or rejecting of that offer before it is reallocated to others. In this case, there is no need to disclose anything.

Hi graceelizabeth92, I'd be really interested to hear if you've found any more about the possibility of doing this...

I fully agree with TreeofLife. I was offered funding from another institution AFTER I got the reserve funding from my first choice institution. If my second choice offer had come first I would have been up front and waited, and accepted if I had to (only to cancel when my first choice came through). They should understand your situation if you are open about it. Also, the funding will not be "wasted" so as to speak. It'll go to someone else.

Ps. Not sure if you are talking about an offer with funding attached or not, but the same principle should apply.

Hi Flowerpot
I would also chat to first supervisor as kikothedog suggests. But also, is there a deadline on accepting the offer you've been given? I remember being a reserve candidate (i.e., offered funding when someone didn't accept theirs) that I had to wait AGES to find out if the persons offered it had all accepted. It seems that those people were probably waiting on offers from other places to come through before making their choice - and then some of them decided to accept an offer elsewhere. So you should have a reasonable time frame in which to decide whether to accept (especially since it isn't due to start till January). If not stated, I would enquire about it.

Congratulations! Thanks for the encouragement!

Go for the PhD! :D It sounds like that is what you want and you've got an amazing offer in the bag!

Hi Aldermere

So is the one (unique) drawing factor to the other university the fact that it is a fully funded scholarship? On the information you've provided I would go with the 50% funding at the university I was presently in and happy with. If you become a part-time PhD student I suppose you would continue teaching for the other half of the time (challenging from what I've heard but great in terms of your continued teaching experience). Presumably you also know who you would be working with and supervised by and know that you get on with these people? These are massive factors.

It is also a massive factor to be working on something you came up with as opposed to applying for a project. There can be quite a big transition time in getting ownership for a project you didn't initiate yourself (at least there was in my experience - it took a while to shape it and make it mine).

Of course it depends on how you feel about the part-time and finance bit. But on the info you've given I'd defo go with the 50% funded one. Unless of course there are other opportunities in the same institution that you could apply for to get the full PhD funding and/or bursary. It might be worth talking to a postgraduate advisor if you have one at your uni - they'd be able to tell you about other awards and competitions in the pipeline, which you might want to wait for to see if you can get the full funding from (or potentially you could accept the 50% funding and then try to top it up with another scholarship - but you'd have to check first that it was allowed).

Hope this is helpful in someway!

Sorry, mine won't either :/

Hope you manage to get some rest over there!

Thanks Teaddict. It's more a matter of someone checking the R code really. I've attended workshops, read and done so many tutorials etc that I'm stuffed with knowledge on the approach. Just need a person who actually uses it and is skilled enough to be able to map their statistical knowledge on to a different research area to say, "yes, what you've done is right", or "no, you need to change that, otherwise...". Hoping I'll find someone at uni at the drop in thing. Otherwise, asking an external statistician would basically achieve the same function but at a cost.

Hi Hugh, yes please. It would be good to know the details for peace of mind and in case there is no one available with the expertise at uni.

Cheers ologist - I'll see how I go. Feeling proud that I've done my descriptive stats and reliability checks in R so far. Now for the real stuff...

Hey Aysegul, sorry to hear you are having a tough time. Did something trigger it? Just sending over a bit of encouragement your way.
Tudor

Hey Bah, It may not be for either of the reasons you suggest. Check out this recent thread - it sounds similar to your situation:

http://www.postgraduateforum.com/thread-47926/