Barramack my point was the poster has already done listing and planning so now needs to find a way to act on those already made plans. Hence no need for more planning. Appolo advice on printing the list in small sections and sticking them on the PC to work through sounds like a very sensible motivating idea.

It's the holiday. It's common to get lethargic and loose motivation for anything after a break. Stop the lists and plans that's just another form of procrastination. Open the doc and start work. You'll only do small bits at first but soon get back into it.

Firstly - How does your Masters Student know? Do not engage in any conversations about your supervisor with your student, no matter how much they try and engage you on it - they will tell others an your displeasure at supervision can get around quite easily!

I think you are doing too many hours but you need to try and work with your supervisor. I suggest you:
*Make an action plan of activities you think you need to do over the next few months. - check it with supervisor.
* Revert to 9-5/5:30 if possible. Tiredness and more time in uni can lead to under-performance and less focus.
* Ask what she classes as 'not enough work'? Does she mean results or hours spent- you need to clarify this because it may be a case of streamlining your working practices to get more done in a shorter time?
* Find from her names of other PhD's/colleagues whose work she feels is where you should be aiming. Arrange an informal chat with them about how they conduct their work. Our dept encourages this to find best practice.
*Ask her to highlight areas of your work she is satisfied with - specific passages of writing or lab work you have conducted so you can tell more easily the types of work she considers satisfactory.
* Take ownership. Figure out which comments are useful and which to ignore. I regularly overtly thank for useful input - "thanks for pointing me to that book on??? your feedback on ??? was really useful. I then ignore and say nothing other than politely nod and write down less useful comments before doing my own thing. Because they've had praise for the useful comments less useful stuff I've not taken on board they seem to forget about :D happy days.

Good luck

Good tip on looking at the theme and Keynotes Barramack. I'm education so yes there are hundreds when you include international, national, postgrad, teaching ones, subject specific ones plus ones on research methods in education! It was getting a little mind boggling. Plus the method I'm using is from another area so I would be including conferences from that area too. At least I can narrow it down a bit now I know what I should be looking for.

Thanks Bewildered. Yes you are right I am UK :D I'm not looking to present any time soon but I see even conferences for this time next year have abstract date submission of around Oct-Dec!

With all the hundreds, neigh thousands of conferences each year how do you narrow down to the big ones in your field and the best to go to? I know supervisors are supposed to help in this but I might have to do some looking myself as my research method is new to my field of study. Basically, I want to make sure I'm not going to bogus or less useful conferences. Is there a main website that lists the best ones in each area?

You will get just over £20 week child benefit and about £10-15 child tax credits. That will get you about 8 hrs childcare. I go into uni 2 days a week.babies up to 3 have lots of naps easy to work around. You might not need as much paid care as you think.

Don't dismiss it just yet. See what tax credits you can get based on your partners wage. You can ask for a 'what if calculation'. Ring and say if I dont work and my partner earns x what can we get? Check the student support office at the uni about extra funding. See if family can take on some of the childcare, be flexible with when you can do your PhD work and look for local childminders. It is do-able. As I said working and paying childcare won't always make you better off!

Hi. I am afraid there isn't really specific funding for childcare for PhD students and it would have to be whatever ad hoc provisions each institution may have, if they have any! It might be they have an on site nursery that might be slightly cheaper than other private nursery, I know my uni has a nursery. I personally found child minders cheaper than private nursery and they can be more flexible. You may find (like I did) that you don't spend every day at uni and do part time childcare and then work some evenings/weekend. Your stipend if not attached to a teaching post is not taxable so you don't declare as earnings so check if on your partners earnings you are entitled to some child tax credits (you won't get the childcare part of the child tax credits because you are a student and not working). If you work you can try and claim some childcare tax credits but it's not much. You may find, like I did, that you are better off on a studentship than working! Working put us over the limit to get much help childcare wise and basically I worked full time for £500 a month after I'd paid the childcare so I could go to work! Good luck and congratulations on baby.

They have a legal obligation of a duty of care when providing references and have to differentiate fact from opinion. If you passed with merit or above I think you can factually prove a competence in the areas you were marked on. Is there another tutor on the course you could approach. I had a course lead who was obstructive in my PhD applications, gave me poor advice and never provided a reference. I got someone else to do them!. Maybe speak to thedmin of the previous course and discuss with them thwcreferenxe process? Some places you go through them rathercthan the academic staff as they have a set way of doing references and academic transcripts etc.

Can you ask someone trusted e.g. uni lecturer you already know etc how this would be looked upon? Are the projects related? Usually people have a broader research interest and might be suitable for numerous different projects. Can you find out via the uni if people have applied to multiple studentships before and how it is viewed? I'd suggest asking that question of the administration staff for the department maybe.

Good luck.

Vilhelm, only you know what is the right decision for you and if working with the other group is truly your dream then go for it but accept the risks :D

It is more common for you to apply to a funded scholarship with one research proposal but find that changes along the way in conjunction with student and supervisor input. It is more likely that you will adapt the original proposal in some way within the first year to something more suited to you. I haven;t come across one student in my dept that on first year upgrade has submitted the same proposal from application without modification, even ones who applied to a specified project! There are ways to bend the research to something you are more inclined to get along with. Similarly, i know plenty of students who started with a love and passion for their project and now hate it so it's swings and roundabouts. I suppose what I am saying is, in the end it;s not really the subject of the PhD that makes it any more or less enjoyable maybe you should think more about what you will get out of the projects in terms of connections with other academics, the types and quality of research training afterwards and future job prospects once completed. It's a good decision to have to make though having choice :D

I agree with many of these points.
MRes lets you do your piloting for a future PhD which is great as it gives you space to think and trial.
Be warned, not everyone gets uplifted from MRes (There's always the possibility you could do worse in your MRes than your MSc and loose out on a Phd place to other students as has happened at my institution)

Bigger school doesn't mean better teaching. You may find yourself lost in a big crow and actually get more individual attention in a smaller setting.

You have funding offered now which means you would be 12 months ahead in your research; a lot can change in 12 months. Your novel ideas and original contribution to knowledge now might not be in 12 months time and you risk having to change your research proposal.

However, if the other uni does have a lot more to offer do follow the advice of checking out if they will uplift and what extra you would get from supervision there.

Well done and good luck.

I know I can give different answers on different days, depends how I feel. Or maybe that is the ENFP in me! Whilst fun I treat these 'tests' with a pinch of salt. I agree that just because the results seem/feel true to some people because they aren't true for all they can't then be generalized.