Overview of BiologicalNMR on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of BiologicalNMR

Signup date: 20 May 2015 at 5:59pm

Last login: 08 Oct 2015 at 3:25pm

Post count: 16

Recent Posts

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Quote From TreeofLife:
Yay for the biotech giants! And good luck with your PhD :)

Thanks T! I'm looking forward to it. Just doing some background reading at the moment.

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Hey Tree of life thanks for the support and advice! It looks like it's going to be sorted and I will be paid while I'm waiting on my appointment for the number. Basically I'm part funded by a large American biotech who went nuts when they found out I wasn't being paid.

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

I got a bank account with no problems to be honest. The national security number isn't difficult to obtain either, just not a fast process. I want to do this project but I cannot do this project with zero cash.

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Quote From windowsill:
good luck with that. if it helps, i got mine within a couple of weeks, but that was a few years ago, they can be fast sometimes... hope your supervisor can get it sorted...

Thanks W. Yea it can be fast enough but my appointment isn't until the end of the month. Really ridiculous. Anyone else denied their stipend while the application is pending?

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Gah really annoyed. The uni don't want to pay out stipends until myself and other EU students are waiting to receive our national insurance number. This is really annoying as the national insurance office told me I should get paid as it's a stipend and tax free. The uni's finance dept are being really difficult about it and I'm actually thinking of taking up another PhD offer back home. I told my supervisor and he's trying to sort it.

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Thanks guys hopefully they will be or else one or two of us won't be able to continue. I don't see how they'd expect people to go on for up to four months without pay. I was told it could take 5 weeks to 2 months.

National insurance number and UK PhD

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Hey guys I'm about to start a PhD in the UK. I have to set up a bank account and the bursary form also asks for my national insurance number. I know this can take up to a few months post interview to receive so I'm wondering what to do in the meantime. The actual agency says I can still get paid as long as the uni take my date of birth, gender ect but Im not sure how the uni feel about this. Anyone any experience?

How important are references in getting a PhD?

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Hey, thanks for the reply. I want to know because I am applying for another position that I really want. My referee was my research supervisor and he's an enzymologist and a highly regarded one.

I want to apply to another enzymologist but I suspect my 2.1 will hold me back. I'm just wondering is a reference good enough to get you through sometimes?

How important are references in getting a PhD?

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Hey guys I have a high 2.1 with no master but I have been offered 2 PhDs so far. I love both projects but I haven't decided which one to go for. I have a summer studentship and 3 month research project under my belt but I'm not sure how I got offered two PhDs. My project supervisor is quite well regarded and he gave me a fantastic reference. I'm just wondering is this what got me in? My degree is quite average but he says I'm above average. Just how important are referees?

EU member not getting UK funding

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Quote From Dunham:

Quote From BiologicalNMR:

Quote From Eds:

Quote From BiologicalNMR:
One of the supervisors who initially offered me the position said it was because the UK is getting more racist.

As long as he knows more about science than he does politics!!! ;)

Well it's certainly true that the UK is getting more hysterical when it comes to immigrants.

It is obviously not racism, as you can be of whatever race you want, as long as you lived in UK for 3 years.

I just think they should not be allowed to advertise these positions as EU. They do it everywhere and often they don't even clarify it at the end of the ad but tell you to look up the details of residence criteria on their website. It's of course not a big deal (I just skip the ads of UK universities now), but I think that should be clearer. If I have to live/lived in the UK for that position, then it is UK-specific and not Europe-specific.

I also think that more and more countries try to wall off the job market, but there is nothing you can do about it. Not really surprising that the UK prefers UK students and it is only a matter of time till this will be the case in Germany, Switzerland etc too. Then you can't study in France as a UK student. I doubt that science will benefit from that, but you can apply whatever criteria you want and most countries prefer their countrymen ;)

That's all I ask for. I know for a fact supervisors hate this as it means opting for the second or third best candidate but I don't think positions should be advertised as EU.

EU member not getting UK funding

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Quote From Eds:

Quote From BiologicalNMR:
One of the supervisors who initially offered me the position said it was because the UK is getting more racist.

As long as he knows more about science than he does politics!!! ;)

Well it's certainly true that the UK is getting more hysterical when it comes to immigrants.

EU member not getting UK funding

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Quote From Mark_B:
Hi folks

That's an interesting suggestion re. the search feature - I'll pass it on.

There is currently an option to filter searches by EU (non-UK) citizenship (you can select this using the 'funding' options). That should remove any projects that don't offer any funding at all to non-UK nationals.

However, the amount of funding available may still differ between individual projects. This is partly because a large number of PhDs in the UK are supported through the UK Research Councils.

The funding they allocate is public money, derived from UK taxpayer revenue, etc. EU regulations require that all citizens have equal access to public funding for degree programmes, but that doesn't extend to the maintenance grant (which doesn't pay fees for the degree).

This general policy only applies to Research Council funding; individual universities are free to provide fees and maintenance awards to students of any nationality, at their discretion. Some may also choose to supplement Research Council awards for EU students.

I appreciate that this can be frustrating for EU students and that it's crucial to be aware of funding criteria when applying for a project. I'd suggest confirming funding details early in the process.

Most of the projects on FindAPhD.com will have information on funding in their project descriptions, but you can always use the email enquiry feature to query or double-check this.

It's also possible to combine funding from a range of other sources. Our sister-site, www.postgraduatefunding.com lists a large number of awards available to 'top-up' PhD funding.

As I say, I'll pass on the feedback re. search filtering.

Thanks

Mark

Thanks Mark it would be a good idea. Also the addition of another funding criteria option might result in supervisors thinking twice before describing funding as being EU/UK when only the fees are offered.

Thanks again

EU member not getting UK funding

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Quote From Dunham:
It is really a pity. Really frustrating if you see PhD ads that match your interests and your skills almost 100% and you realize later that you can't apply as a european citizen, even though the position is advertised as open for EU citizens. The only way to get these project is finding an additional external funding source that provides your salary for the project before applying to the position.....which is rather unlikely.

I suspect that the criteria are a result of the funding source, which is often industry or industry related. They probably want to restrict this funding to UK citizens or people, who are more likely to stay after their PhD and work in the UK. Just my speculation....

I also thought about applying anyway and see if there is anoher way to receive additional funding, but I guess that a professor who has the choice won't walk that extra mile and will just choose someone who receives the full award.....

I think findaphd should add a new search feature that weeds out projects that are offered to EU students on a fees only basis.

I agree 100% Dunham. I actually went through two interviews securing two positions only to be told later that I wasn't eligible for the full awards as EU citizen. That means I was the best man for the job and someone who was second best was chosen because of this rule. It's actually hard to to stomach UK citizens going over to other countries and getting a full award while EU citizens going to the UK are discriminated against.

They are actually hurting the science. One of the supervisors who initially offered me the position said it was because the UK is getting more racist. Absolutely sickening and anti science.

EU member not getting UK funding

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

I wish. I know it will hurt the science but I really think the same standard should be applied across the EU. A lot of the supervisors I've been in contact with have no clue about the restrictions

EU member not getting UK funding

BiologicalNMR 16 posts
9 years ago

Hey guys just getting some opinions and funding advice. I'm a child of an English family living in Ireland. I currently have Irish citizenship. I was offered two positions at English universities only to have the offer retracted two days later. In both cases they were unaware the BBSRC only funds students who have been in the UK for three years prior to the offer. They do fund the fees portion of the PhD but not the stipend.

To be honest I find this a little odd that plenty of British students come to Ireland, Germany and France to do a PhD and get the full funding and the same standard isn't applied in the UK. What are people's opinions off this?

One of my lecturers here is a researcher in Imperial College London and left because of the restrictions on hiring PhDs.