I have offers from Queens Belfast and Kings College for a PhD in Law, but only funding granted for the first one. Should I accept a low ranked uni just because of the scholarship? My supervisor is good in Belfast; but I prefer the reputation of King. Do you think it really matters? What should I weight up to make a decision? thanks:

Hi,

I think the funding and the fact that you already know your supervisor at Queens are real bonuses.

But is there any way of securing funding or partial funding at Kings?

Well, Kings cant offer me any funding at all (they have like 6 per year in the Law department).
Queens Belfast offered me the tuitions.
Surrey (which is like 40 in the rankings) provides me full package (tuition and Research council stipend)
im afraid it will be so hard to do it out of my pocket.

I am not fully certain what you should do, it depends, in part, on how important school ranking is to you. But I do know that being able to secure funding is an important part of being an academic and one of the criteria you will judged upon when applying for jobs in academia. Apparently, and this may not apply to your field, self-funded phders are sort of looked down and at a disadvantage when applying for jobs. so that's something to consider.

Also doing a Phd is hard enough, without financial stress, I say this as a partially funded Phd student. And i.m.o going into debt is not worth the investment, especially if you factor in lost earnings and even more especially when you consider how precarious the academic job market is.

One thing that could offset going to a lower ranked uni is getting publications in good journals.

Just some food for thought. can't say I know what you should do.... maybe it would good idea to speak with an academic (not one of your potential supervisors) and see what they think... if you know someone whose opinion you trust.
I found career services in my uni, are not all clued in.... so beware of them.

Go for the one with full funding, every time.

You don't want to waste half your time looking for ways to pay the rent.

I would go for the funding too, it must be so difficult to manage without it unless you have support from wealthy parents or similar.

I don't think ranking matters hugely at PhD level - not compared to publication record. Queens is a good research university (Russell group) anyway, so it's not going to hurt your reputation, I'm sure! Surrey is perfectly respectable too (and has a lovely campus as I remember).

Yeh not only all the above but when things go rubbish as at times they do tend to (supervisor problems etc) - it is quite a nice feeling that you aren't having to struggle to pay for such a crummy experience but rather that it is funded. If you are really keen on going to one that is highly ranked in your field, then you could apply to like 5 highly ranked target universities next time round and keep your fingers crossed for getting funding.

Queen's Belfast is a worse university? i thought it is a good one except the location

Thanks for the comments. I think my choice will be Surrey. I cant wait another year when Brexit is around the corner_ i am an EU student and God know whats coming new from all these messy politics.

I've been reading that UK and EU students can do a PhD for no or low fees in the EU. The following is from the FindaPhD website. It's disappointing the UK doesn't charge low fees like France.

" Austria - Fees aren't normally charged to EU / EEA students (provided you complete your PhD on time). International students will pay around €726 per semester (roughly €4,360 for a PhD).
Czech Republic - PhD study is potentially free for all students (EU, EEA and international). . . provided you study for your doctorate in Czech.
Finland - No fees are charged for PhD programmes (though non-EU / EEA students are required to pay fees for Masters degrees).
France - PhD fees are capped at a maximum of €391 per year.
Germany - No PhD fees are charged for up to six semesters (three years) of study. Some additional admin charges may apply. "