Deepest sympathies artist formally known as Maya the ESRC & AHRC absolutely suck, infact they mother-suck [can I get away with saying that?].
Read a stoooopid article this morning in The Guardian online by a student reporter bemoaning the lack of funding for post-grad courses ( which is correct). But he had lumped PGCE's, his journalism certificate and PhD's all in together and said something really anoying about PhD being a fashionable way to upgrade your CV. Doesn't really help the cause.