Hi All

I'm due to start my PhD on Thursday after being awarded a fee waiver scholarship. My problem is that I need living expenses desperately, anyone know of any funding bodies and/or charities I could approach for living expenses? My PhD is in Sociology/Social Work.

Best

Hannah

======= Date Modified 27 Sep 2009 21:43:29 =======
You could work part time, for up tp 20 hours a week I think, although some univs prefer no more than 15 during term... Work on campus could be found if not easily but sometime... they add to CV, give work ex, get in money, help you get to know academia, multi task and I think, balancng everything helps build character.

Getting a fee waiver is awesome.

Best.

EDIT to add: You are getting your tuition fees waived, then why does your post say you are self funding? Self funding is when you are paying for your studies out of your own pocket. Partial self funding is when you get scholarships which are not enough to cover all of it, and for the rest you borrow/work/dip into savings etc.

I do have a part-time job at the moment (25 hours/week), but I will have to leave as they have stated that they will not let me have time off to attend conferences, meetings, etc...and the job is at the university, the SU of all places!

My apologies, partially funded...if I had to pay fees as well I would never sleep through worry...

Thanks for your response.

Hannah

======= Date Modified 28 Sep 2009 00:19:28 =======
Hi, I'm also partially self-funded (I've got a fee scholarship/waiver) but I've got the advantage of my parents backing me up financially. That said, I don't like taking money off them and I got myself a subwardenship at one of the Uni halls. It's cut my rent and bills to £110 a month and will look pretty nice on a CV for any jobs that require "pastoral care of students". It's worth having a poke around to see if any residences need a subwarden fr this year, and I'm sure you'll be able to get in on it next year.......just try to choose a postgrad residence (damn freshers, making me feel old.)

I'd think twice about leaving your part-time job then, if you're going to be in financial straits. Can you schedule meetings for when you're not working? And if you're just starting, don't worry about conferences etc just yet, wait until you actually need to go to one. It sounds like they've don't want to be flexible with your working arrangements and have just given you a blanket 'no' to everything, but once you start the PhD and they see you can manage it and your work, they might come around. Also, why would they not give you time off to attend conferences? If you're part-time, can't you use annual leave to attend a conference? If you're casual, then you should be able to have the flexibility to not work on certain days. I'd explore options where you are a bit more, and look for another job inthe meantime, but keep working to bring in an income. Good luck!

I agree with keeping your job and looking for something different.

However, the best way to kill three birds with one stone (i.e. get the money, get acad experience, get CV value) is to look for RA-ships, better if instead of an individual's RA, you can find RA work on projects, research centres etc. They doubtless open up a ready made network, teach you to liaise with academia and other bodies (funders, infrastructure etc) and go straight on the CV. Also these being academics will be different from non academic employers and will know the value of conferences etc when they come. So a photocopying job at the SU may not mean much on a CV (it wil mean something of course) however, RA work, which might involve some or a lot of photocopying will carry more weight,

Job prefs (part time) should be this way I think:

1. RA work with centres/projects

2. TA work of worth

3. Occasional RA ship on one off projects/assignments (depends how much the faculty at your school gets in)

4. RA work for an individual researcher

5. Non academic work on campus (with teaching and learning centres, disaibility offices, halls etc0

6. Non academic work off campus.


The idea is to take what comes, but be on the hunt to prioritise as above, just my two p!

Hi Mooching, Yeah, your situation doesn't sound too bad. You'll only really need time off for supervisory meetings for quite a while anyhow - I'd love to be in your position!


Bug, how do you find these jobs? Is it through the department your PhD's at? x

======= Date Modified 28 Sep 2009 13:59:29 =======
Hiya eska



Hm, through my dept. It gets in a huge lot of funding (the one i am Ra-ing on from Jan 09 to June 2011 is my uni's 2nd largest European Council grant) and all profs do academic work, as well as consultation for policy etc....



hence I guess these things keep coming up, although of course opportunities are limited for instance one big project has only 1 RA role in it, and goes on for 3 yrs...so that way it is tough, but again, these one of a kind chances do exist in this dept..

======= Date Modified 28 Sep 2009 14:48:35 =======
I too have RA work in the dept - mine is on a 6 month contract with the probability of it being extended throughout the 3 year duration of the project - there is so much work there is no way that we will have come close to completing the work we're doing now by November! These things are normally advertised on the uni job site, but then again mine, being a short term contract was offered without needing to go through a selection procedure unlike the RO and the PM - its definately worth keeping your ears open for any news.

Incidentally, at my uni we are only allowed to work 10 hours a week if we are f/t PhD - i've been allowed to work a little overtime as the deadlines are so tight with the project, but that has to be offset so that I work an AVERAGE of 10 hours a week over the course of the month, any more and my fee waiver would be in jeopardy!

I certainly wouldn't quit your job yet Hannah - there are unlikely to be any conferences etc in the near future, and supervisory meetings are normally only an hour and being as you are pt at work I can't see why you couldn't work around them.

Ahh 10 hrs? ouch... i am moving towards 20 or would starve! (kidding, but close enough hehe)

Hmm, agree with stressed, keep an eye out, broadcast that you are looking (and also what you can offer)... advertisemnets are often tedious and these porjects have people leaving sometimes and need someone urgently without the hassles of advertising for evrry little part time post... word of mouth, contacts etc etc....

good luck!