How important is where you do your MA to whether you get onto a PhD? I'm a politics student and have offers for an MA from both Durham and York. I've been told that I may struggle with getting onto a PhD if i go to Durham. What do you think?

I'd be surprised if it made any difference to your chances of getting a PhD place. First, Durham has an excellent reputation. Unless their politics course is infamously bad, I can't see how that would count against you. More important than the institution you do your MA at are your undergrad and MA results, your references, and your PhD proposal. Do you know what area you might want to research into for your PhD? Does the Durham MA have relevant modules?

I don't know anyone who's had difficulty being accepted to do a (non-science) PhD - it's the funding that usually presents the problem. Perhaps the person meant that Durham don't offer any MA or PhD studentships, in which case you'd have to fund yourself or get research council funding? Also, if a department has a bad track record of PhD students submitting on time, they can be black-marked for a period of time during which no students can apply for research council PhD funding. You can usually find this info out from the research council. But that would only be relevant if Durham were in that position, and if you wanted to stay there to do a PhD.

The other thing that you might want to check is whether the department is ESRC recognised, and whether the Masters you are doing counts as a research training masters for ESRC purposes (i.e. will count as the 1 of a 1+3 scheme). The ESRC like you to have a "suitable" masters, and, if you are looking to ESRC funding, if the one you are looking at at Durham is not considered so then you may have to do another masters on the ESRC 1+3 scheme rather than going straight to the +3 PhD. Have a look on the ESRC website http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/index.aspx

Hey - I'm a Politics student

Check what ESRC studentships each department has allocated, but they both have good reputations. What's your area? Have a look to see if they have any big names from your field - think of potential supervisors!

Smithy is right - getting onto a PhD programme isn't the issue as a lot of student are self-funded because there is so little funding outside the ESRC available