I have had an offer. I can't quite believe it and I hope i am up to the job.

ThereWILL be a stipend. They have said they will give details of thestipend when I have accepted, but since I have a large family and mywife does not work, it would be useful to know what the stipend isfirst.

What is peoples view on Etiquette/protocol in this regard.

I would be cautious and polite of course.


Andrew

Andrew, Congratulations on the offer, I'm sure if you have been offered the job you are more than up to it! Is this a PhD? If so then remember it is a learning post so you're not expected to go in running, its like a mountain you climb, so just remember to enjoy the view along the way! :)

As for etiquette in asking these things, do you know if the stipend is coming from the university or a funding body? On average PhD stipends work out about 1000£ a month, and remember you're tax free and get deduction on council tax too :) i'm not looking forward to losing this soon!!

I think it is more than accepted that in a situation where you have family to support you need to know what you're getting into first! possibly the best people to approach is the HR department rather than your direct boss and if they don't know then approach your potential boss about it, making clear that you are very interested and want to take the post, but need to make sure you can meet all your financial commitments before firmly accepting the place! academics understand money situations as we never get paid that much :-s

best of luck

First of all, well done!
Stipend values can vary hugely. For a full maintainence grant from a research council you'd expect to get between around £1100 and £1300 a month (the latter if you're based in London). However, you could be offered a part stipend or (get very lucky and get) one of the very large stipends that flow around from time to time from external bodies (up to £1600 a month). Whatever you get, your stipend will be tax free. I'm not sure what the council tax benefits will work out as for you -- it depends on your wife's (un)employement status, but you should also look into this.
You will also want to consider whether you want to keep up National Insurance and pension contributions while you're studying.
It's perfectly acceptable to ask straight out what the stipend is. Aside from a few lucky parentally-supported students, this will be of importance to almost everyone.
Unfortunately PhD stipends are not huge and you're likely to have to cut back if you've a wife and kids to support too.
Hope that helps, and it didn't sound rude!!!
S

Thank you.

Yes it is a PhD. The contact I have apart from the professor is the Research Administrator, does this sound an appropriate contact?

Does any one else have a view on this?

Thank you.

I understood from the original post advertisement that these posts had stipends, but the offer letter I have now received uses the word 'bursary'.  Is this just semantics or is there an important and unambiguous difference?

The Research Administrator is the best person to contact.
Technically, bursary's are usually made on the basis of financial need and stipends on academic merit, but it's probably a technicality..... Stipends are generally expected to cover living expenses, while I'm not sure bursaries are generally intended to cover full living costs. That said, you won't really know until you ask!
S