I've just graduated with a first, 26 years old and a UK national (well - Scottish! :) ) and have accepted a PhD studentship.

Money will be very tight, more than through undergraduate, as I could work 30 hours per week in addition to SLC living cost loan of £2,500.

The terms of the studentship, rather than fees and living costs, are fees and guaranteed teaching (6 hours per week term time). However in the terms I'm not permitted to work elsewhere, and even if I was it'd clearly be very difficult to take PhD research, teaching AND another part-time position, but it means that I am going to be without income for half the year! (there being 24 teaching weeks out of 52).

I have a mortgage, utilities etc. I've searched without success on every PhD resource I can find if it is possible to apply for an additional award even though I'll be in a studentship position, or if that would render my application void.

I'm aware of most funding options (Leverhulme etc.) but can't seem to find anything.

My research is a combination of Scottish Criminal & Civil Law and also European Law.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Hi fatbob,

Those terms sound well dodgy. How do they expect you to survive on six hours teaching? Just to put it in context, the research councils pay fees, give you maintenance stipend and allow you to do six hours work a week as well (if you want and can find it). I cant see that it is in the university's interest to have you start a PhD while putting you in an impossible situation re being able to support yourself.

I dont know if there are any awards you could apply for as a top up I'm afraid. I do know some people do more hours work then they are officially supposed to (bar work and stuff) - supervisors aren't likely to find out, but for your situation where you'd be relying on it it is far from ideal.

Have you thought of questioning them as to how they expect you to live on those terms?

Hi aliby, thanks for your reply! I've not discussed with them yet, already had a few meetings regarding the subject area and focusing the research in the right direction. Think I will have to find a way to discuss the issue with them however, but the last thing I want to do is rock the boat so early in proceedings. I'm well aware of how lucky I am to have my fees paid, and also being given the opportunity to teach (given that I'm hoping to move into full time lecturing eventually), and I don't want to appear unappreciative! It may be that the clause about not working anywhere else is one of those 'ok to ignore' clauses, but as I already mentioned I'm well aware how difficult if not impossible it would be to take any more onboard anyway, so was trying to avoid that. But then again, if it comes down to making a mortgage payment or not.... well, I have to make it don't I...

o.stoll, I'm not getting into this - my reply was NOT immature, it was appropriate given that your initial reply was inappropriate, presumptious and, as stated before, pompous. Plus you say I should accept criticism however yours was unfounded, incorrect, and based on nothing! Your second reply didn't offer a (what WOULD've been appropriate) apology, but a backhanded retraction. You should've swallowed your pride and actually apologised. Neither you nor anybody else has the authority or ability to decide what I am or am not aware of, nor what I am or am not prepared for given that you know nothing about me or anything I have done in my life until now. I am not a 'wet behind the ears' graduate without experience - my law degree was my second qualification and for years I combined an extremely high pressure job plus education. I don't presume to know everything about a PhD, hence the reason I have joined this forum.I'll respectfully request that you do not reply to my posting again.

Hi again fatbob, just another couple of thoughts.

If you start the PhD you've been offered can you then apply for full funding for subsequent years?

With the teaching, I'd suggest finding out exactly how much income you can expect, so you have an idea of budgets. It might work differently different places, but i was teaching in a politics department and you got a fixed amount per seminar group, but the marking was paid separately, per student. So it would make a big difference if you had 6 or 16 students in the group.

I suppose it also depends what other work you can do. You say you have worked previously, so is there any freelance or consultancy type work? Would this be easier to fit in the 'vacation only' thing compared to bar work and stuff which tends to be more available around universities in semesters!

Hi aliby,

Thanks again! I'll definitely ask about the marking and other areas of the work that may have income as it's something I simply hadn't thought of. I know that the teaching is at a pro-rata rate of £24 per hour. There may be an opportunity to do some additional over and above the six guaranteed hours, but it would be on an 'as and when required' basis.

My previous work was in finance, and I'm still chartered with the CII I believe, so there may be a possibility of some freelance, my main concern is just that obviously I want to keep the focus on the research and not let the amount of paid work damage that... :-/

Funding your PhD, if you are not fully funded for example by a RC, is in most cases a patch-work process. many students get a bit of funding here, an award for fieldwork there, a contribution to conference costs somewhere else, a little income from work, some contribution to fees, etc.

what i am saying is, it is definitely not impossible to get funding from several places. probably you could have difficulties if you try to have two "full fundings" at the same time. but you can easely combine several chunks of funding from several places.
so if you have one main source of income which isn't quite enough, you can apply to many places for a little add-on.
the only problem about this is that these things are usually one-off awards, so you need to invest a lot of time and energy into applying all the time and you never know in advance if it is going to work out, i.e. how much money you are going to have next term.

Hi shani,

Thanks very much for your reply, I'm going to have a look into some of the areas you suggested, thanks for the pointers. I'm not too bothered about having to re-apply yearly since at the end of the day every little helps! A lot of this has stemmed from the fact that until the upcoming academic year, the university I'll be at has always had a fees plus living expense award, and it only changed literally in the last few weeks throwing me a bit of a curve ball from what I'd already calculated.

Hi fatbob (lovin the name!),
Just a quick query. When you say the terms state that you can't work elsewhere, is that a general or work elsewhere as a tutor/lecturer? A few friends of mine have got teaching in other departments but often the amount of prep and marking involved isn't worth the effort. I teach up to six hours a week officially, but am paid a flat amount per year rather than per class - maybe your department will do the same? If not in your first year, maybe later when you have proved how good you are at it...

oh and hi fatbob im also scottish and trying to get to do a PhD i would be interested in knowing more about how your getting on and even ask you a few questions so could i email you

Hi sleepyhead,

the clause is very generic, it just says that I'm not permitted to work anywhere else for the duration of the studentship. It does seem to be a bit vague and leaves me wondering exactly as you do whether that may simply be with reference to other academic work, I might enquire about that.

Thanks for your reply!

Hi sctlnd200,

Of course you can email me, though I'm not too sure if there is a way to private message my address to you on this forum as I've only just joined here...

I'm only just starting my PhD so all I really have any experience of are the application and interview stages, as well as putting together a proposal. Although I have had two articles published in journals in the last year so I have a little experience in that also.

Thanks for the reply!