I currently have an ESRC studentship to fund my PhD, but have never really looked into the research training grants which they make for studentship holders. Essentially what I'd like to do is learn French due to an absurd number of French articles on the subject I'm studying (something like 80% of the total I've found are in French). Do the ESRC offer language training grants like this? If so does anyone have any experience of getting one - i.e. are they quite lenient in terms of standards or is it strictly a "doing fieldwork in a foreign country" grant?

I've been going to classes by myself, but it would obviously be better if there was an ESRC funded course available (both financially and because it would probably be a lot better in terms of quality).

I agree with what's been said before, I think it's very different across the various academic disciplines. I know that of the PhD students I'm studying with, very few of them work anything like full time and all take holidays of 2, 3 or 4 weeks in the summer. Now maybe I'm just studying with the laziest PhD students in the country, but there are certain situations where doing a PhD doesn't mean working 9-5 for three years (I'm doing politics incidentally).

Actually, I do know of a student who received an ESRC studentship through the open competition and a studentship from the university for one year which was only a little less than the maintenance grant from the ESRC. Seems ridiculous I know, but the end result was a maintenance grant over £20,000 a year.

Unfortunately you have to pay fees for most masters courses in Scotland and you won't be eligible for a student loan through SAAS unless you're doing specific subjects (generally teaching courses). However, some universities offer fee waivers for masters students and a limited bursary (at my university it's £2000) if you have a good undergraduate degree.

It should never be impossible to find a PhD I would have thought, because even if the open competitions at the research councils are too competitive there are advertised PhDs which are only as competitive as the amount of candidates who apply for them. If you can find the right one for you and make a good impression at an interview then you can still be in good shape regardless of your degree classification.

Meeting supervisors from my experience is very relaxed and constructive. They aren't there to judge you and they won't expect you to have a detailed and well refined idea of what you're going to be doing at the first meeting. It'll be fine, I promise!

Seven 20p tins of baked beans plus a 60p loaf of bread = lunch every day for £2 a week.

That's what I was reduced to when I was an undergraduate, I can't say I never gave in to temptation and bought a sandwich now and then, but it made a big difference to my wallet.

The best person to ask is your academic supervisor at your university. Funding through research councils is usually carried out through the university, either the university has scholarships given to them by the research council which they distribute to students directly, or the university applies on your behalf to an open competition. Either way you'd have to talk with a supervisor in your university though. Alternatively you can look for advertised phd's at other universities which you can apply directly for (I don't know how this works in applied poultry sciences I'm afraid as I'm a politics student). Maybe someone studying a similar subject can help you further.

Wow, that's an absolute goldmine! I don't think it matters how 'good' a writer you are, there's always a point where you find yourself using the same phrases over and over or can't think of a way to put a particular point.

I should say that as zoology will be dealt with under a different research council (I'm under the ESRC, zoology I would guess might come under the BBSRC) that it could be earlier depending on when their application deadline is.

It varies but in my university the department asked for students interested in pursuing a PhD to get in touch with them around March. The best thing to do would be to ask your academic supervisor, but if my university is anything to go by it won't be until the new year before they start thinking about applications.

I applied for a Carnegie scholarship (funding for a phd) and I wasn't successful. They seem to be very competetive, there were only around 15 awards handed out for all disciplines when I applied and a first class degree was mandatory, so those were very long odds.

I don't think it's a bad sign in the sense that it means you didn't get an award, I found out pretty late about my award and went through the same thing of thinking that because I hadn't heard anything it meant my proposal had been rejected. I think it will just be down to your university - maybe the person who handles these things has been on holiday and didn't adequately sort it out before they left or something of that nature.

I guess the only way it could be a bad sign is if some calamity has happened with the postal service when you sent the application in, or for some other reason they didn't actually receive the application (or your university hasn't received their response). That seems unlikely though - I know that my university put a self addressed postcard in with the application to ensure it was received. Given that tomorrow's Monday maybe you'll hear something then. Good luck!

Congratulations, you deserve it I'm sure!

This is the only thing I could find online telling me that - http://esrc-live.amaze.com/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/Nomination%20Form%201+3%20Collab_tcm6-15604.pdf