Hi Mikew - I can offer some advice. I was a PhD student in Glasgow (University of Strathclyde) between 2009 - 2012 (currently awaiting my viva date) funded by an EPSRC studentship (~£12940 - £13590 p.a.). In my first year, I relied solely on my studentship, which was tough, but doable with careful management. In my other years, I took on part time work through the university which brought in a further £2000 - £2500 p.a. for roughly 6 - 8 hours work per week (excellent rate of pay) during term time. I also applied to the university hardship fund twice and was awarded a total of ~£1350, which was a great help. Overall, whilst I had to be careful with my spending, this was sufficient to survive as a PhD student in a city like Glasgow. In terms of accommodation/utilities, I lived in a three bedroomed private flatshare for the duration which cost me £300 per month rent, plus I put aside £40 - £50 a month for bills (electricity/gas/broadband/TV licence). It was located in between the City Centre and the WestEnd (Woodlands Road area) and was within walking distance of my uni (~30 minutes), glasgow uni (~20 mins) and all that I needed in terms of shops and entertainment. If I did use transportation, I relied on the subway or the occasional taxi (~£3 - £5 for anywhere within a few miles radius of my home - private hire a few quid cheaper than black cab). I can thoroughly recommend Glasgow as a place to live and to be a student, although be aware that the workload of the PhD means regular partying will be unlikely. That said, it is important to maintain some form of social life for you're own sanity. Hope this helps - if you want to know more, just ask. Good Luck!!!

Hi Flack. I have a suspicion you and I maybe at the same University since your plight sounds very familiar to me. A similar thing happened to me towards the end of my second year and also halfway through my final year (onlt 7 weeks left for me). Basically the first time I received notification that I MAY be called a few months before I actually was called I was not exempt from being called. I did go to the High Court along with around 60 others. Once I was there the Clerk informed us that she had more potential jurors than she needed and so she asked how many people would prefer not to be selected. About a third put there hands up, and they were allowed to go home there and then. For the remainder of us, she then asked if we were available for a 10 day period and whether we had any connection to the defendants in the case or the incident itself. If anyone had a genuine reason why they would not be able to commit for 10 days, then with her permission, they too were allowed to go home. The rest of us that remained (about 30) were given a number to ID us and a ballot was held (a bit like a raffle) in the presence of the judge and the lawyers to select the 15 jurors. Those note selected were allowed to go home by the judge. The second call I had, I was eligible for exemption because I had attended only a year beforehand. So all in all, it wasn't a big issue in the end. I also believe that if you were to be selected for a period of time, then the University would be obliged to cover your costs for the period you were away without penalty to your circumstances - check with the Supervisor.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Scientific Research!!!! I guess it really depends upon whether you feel reviewer one actually has a valid point and agree with him. If you don't and you believe that you can justify your argument and the criticisms he makes of it, then I would say go with reviewers two's recommendations, resubmit and see what happens. In my experience, both industry and academic, there will always be someone who disagrees with you and criticises your work...it doesnt mean that they are right!!! If your argument is valid and (which judging by reviewer two's comments you do) and are able to defend it, then I stay stick to your guns.

I think I know what you mean. My uni dept recently got Roberts funding for a series of training courses dealing with conflict management & self-assertiveness, developing teams, and communication and influencing. I found all three courses enjoyable and a great deal of fun. I learnt alot about myself, and about my research colleagues, as well as how people interact within a team, etc. I would like to see further training courses on networking.

What about Scotland? Maybe somewhere in The Highlands?, i.e. The Cairngorms, or perhaps the Isle of Skye, or maybe even a bit of Island Hopping??? Its a very beautiful country!!!

WOW!! This thread has had me in awe for the past 30 minutes. There is one thing though that I would like to get to the bottom of, and I don't think its been explored here yet.. something "Laura" (I think) mentioned a few thousand replies ago..."Christ on a bike"???...I did'nt realise he rode a bike, I always thought he took the tube!!!

Hey Leighmo, congratulations on the PhD offer, and what a fantastic city to spend 3 years doing it. You will have a great time I am sure. I myself am a PhDer in Glasgow, but have moved around quite alot over the last 10 years with uni and career etc. Good website that I use when searching for private accommodation is www.gumtree.com. At the very least it will give you an idea of what is available in the private sector. Dependent on your financial situation, I would suspect that shared accommodation will be the most viable option for you, as renting a place on your own can be quite expensive. Just make sure that you take some time out to visit potential places and get a feel for the housemates. By in large in my own experience I have 95% of the time got on very well with the people I have shared with, but when you don't it can make life hell!!! Alternatively, try this website http://www.unite-students.com/student-accommodation-edinburgh - this is basically a company run halls of residence, i.e. caters specifically for students. Can be a bit pricey compared to private renting, but is accommodation specifically for students and tends to be on the high quality side. Anyway, hope this helps. Good luck!!!

Ignore it!!! You will never change people who have small minds.

Never a truer word was spoken!!!

Hi again Penny PhD. Don't get me wrong, the topic is just as important, but having spent a year doing my current PhD project which I shall be finishing in 3 weeks time before moving to another supervisor/institution/project to start again in January, I have a better idea in my mind now than 12 months ago as to what factors are important in making that all important decision. For me, I would say that choice of supervisor is top of the list, with project & location (i.e. research group dynamic/institution/city) close behind. My first year has been highly unusual owing to a bizarre set of circumstances beyond my control that had a major impact on my PhD experience, but it became apparrent to me fairly early on that if there is no chemistry between you and your supervisor then there is a big problem which will have major effects on your project and what you get out of it. During the course of my first year I was lucky enough to experience several months effectively working at a different institution, with a different supervisor and within a different research group - the difference between my experience there and my experience with my own supervisor/institution was massive and really showed me that I was on the wrong path for me, which is why I have changed projects.

Without doubt, at least in my opinion (and that opinion is based on experience)...choose the better supervisor. If your relationship with your supervisor isnt right then your whole PhD experience will be fundamentally flawed...trust me, I know!!!

It really depends on your own university's way of doing things. For my MSc (Uni of Strathclyde), there was no pass, merit and distinction classification, it was simply a pass or fail (i.e. pass is anything higher than 50%)

I think the question I would be asking myself (if it were me), is which of the two do I WANT to do? What does your heart tell you to do? Follow that and I dont think you can go far wrong.

Set yourself an absolute deadline for when you need to make a final decision and let your choice of university know your acceptance. In the meantime, do your research into all the places you have applied to. As the previous reply suggested, write a pros and cons list for each, taking into consideration project/interest, prospective supervisor/department/research group, university, location, extra curricular/support opportunities etc. Based on this, narrow it down to a short list. Then, I would highly recommend actually visiting the places on your short list to get a feel for where you will be spending the next few years of your life to see if you can imagine yourself being happy there, because speaking from experience, not doing this and then finding yourself being somewhere you dont want to be can really affect your motivation to do the research.

...yes, but if you graduate with your MSc you will be a graduate of a Scottish University!!! I am not sure how these things work, but that may be good enough to at least get conditional funding for a future PhD, i.e. conditional on graduating with the MSc