**BUMPED**

Postgrad LIVE Virtual Study Fair is LIVE until 5pm BST.

Don’t miss your chance to chat with over 65 universities privately or in public with other prospective students. Ask your questions or just have a look around! It’s not every day you can access all these universities from all over the world from the comfort of your own home, so join us now!

If you're thinking about starting PhD study, why not join us at our Virtual Study Fair now and chat to over 70 universities from around the world about your options. We also have a series of webinars covering everything from research proposal writing, to funding, to studying outside your home country. It's completely free to attend and open until 5pm BST.

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Hi trevalda,

We're so sorry to see that you're not having the easiest time currently, and we hope you'll find support here on the Forum.

Please do bear in mind that if you’re having a difficult time you might find it helpful to have a look at Mind’s information and ideas of where to get help (https://www.mind.org.uk/). Samaritans are also a wonderful resource if you’d like to talk to someone, and are available 24/7 (https://www.samaritans.org/).

If your situation becomes more urgent, please get professional help as soon as possible. Phone NHS 111, contact your GP, ring 999 or go to A&E.

Take care, The Postgraduate Forum Team.

Are you pondering PhD study? Fretting about funding? Worried about the workload?

Join us at FindAPhD LIVE! our specialist PhD study and funding fair in Cambridge Guildhall on Tuesday 25th October 12pm - 3:30pm, or in Oxford Town Hall on Thursday 27th October, 12pm - 3:30pm.

We're very proud to announce that we have become an NUS Postgraduate Champion.

We'll be supporting the NUS in their campaign for a fair and sustainable model of funding for students that can help to widen access to postgraduate study.

You can find out more about the campaign here:

Thinking about Postgraduate study at a Russell Group university?

Why not attend The Russell Group Postgraduate Study Roadshow, Monday 4th November - Friday 8th November 2013?

Register to attend the Roadshow now and you can meet Russell Group universities to talk about postgraduate study opportunities in one of five locations: Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Southampton or Sheffield. And you'll be in with a chance to win one of the £1,000 study bursaries!

www.PostgraduateRoadshow.com

Hi Samreen,

Thanks for getting in touch. This is the first time we've opened up the Scholarship application criteria in this way so I'm afraid I don't have an example to show you.

In terms of using social media you could set up a page on social media and post information about why you should win, get your friends to post on that page with supporting information, upload videos and photos in support of your application too, try and get 'likes' for you winning, or start a twitter feed and see how many followers you can get in support of your application... it's totally up to you!

Our judging panel will take a look at whatever everybody sends (links, a short presentation of what you did, images, whatever you send), and we'll be judging based on creativity and content.

Or you can apply with a 200 word statement, or a video, completely up to you.

I hope that helps and good luck! Sarah.

Thank you for adding the link to LinkedIn - that's great and much appreciated.

In terms of posting letters that would be down the the research agency actually managing the survey - we're just supporting their efforts to contact doctoral graduates from 2003-04 to 2005-06.

Thanks, Sarah.

Hi Samreen,

To apply for our 2013 Scholarships you will need to visit the link:

Thank you!

Doctoral impact and careers tracking study

The UK funding councils and RCUK are carrying out a study of PhD graduates to examine their career pathways, their impact in employment, and how their skills contribute to innovation and growth.

As part of this work, doctoral graduates from 2003-04 to 2005-06 are invited to take part in an impact and careers survey which will be open until 31 May 2013.

The aim is to improve understanding of the impact of doctoral training over the medium to long-term. Questions focus on the importance of research skills and expertise developed during doctoral training in gaining employment; the extent to which the doctoral degree experience enabled graduates to progress towards their long-term career aspirations; the relevance and importance of their doctoral training in contributing to key activities in their roles.

The survey is available now. Thank you.

Think we'd stay in bed and switch the phone off! Would you drag yourself in?

We know there's huge amount of support available on the Forum, but if you're looking for some general advice if things aren't going as well as you might have hoped, then you might find the latest article on FindAPhD.com useful...