The Higher Education Megathread

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Moggy** » Sun Feb 21, 2016 5:21 pm

Qikz wrote:My "last" module started with the OU three weeks ago. I've not even had a chance to start anything.

Thankfully it's an easy module and nothing is due until April, but I gotta catch up with myself.

I have one more TMA to submit and an EMA and then, assuming I pass, I am done. Looks like we might graduate at around the same time, GRcade OU buddies. :wub:

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Moggy** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:06 am

My (hopefully!) final ever TMA is now submitted and I just have to wait for the results.

Oh and then write the EMA. :dread:

I have until 1 June to submit that though so no great panic. And then I am free!

I buggered up my earlier calculations on what results I need in order to get a 2:1. I will need to get minimums of 66% on the last TMA and 70% on the EMA in order to have decent enough results for a 2:1. Any less than those percentages and I will get a 2:2. I always loved Archbishop Desmond though so it's all good.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:33 am

Congratulations on being so close to the finish Moggy. Fingers crossed for your 2.i. though I'm secretly hoping you'll join me in the 2.ii. club.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Moggy** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:46 am

Cheers, i'd be happy enough with a 2:2, I just can't wait to finish now, it's been a long 6 years!

Corazon de Leon

Absolutely nothing wrong with a Desmond. Good luck Moggy!

Got myself a summer job, and it's not minimum wage \o/

Well done Moggy! Karl - you can now update the opening post to me getting a merit in the MSc I took

Doing a PhD at the same University now :mrgreen:

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 5:55 pm

Updated

Thanks darling

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Moggy** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:38 pm

Congrats Mini E. Not long until we have to change your username to Dr Mini E. :wub:

Thanks mate

2 and a half years to go!

2.5 Years for a PhD? Isn't that a bit short? How does it work over there. All the schools I applied to where 4 years minimum. 1 Year for courses, 1 year for comprehensive exams, and 2 years to write the thesis.

I'm 6 months in now. It's a paid studentship which they'll pay me for three years to do (plus course fees and a few other qualifications). Kinda means I have to finish promptly though which is already looking more difficult than envisaged with data collection availability of my target population

3 years still seems like a tight schedule considering the average length of a PhD! But at any rate, congratulations and welcome to the club! Before I started everyone I ever talked to said they probably would not choose to go for it again if they had the choice, but I don't think any of those people ever held real jobs. As someone who has worked in an office, my personal opinion is that it is awesome, and I regularly enjoy tormenting my former work colleagues with the fact that I normally sleep in late, and then watch cartoons for most of my day.

Corazon de Leon

Mini E wrote:I'm 6 months in now. It's a paid studentship which they'll pay me for three years to do (plus course fees and a few other qualifications). Kinda means I have to finish promptly though which is already looking more difficult than envisaged with data collection availability of my target population

You got a paid studentship with a masters with merit? Good work!

Mine disqualified me from all funding/projects for not being good enough so I'm £12k in the hole on fees and have had to work 25 hours a week all the way through my PhD.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:51 pm

Crikey. I think things are a bit different in the sciences -- an M.Sc. with Merit (or in some fields a first-class B.Sc.) is enough to be considered for funding. I guess it's stricter in the humanities where funding is tighter?

Corazon de Leon

Yeah probably. We get something like 10-12 funded students to the faculty per year between Politics, History, Journalism, English, Law(non LLB), and languages. The Education department falls under our faculty and they have their own pot of studentship money but so few funding places for so many applicants is horrendous. You need a first or a distinction and in a lot of cases both to even be considered.

Thanks buddy

The PhD Studentship was unrelated to my MSc grade really. It was the 175th Anniversary of the University or something so they gave 10 funded PhDs away across all faculties and I managed to blag my way onto one :slol:

Nobody on our Masters course got a distinction. Borderline impossible to.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 1:40 pm

@Cora: That's really shitty.

One wonders how many bright, able people - particularly from poorer backgrounds - have been put off doing a Ph.D. in the arts and humanities because of the chronic underfunding. When subjects like history and literature are so undervalued, it makes me very worried for the future of our culture.

Corazon de Leon

Plenty, I'd imagine. Whenever I go in for a meeting there's usually a worried meeting going on about funding for courses. my supervisor is one of the faculty vice deans and I know he's had a lot of issues with funding bodies etc. the SGSAH was supposed to make everything better and easier for Scottish humanities courses but I've seen absolutely no benefit from it yet.

At this point I genuinely believe that self funding a humanities PhD was the worst, most shortsighted decision I've ever made. I did it for all the wrong reasons and now it's just an attritional thing to see what breaks first, my sanity or the markers' willpower.

The Higher Education Megathread

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