The Higher Education Megathread

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Outrunner
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Outrunner » Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:35 pm

Mini E wrote:
Outrunner wrote:Having been out of education for almost 20 years, I'm looking at going to university and finally getting a degree. It's something that I've been mulling over for a few years now but since everything is about to go tits up at work now seems to be as good a time as any. Obviously there are financial considerations and I'm still figuring that out. My main concern is just the sheer amount of time I've been out of education. Has anybody here done a similar thing? How did you find it going back into education after a long period of time?


I don't have experience of this from my own education, Outrunner, but if you are a fairly switched on individual, you are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of your average student with less life experience. As a more extreme example, My Mother in her 60s has decided to go back and do a second Masters degree just for the fun of it and she's attaining extremely high grades without thinking her own work is particularly good purely because she is seeing it through an adult's pair of eyes.


Thanks! I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I've spent the past few weeks putting my application together and got it completed today just in time for the deadline date! I'm just waiting to hear back now

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Green Gecko » Thu Jan 17, 2019 4:21 pm

There were a bunch of students in the 40s and later at my campus. They seemed to be generally good students, although occasionally they couldn't fathom some more controversial things i.e. weird art. They were 5 years part time so they could balance with life.

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Outrunner
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Outrunner » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:14 pm

If I get in I having to do a years Access to Higher Education before I can start the actual degree which is run through the Lifelong Learning Dept at the university. Hopefully there'll be a few folk close to my age and I won't feel like some Steve Buscemi meme :lol: On the open day I went to last year I had a good chat with current students so I'm not too worried about not fitting in. I'm a little nervous about getting back to education but I think once I've started I'll be fine

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Mini E
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Mini E » Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:32 pm

Reached absolute burnout 45 days before I'm supposed to submit my PhD. Working stupid hours just to keep head above water combining full time teaching (prep, teaching, marking) and PhD (barely getting done) and don't even like my work environment at the moment :dread: Feels like a bit of an impasse. If I was 12 months earlier in my doctorate I'd be dropping out. Not sure what to do here. It's literally made me such a miserable person compared to pre- PhD Mini E :lol: I'm happy on Friday nights and Saturdays until 6pm and just miserable as sin the rest of the time. My wife didn't sign up for this :dread: . Worked until 01:30 last night. Had a stroke patient this morning who didn't turn up (after I'd got to the lab at 07:00), scratched my way through the morning doing admin, taught 11:40 - 18:10 without a break, came home and now writing a book chapter plan for tomorrow morning's meeting. So another day of 0 words written of my PhD even though I've been working for 12 hours after 4 1/2 hours sleep and will continue to until whatever time tonight. Got home tonight and genuinely wanted to cry (unfortunately I'm apparently physiologically unable to).

Needed to voice that somewhere that won't launch some sort of intervention about my mental health :lol:

/rant

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Rightey
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Rightey » Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:56 pm

That sounds really shitty dude, is there a reason you need to finish in 45 days? Is it a funding thing? Couldn't you speak to your supervisor, or perhaps the department administrator to see if there's anything that can be done so you can get some kind of extension?

Pelloki on ghosts wrote:Just start masturbating furiously. That'll make them go away.

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Rightey
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Rightey » Fri Feb 08, 2019 5:17 pm

Mini E wrote:Hello


How are you doing buddy? I hope things have calmed down a bit for you.

In happier news I've figured out I may be able to get two specializations (Environment and Health and Enviro. Policy) along with my PhD based on some of the courses I've taken. :toot:

But I need to check as I did it in a way that I don't think they really intended it to be done. Basically both specializations have almost identical requirements, with the exception of the core course you need to take. So I took the core course for Enviro. Policy, and then as my elective for that specialization I took the core course for Enviro. Health. So technically I've satisfied the requirements for both, but officially I was only registered in Enviro. Policy. Wish me luck!

Pelloki on ghosts wrote:Just start masturbating furiously. That'll make them go away.

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Mini E
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Mini E » Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:38 pm

Rightey wrote:
Mini E wrote:Hello


How are you doing buddy? I hope things have calmed down a bit for you.

In happier news I've figured out I may be able to get two specializations (Environment and Health and Enviro. Policy) along with my PhD based on some of the courses I've taken. :toot:

But I need to check as I did it in a way that I don't think they really intended it to be done. Basically both specializations have almost identical requirements, with the exception of the core course you need to take. So I took the core course for Enviro. Policy, and then as my elective for that specialization I took the core course for Enviro. Health. So technically I've satisfied the requirements for both, but officially I was only registered in Enviro. Policy. Wish me luck!



Hello mate :) Thanks - got through the week. Had last night off to relax and powering through some stats today : :msgreen: :evil:

Good luck with the two specialisations... are you based in the UK?

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Rightey
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Rightey » Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:13 pm

Glad to hear things are a bit calmer now. Hopefully it doesn't get as bad as it was.

I'm based in Canada.

Pelloki on ghosts wrote:Just start masturbating furiously. That'll make them go away.

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Mini E
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Mini E » Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:17 pm

Then next 6 weeks will be the same level, to be honest. My final submission date is in concrete in the calendar and there just aren't enough hours in the day, to be honest.

Ah okay. I wondered from the specializations! We don't have that here in our PhD work.

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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Corazon de Leon » Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:38 pm

It’s gonna be a strawberry floating horrible six weeks Mini E. No question about it. But the end is in sight now - six weeks is nothing in the scheme of things.

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Mini E
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Mini E » Sun Feb 10, 2019 2:50 am

Corazon de Leon wrote:It’s gonna be a strawberry floating horrible six weeks Mini E. No question about it. But the end is in sight now - six weeks is nothing in the scheme of things.


Thanks mate. Hoping to be done for today in 30 mins or so - standard 10:00-03:00 Saturday on data bits. Have to pop into the office at 09:00ish to get some paperwork I left there for tomorrow evening's session (taking a few hours off tomorrow afternoon with the wife's friends) then Monday will arrive.

I'm so incredibly whiny :lol: - I think this is the first time I've completely and utterly regretted doing this qualification :roll: Shall power through.

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Errkal
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Errkal » Sun Feb 10, 2019 6:55 am

Start my degree through work in September.

Slightly annoyed I can't start right away as want to get got on with it but still, excited.

Going to have to us my work laptop for everything as I can't really afford to buy a new laptop or PC for it right now, but oh wells, at least work kit is good

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Rightey
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Rightey » Tue Mar 05, 2019 2:32 am

I've been asked to be a reviewer on an academic paper! I feel like I've made it, but also that I will now be revealed as being a massive fraud.

Pelloki on ghosts wrote:Just start masturbating furiously. That'll make them go away.

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Corazon de Leon

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Corazon de Leon » Tue Mar 05, 2019 11:36 pm

Congrats! How do paper submissions work in Canada? And how does the peer review process work too?

Mini E - how goes your work mate? Close to submission?

I've been attending conferences all around the country over the last six months or so - Newcastle, Lincoln, Nottingham, Edinburgh - giving papers and getting feedback on the subject I'm preparing an article and monograph proposal for(Trump's media strategy compared to other presidents). The reception seems good - people seem genuinely interested in the subject. Now I just need to get the damn book deal. :lol:

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Mini E
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Mini E » Wed Mar 06, 2019 12:00 am

Corazon de Leon wrote:Mini E - how goes your work mate? Close to submission?


Hi mate. I submit next Friday. I've stopped sleeping for the most part. General pattern is 03:30-07:30. I have eight chapters. 1 and 2 (intro, literature review) are done. 3, 4, 5, 6 (four PhD studies) are at final draft stage and I'm waiting for feedback. I'm structuring 7 (overall discussion) at the moment and need to have started writing it by tomorrow night. Chapter 8 will be a short summary. I've finished teaching as of Friday last week so can concentrate just on PhD now.


Corazon de Leon wrote:I've been attending conferences all around the country over the last six months or so - Newcastle, Lincoln, Nottingham, Edinburgh - giving papers and getting feedback on the subject I'm preparing an article and monograph proposal for(Trump's media strategy compared to other presidents). The reception seems good - people seem genuinely interested in the subject. Now I just need to get the damn book deal. :lol:


That's great news, mate. Well done. Great to see you disseminating your work (Phrasing, boom).

The number of cuts at the moment in the industry is terrifying. I'm probably not allowed to say anything about where I'm doing my PhD, but Surrey are having to cut £15,000,000 from the budget and have offered huge voluntary redundancies. I know another University in the south are quietly in trouble after taking out a huge loan for building work with repayments calculated under the £9,250 per student fees. It looks likely that this cap will be lowered to £7,500 and there is no one there to cover the windfall.

It's all falling apart. I had a bit of a crisis of confidence earlier about the industry I'm going into. I'm genuinely not convinced I'll be doing this in 5-10 years but we shall see.

I start lecturing at Brookes on the 25th. Supposedly moving house 48 hours before my PhD submission.

How are you, Cora? :lol:

Corazon de Leon

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Corazon de Leon » Wed Mar 06, 2019 12:23 am

Nearly there mate. From experience, the sheer relief you'll feel a week on Friday will be mental, hopefully the thought of it will push you through the next ten days. I think I slept the whole weekend when mine went in at the end of 2017. :lol:

And honestly, if the thesis is fairly watertight the viva will be a walk in the park compared to the last few months. The structure sounds pretty tight - mine was eight chapters overall - intro, lit review, five main body chapters and a conclusion. Hopefully the feedback comes quickly and you can make any final alterations that you need to do sooner rather than later.

Totally agree on the industry - there was an almost £50m shortfall in Scottish universities in the last fiscal year, jobs seem to be few and far between at the moment. With that said, you've got a job waiting for you, and from your posts in here you are a metric fuckton of miles ahead of where I was at your stage in terms of the extracurricular side of things. You're also clearly good at what you do, to have published articles and - again - a lectureship waiting for you at the end, so don't let your confidence drop. :)

I don't really know what else to do outside of academia, and I love the teaching side of things, so I'll keep pushing on for another couple of years before I get properly disheartened I think. The thing is, I keep getting ideas for academic projects/articles that I really want to take on and explore further, so the enthusiasm is there even if the opportunity to do it full time isn't. Fortunately I'm employed in a stable job and still have the energy/understanding of those around me to keep plugging away. :D

strawberry float me it's getting harder though. Working full time, attending conferences at weekends and evening seminars to try and network, putting in a shift at night on articles, proposals, applications and drafts etc. is draining. Never mind my teaching responsibilities this semester(just in: 45 3,000 word essays! YAY!) planning a wedding in July(plus being best man at two other weddings this year :lol: ) and looking after the dog(tor) three or four times a week. At the moment it must be about a 60-70 hour week. Should be doing a HEA Fellowship in a month or two as well. Hopefully it'll calm down after the semester ends and I get everything submitted to various journals, prospective publishers etc. :lol:

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Rightey
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Rightey » Fri Mar 08, 2019 6:17 am

Corazon de Leon wrote:Congrats! How do paper submissions work in Canada? And how does the peer review process work too?


Haha, yes good question. I'm not quite sure. :slol:

I've been published a few times but always as a second author. I basically just have technical skills (GIS) that are rare in my field so I've been roped in on some projects where I just did mapping for someone and got put down as the second author without actually having to write anything.

From what I can tell, submissions are basically you just write a paper then send it off to a journal with a list of recommended reviewers who you think would be knowledgeable in the area. They then tell you if they will accept the paper or not, if it doesn't get accepted you can then fix it up some more and submit it to a different journal.

I just sent off the email saying that I would be a reviewer, which I now instantly regret. :fp:

I've worked with one of the editors of the journal so I assume they just thought I would be a good fit as a reviewer and decided to email me.

Pelloki on ghosts wrote:Just start masturbating furiously. That'll make them go away.

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Curls
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Curls » Sat Mar 09, 2019 3:05 am

Anyone had experience getting to the end of repaying their student loan? In the next Tax year I should come close or finish paying depending if I contribute a little extra. Thing is the SL company are notoriously slow at processing everything usually so I feel they could be again and keep taking from my wages even when it's paid up.

I wass thinking I may just ring them at the start of April and pay off the last few thousand and try to make sure it doesn't come out of my wages anymore.

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Dowbocop
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Dowbocop » Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:04 am

Curls wrote:Anyone had experience getting to the end of repaying their student loan? In the next Tax year I should come close or finish paying depending if I contribute a little extra. Thing is the SL company are notoriously slow at processing everything usually so I feel they could be again and keep taking from my wages even when it's paid up.

I wass thinking I may just ring them at the start of April and pay off the last few thousand and try to make sure it doesn't come out of my wages anymore.

My wife did this. She said she called the SLC, cancelled the PAYE deductions, then set up a direct debit.

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Mini E
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PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread
by Mini E » Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:18 am

Corazon de Leon wrote:Nearly there mate. From experience, the sheer relief you'll feel a week on Friday will be mental, hopefully the thought of it will push you through the next ten days. I think I slept the whole weekend when mine went in at the end of 2017. :lol:

And honestly, if the thesis is fairly watertight the viva will be a walk in the park compared to the last few months. The structure sounds pretty tight - mine was eight chapters overall - intro, lit review, five main body chapters and a conclusion. Hopefully the feedback comes quickly and you can make any final alterations that you need to do sooner rather than later.

Totally agree on the industry - there was an almost £50m shortfall in Scottish universities in the last fiscal year, jobs seem to be few and far between at the moment. With that said, you've got a job waiting for you, and from your posts in here you are a metric fuckton of miles ahead of where I was at your stage in terms of the extracurricular side of things. You're also clearly good at what you do, to have published articles and - again - a lectureship waiting for you at the end, so don't let your confidence drop. :)

I don't really know what else to do outside of academia, and I love the teaching side of things, so I'll keep pushing on for another couple of years before I get properly disheartened I think. The thing is, I keep getting ideas for academic projects/articles that I really want to take on and explore further, so the enthusiasm is there even if the opportunity to do it full time isn't. Fortunately I'm employed in a stable job and still have the energy/understanding of those around me to keep plugging away. :D

strawberry float me it's getting harder though. Working full time, attending conferences at weekends and evening seminars to try and network, putting in a shift at night on articles, proposals, applications and drafts etc. is draining. Never mind my teaching responsibilities this semester(just in: 45 3,000 word essays! YAY!) planning a wedding in July(plus being best man at two other weddings this year :lol: ) and looking after the dog(tor) three or four times a week. At the moment it must be about a 60-70 hour week. Should be doing a HEA Fellowship in a month or two as well. Hopefully it'll calm down after the semester ends and I get everything submitted to various journals, prospective publishers etc. :lol:


Yeh - I can't quite imagine what my head is going to feel like when I submit. I annoyingly can't drink much to celebrate, though. I submit on the Friday and have a half marathon on the Sunday :(

As far as write- up goes. Chapters 1-5 are now in my final document. Chapter 6 is being proof-read by my supervisor. Chapter 7 (general discussion) should apparently be ~ 15 pages. I've now written just over eight and have a structure laid out for the next four or five. I just need to think of comments for the overall strengths and limitations... then Chapter 8 is just a general conclusion.

Then all the formatting! I cannot quite believe that this is almost over.

You're right that the teaching is the enjoyable side of things. It's all the other crap that gets you down... I've started to get disheartened fairly early on. My wife has started telling me that the cracks are starting to show (I'm only 27, so this isn't ideal :lol: ).

How's this week been?


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