Hi Sivvy

JSTOR and SAGE are both good portals. The most relevant specific journals will depend on your subject area and topic.

Hi sivvy

Making informal contact with a supervisor is definitely a good idea. Most English Lit academics will have an institutional web-page including details of the sorts of projects they're interested in supervising.

I'd send a polite email with a brief description of your interests (and perhaps a little bit about your experience, including undergraduate or MA dissertation topics). It's also nice to say why you think they might be a good supervisor - you don't need to fawn on their research / reputation, but you can say why their work / interests are appropriate to your project.

Don't worry if you don't hear back straight away - most academics will be pretty busy this time of year.

There's nothing wrong with doing a bit of preliminary 'research' around your topic as well. I wouldn't try and begin a comprehensive literature review at this stage (that's something your supervisor will be able to advise you with when the time comes) but you can take a look at some of the key critical texts.

Googling your prospective topic can also be quite handy - that'll probably bring up one or two relevant critical works, along with relevant scholars and perhaps even some other PhD students working on related areas.

You can mention anything interesting you find in an email to a potential supervisor if you think it's relevant and will help them understand your ideas.

Hope that helps a wee bit - good luck!

Mark

My understanding is that EU law prevents citizens of other member states being discriminated against for public funding. However, it is possible to limit that funding to the project itself and not provide a maintenance stipend.

Hi Academicadam

I can understand your feeling demotivated at this stage. I remember facing down my MA dissertation with a PhD already confirmed. After the excitement of defining a PhD topic, getting it approved, etc, the MA diss' felt strange - almost like a step back to a topic I was less interested in and a stage I was already past.

The thing to do though (and I'm not going to win any awards for this advice...) is to get started. Looking at a wall of research material is pretty daunting. The trick is to make it smaller. Work out a good start point, get yourself a good note-taking system (I actually used small cards, to stop myself getting out of control) and get a few days under your belt. You'll get your lightbulb moments and your interest and enthusiasm in the topic will develop accordingly. It will, honest. I ended up loving my MA dissertation - even published a small piece of it.

Hope that helps a bit - honestly, get stuck in and you'll feel better about it.

Mark

Hi Folks,

You're probably aware of the proposals for new postgraduate student loans at Masters and PhD level in the UK and you may also know that the UK government is currently seeking participants for its consultation process.

This is an opportunity for various groups (including students) to say what they think about the plans for the loans and as you may have noticed if you've since the lovely pink banner ----->

... we've put together a page that lets you take part in the consultation right here on the postgraduate forum:

The consultation tool explains the various aspects of the policy you're being asked for feedback about as you go, but you can check out the guides to the Masters loans:

http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/new-uk-postgraduate-loans-scheme.aspx

And the PhD loans:

http://www.findaphd.com/funding/guides/uk-phd-loans-scheme.aspx

At FindAMasters and FindAPhD.com.

So, if you feel strongly about different aspects of these policies - or these changes to higher education policy in general - now's your chance to have your say. The consultation will run until 29th May.

Of course, you can also chat about the policies here in this thread - but, if you're a UK student, make sure the government knows what you think as well!

Cheers,

Mark

Hi Sudeepkumar

As you're not an EU student you won't automatically be eligible to work in Portugal without a permit. That doesn't necessarily mean you won't be able to work at all - it just means that prospective employers may need to apply for a permit on your behalf.

You might be able to find more detailed information for Indian students over at the Portuguese Immigration service website: http://www.sef.pt/portal/V10/EN/aspx/page.aspx

There's also a general guide to studying a PhD in Portugal over at FindAPhD, with some information on student visas:http://www.findaphd.com/study-abroad/europe/phd-study-in-portugal.aspx





Hope that helps a bit,

Mark

Hi Lucifer (now there's a greeting...)

I'm also in English Lit and have published a couple of pieces from my thesis during the PhD. I know what you mean re. the need to get that theoretical / methodological scaffold in place, but it seems to be par for the course. Most single-author folks I know tend to point their work at topics that author's work can speak to - might require a bit more re-writing, but could also increase exposure.

I guess another route might be to try for an edited collection? You'd need other scholars with work relevant to your author (or their network?) but it could be a way to stamp your name on the subject with something more substantial than an article and build from there. It seems that publishers are more likely to go for edited collections on 'niche' authors, though my experience of that is fairly anecdotal.

Hi folks

The forum isn't to be used for advertising purposes, this is true. A discussion of proof-reading in the context of postgraduate work / academic publication is fine, of course.

This isn't really the place to discuss proof-reading as a profession or general concept though. Unless someone's doing a PhD in proof-reading science. Linguistics, maybe? ;)

With respect to *answering* questions, well, it's natural to be nervous. After I gave my first couple of papers I sat praying that noone would ask me anything! You don't want that though - a question is pretty much always a good thing: it means someone cared about what you had to say and thought you were worth discussing it with.

It's easy to panic about that one horrible question from an evil professor who inexplicably decides to eat you alive in front of an audience. People may have their horror stories, but, honestly, I've *never* seen this happen and I've spoken at / attended an awful lot of events.

If you do get a question you're not prepared for, that's fine - and totally normal. After all, the questions are the one bit of a presentation you *can't* prepare for ;) I've tried jotting down answers to a few 'likely' questions before, but they never actually get asked.

If you think you might know the answer, take your time to formulate it. Noone expects you to be able to summon up everything related to your research in a couple of seconds. Looking like you're putting thought into an answer is a good thing.

If someone asks a question and you don't know the answer, it's OK to admit that. Say it's something you hadn't yet considered, or a stage in your research you hadn't reached and that you'll look into - thank the questioner for the suggestion and perhaps go and chat with them after the paper.

Hope that all helps a little bit! - Sure others will also have some advice.

Mark

Hi Dottottung

I think everyone has these few conference nerves. I've presented more papers than I care to remember now and I still tense up a little before the time comes to give a talk. The following are tips from my experience (which is Humanities-based). I'm sure other folks here will be able to offer their own.

When it comes to *asking* questions, I tend to jot down a couple as the talk goes on. Sometimes I ask them in the Q/A, but quite often I'll go chat to the speaker afterwards - particularly if it's something I'd like to have a proper discussion about.

I'd really recommend this if you're a little nervous about drawing the attention of everyone else in the audience and would prefer to just chat with the speaker. In my experience they never mind this (some prefer it) - though it's polite to let them get a coffee / etc first!

Getting used to meeting and chatting with speakers in this way will probably boost your confidence when it comes to speaking up in the formal Q&A, but even if it doesn't, that's not a big deal: a conference in which all academic discussion was restricted to brief spurts of Q&A would be pretty bizarre (and boring).

I'm in the Humanities myself and this isn't usually a problem - it's possible that someone might follow a research lead thrown up in a paper, but we don't tend to present data directly at conferences (we do have data sometimes ;))

What I have seen a few times is people citing presentations in their own subsequent work. It's not remarkably common, but it is a thing - MLA even have citation guidelines for it. On a more informal level, people quite often ask for copies of papers they've enjoyed or been intrigued by, which (one would hope) kind of precludes secretly ripping them off.

Having given quite a few conference presentations myself, I can safely say that, were anyone to nick my work I'd hunt them down with a big stick*.

*send them a very strongly worded email.

Hi Ckoszo

Your university should be able to let you know what its accommodation options are. Not all institutions will have housing set aside for postgraduates (and this may be prioritised for taught students) but it's worth asking. As an overseas student you may be prioritised - particularly if you get in touch with your university's international office.

EU students have the right to work in the UK alongside their studies. Jobs may be available in catering, library services, etc at your uni - some institutions even run 'job shops' to help students find this kind of work. Your best bet is to get in touch and see what's available.

There's also no reason why you can't find funding in subsequent years of a part-time PhD.

Hope that helps a wee bit - best of luck!

Mark

I used to commute from Gloucestershire to South Wales as a PhD student. This included leaving the house at 6AM and driving over the Severn Bridge to teach a 9AM seminar on Victorian Literature twice a week. I made damned sure those students cared about Tennyson ;)

... I'd agree with some of what other folks here have said. You *can* get on with a lot work involved in a PhD project remotely (in certain disciplines, at least) but there's also a lot to be said for getting involved with the research community around your university - workshops, socials, etc.

Hi Ian

The statement you've quoted is based on the Budget documents - part of the consultation process will involve working with 'research councils, universities and industry to examine how best to design them [the new loans] so that they compliment existing funding streams and continue to support the most excellent research.'

There's plenty we could extrapolate from that (and from other parts of the announcement) but it looks like we'll have to wait for the details.

Speaking *entirely for myself* here, I agree that a broad shift from public funding to personal debt would be concerning.

Yes, subject areas aren't specified either - for that claim (or, ineed, for the loans).

The Masters loans are currently entering a consultation phase. It's possible that more info on these research loans will emerge from that, but the legislation doesn't look like it's going to go through in this parliament.