======= Date Modified 27 Jun 2010 14:41:01 =======
I can see the temptation of a funded masters but there is a but....

If there's no dissertation, I doubt it's on the ESRC-recognised list of MAs. That means that to get any research council funding for a PhD (assuming you're eligible for ESRC) then you'd have to do a second MA. If you are ESRC eligible and sure you want to do a PhD, then do this if it involves no debt (if it does I'd be wary), and start applying in the Autumn for 1+3 places, so that you've got time to work up a strong proposal. If you're not ESRC-eligible, then I have a nasty feeling given that universities are budgeting for 25% cuts in funding that university PhD scholarships are going to be very thin on the ground in the future. You might be better looking outside the UK for PhD funding if not ESRC-eligible.

Big caveat - the ESRC is changing its funding system for PhDs for next year and no-one really knows what it will look like. But I can't see them abandoning the insistence on a research training focussed MA given how much they've pushed that.

Oh another thought: if there's no dissertation how many credits are there? If there's less than 90 ECTS or 180 UK credits, you may find other countries won't recognise it very willingly as an MA (especially in mainland Europe).

That would not be a good preparation for a PhD so no I wouldn't use my money that way. If there's no dissertation then it's presumably an MA aimed at offering a placement instead to help you get into that line of work. Great if that's what you want but less good if you want to continue onto a social sciences PhD. However, if you are not being offered any places on more traditional MAs i.e. ones with a dissertation, are your undergraduate qualifications poor or your IELTS score weak if you're an international applicant? Or did you just apply to the LSE & Oxbridge? If the latter, I'd suggest looking at what's on offer at Russell Group / 1994 group universities elsewhere in the UK. There will probably still be some places available. If it's the IELTS that's the problem then take a year to work on that and reapply. But in all honesty, in social sciences if your first degree is weak, it's going to be a problem these days and I'd suggest perhaps looking in a different direction to a PhD.

It might be easiest to phrase an initial email as a specific but easy to fulfil request e.g. for a copy of a recent, unpublished conference paper she'd given that's relevant to your work. Mention how helpful you found her work and that your supervisor suggested you contact her and give a very brief outline of your work.

If there's several papers being presented, normally all the presenters will sit together at the front and take it in turns to present. I'd take your presentation on a memory stick as that's less likely to go wrong than a laptop connecting to a new system, and there's bound to be a networked computer there (unless they specifically told you otherwise).

I think the best thing to do is to run through your presentation in front of someone with a stopwatch.You're likely to be kept very strictly to the alloted time and that's so easy to overrun especially if you are a bit nervous.

jepsonclough has said what I was thinking. If you hope to get a postdoc that paper might be really crucial, given how horribly competitive it is right now. Is there any chance your supervisor has actually got an eye to your future career here?

Your supervisor is the person to ask for guidance. S/he will know the regulations surrounding your MPhil and they vary from university to university, so a forum like this really can't help.
Research paper databases - go to the website of your university library and see what they subscribe to. Many will have pages detailling resources for specific subjects which might also be helpful. If you don't know how to use the databases, then contact your library to see if they can arrange training.

I hate to say this but I'd bet millions that the student who passed back that comment to you, had spent the previous few minutes detailling anything critical you've said in their earshot about your supervisor to him. It would be a bit bizarre to go up to someone and say tell littlekick she's an awful researcher, without that person having already raised the subject. I'd be very careful about discussing this with anyone other than whoever has responsibility for PhD students in your department in case it backfires on you.
How much of all of this (the argument and the job offer) is either on paper or witnessed? If it's not, you may have difficulty proving anything in a formal complaint. I think I personally wouldn't go that route unless you have evidence to make it clear you would win. I would though look into changing supervisors as it sounds as though this is an irretrievable breakdown and that pursuing working with this person will cause more disruption than bringing someone new in would. If you were nearer to being completely finished, I'd risk toughing it out, but I'm assuming you'll be writing up after a break for maternity leave, so you will need someone who will read drafts in a timely and constructive fashion. My feeling though would be that it might actually be OK though if the person is new to your work, as they're predominantly reading it as a scientist in the field looking for whether it makes sense and reads ok.

I'd also say it's normal. While you might feel right now that the literature review is not helpful, you'd be surprised in retrospect how much it helps to rule in and out various avenues for research (I could only see this myself a long way into my PhD). If it's any consolation two sentences of my first year work made it into my thesis and I still finished in just over three years. I think almost all of us start out the PhD process full of confidence in our projects and our abilities and the first year is often a bit of an unpleasant shock, as we often find our work being heavily criticised for the first time (most of us were always good students) and the feeling that you are submerged in a rather hopeless task that doesn't seem to be progressing. Or maybe that was just me...
It sounds like your supervisor is engaged in your project (I'd see it as a positive that she's thinking enough about your project to suggest new avenues and taking the time to give you feedback even if criticism is never pleasant), so I'd really suggest going to see her and saying you feel a bit lost. Maybe if the two of you could agree some very concrete tasks for the summer e.g. deciding on your methodology then that might help you feel that things are moving again. Two things that helped me 'get a grip' on my thesis were to have a (ever-changing) table of contents for the thesis and a timetable with targets for each bit of work.

If either thesis was not that person's own work, then PhDs can be withdrawn after being awarded. See this for an example:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=400950

UK universities (the public ones anyway) are charities. If a business makes a donation to a charity and receives a service in return then then VAT can be partially recoverable in some circumstances, but I think you're going to come up against the same problem: there is no VAT on tuition fees so it's a VAT exempt activity. If no-one has paid VAT then it can't be recovered.

Seriously ring HMRC or get an accountant. My sister works for HMRC and I know attempting to fiddle a VAT return is taken seriously. The law is complex and you need professional advice.

I don't think this is about VAT at all actually. I think them paying your tuition fees might instead be deemed an employee benefit, in which case rather than be able to claim anything back wouldn't they be liable to paying extra national insurance contributions on your behalf?

The only way I can see your firm being able to claim anything is if your PhD might possibly fall under R&D tax credits - v complicated get an accountant. Actually you just really do need to ring HMRC or ask your accountant.

Rather than your firm, it might be worth you seeing as an individual if you can set any personal costs of doing the PhD off against your own income tax payments. E.g. I believe you can claim for membership of professional organisations as this is something that can't be claimed as an expense from your employer, or if you have a home office I think you can claim some expenses. BUT be warned, if at the moment you're paying income tax solely through PAYE, it does mean form filling and the benefits are not huge at all.

As there is no VAT levied on tuition fees, you would not be able to reclaim it. Medicines and books are also VAT-exempt so I think whoever is telling you this is not well-informed. I would seek advice from Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs if the information here doesn't suffice http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/index.htm
My gut feeling is that it won't be worth the hassle.

I suspect plagiarism is actually worse at the postgrad level from what I've heard and seen. One of my fellow PhD students not only submitted a wholly plagiarised paper to a conference, he entered it for a prize and was very indignant at being thrown out of the conference. I pity his supervisors as I imagine they are having to check his thesis very rigorously.

But anyway, I imagine the issue is, how did the other person get hold of your work to plagiarise it? If you gave it to him/her, your university might be concerned about whether or not you colluded in the plagiarism. That's assuming obviously that you've been told that the other student has admitted plagiarising your work i.e. there's no question about the original author. If your behaviour could be construed as having colluded with the other student, it might be worth trying to get some advice from your students union on how your university handles this. I imagine you will be called in for an interview to determine how this happened at any rate.

I'm guessing from the mention of the commonwealth scholarship that you're an international student? Have you tried asking the British Council in your country whether there are any scholarships aimed specifically at people of your nationality? Unfortunately there's very little funding for English Literature for UK students either so competition for anything university-based open to all students is going to be intense, although it's obviously worth trying, even though it's late in the year and deadlines often are earlier. Make sure the departments are fully aware that you have no money, as if a UK student had been provisionally offered some internal funding, but then was successful in the Arts and Humanities Research Council competition, then funding might be released late in the summer - this is a very long shot though.
Obviously if you have no money, you won't be able to get a visa to come to the UK, as they insist you show you have the course fees plus a year's maintenance funding to get the visa. Most of the international students I knew were sponsored by their governments - is that an option, even if you had to defer your place for a year to get it sorted out? Deferring for a year to give yourself time to look for funding, is a much better idea, than trying to scrape together enough money for the first year, and then nothing working out so having to drop out, in my opinion.

Well who writes the most highly regarded articles in that area? Whose work do you personally think is exciting? Look up their affiliations and pretty soon you'd have a shortlist. Then see which are prepared to take you, and pick the one that appeals the most.