======= Date Modified 25 54 2010 15:54:44 =======
Am in first year, have had to survive with broken arm, and am totally fed up that the accent seems just on how many words you can churn out not on the research process itself. Am just churning out a first chapter (has to be submitted next month) and just feeling that it is rubbish. I'm not ready to write, but the department has all set all these deadlines. Yes I appreciate I have to get through the M Phil upgrade but it is sooo depressing. Really feel like giving up but I'm funded and can't afford to pay it back.

That's not how my department works. To be honest we were allowed to drift on without producing words for a bit long. But I think a balance has to be struck.

If you are funded you shouldn't have to pay anything back before the point you quit (I quit a full-time EPSRC-funded PhD in 1996). But I hope you won't quit.

Good luck!