======= Date Modified 05 Aug 2011 20:35:02 =======

I think what has happened to you is cruel beyond belief. Aren't they contracted to fund you for the expected taught doctorate period (i.e. four years)?

Good for you for deciding to stick it out. If you don't see this through, it could be something you regret in years to come.

Are you sure you have to pay full fees? I won't have funding after 3 years either and have been told that if I have a full draft completed I can go on to nominal fees which are "only" a few hundred pounds. Will make a big difference.

The thing is I wont have a full draft completed by registration this year hence the full 6k. After that then I can pay the submission rate at a much cheaper rate. However, I aim to be finished next year!! tough work either way - lets hope funding comes through...

Are you sure you would need to have completed a full draft to qualify for the reduced fee? That's not the case at my university. Full-time PhD students pay a reduced fee (was 90 pounds in my time, now 100 pounds) from their 4th year onwards. The same applies to part-timers (as I was), at a suitably equivalent number of years. I had funding from AHRC for the big fee paying years of my part-time PhD and I just had to pay that nominal fee afterwards. I had no full draft then.

My uni changed the regs for entering the write-up stage last september which stated that the supervisor had to see a full draft thesis first. I was just getting to september with a 1/3 drafted so this would have put me out of the write-up stage. However, the actual decision to enter students was not done until a few months later and my full draft was going to be done by that point so it was signed off for entering write-up. My full draft was done in december (written in 5 months), write-up granted in february and actual submission was 1st April on a part-time basis so on a full time basis a thesis could be written in just a few months. Maybe worth checking your uni regs for the write-up phase specifications.

hmm - if it were me, I'd convince sup to sign me off as 'writing up' and then if it spills over to another year (e.g. a 5th year), then I'd blag it again when it came to it.

======= Date Modified 12 Aug 2011 09:50:58 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
*Edited by moderators- inappropriate content*