Hi, as far as I know some texts are copyright protected and couldn't be printed out. There is nothing you can really do about it but if I were you I would go to your library and ask about Inter-library loans. There is quite a few universities enrolled in this scheme which means that if any of the institutions have the texts they will be able to lend it to your university so you can read it. It usually takes a while to get the texts and you will have the hard copies for a month but then you can make your own copy and return the original back. It is really worth investigating!

Also have you tried to find it in the British Library? http://www.bl.uk/

Hope this helps. ;-)

Hi, I have been working in two universities for past four and half years so I can offer you a different perspective on your issue. I don't know on which universities are you applying but I can give you general pointers. First of all, you don't need masters to apply for PhD. If you have a first class degree or 2.1 with a dissertation grade of 70% or over then you should have no problem to get on the PhD. If you have anything else then you might have quite a difficulty to overcome it.

In regards to your good PG Dip or bad MSc then I would definitely go for good PG Dip. That way you can argument that during the studies you realised that although the subject was very interesting your main research interest lies somewhere else and therefore you decided to opt out at the PG Dip stage. When you are awarded PG Dip no one will see from the results that you failed the dissertation so no need to explain... And if you have a good PG Dip it shows everyone that you are keen on your personal development and therefore could be a good material for PhD as well.

If you decide to re-submit the dissertation then even if you get an excellent mark you will always have to explain what went wrong the first time round and it can cast quite a big shadow on your PhD application.

If I were you I would go to the university(ies) you are applying for and asked for the Programme Director. You can then get bit more information about the programme and also you can discuss your applications. Generally Programme Directors especially in research area are very approachable and willing to help because good research students = good reputation for university which then affects ranking as well and so on.

Finally, last thought, if you take the PG Dip and then realise that PhD is too much to bite then you can always go and do different masters in an area that is closer to your heart.

Anyways good luck with any choice you make. ;-)