Hi Wou,

I am currently doing an engineering PhD in a field related to water management (waste management) and have been to a few related conferences. I can safely say there is a lot of ongoing research in water management and there should be an abundance of water treatment related PhDs. In the UK I have seen a few integrated masters but they are rare. Although, getting a PhD in the UK without a masters is common and I think you could apply to normal PhDs if you can justify that you are suitable.

Hi Cat123,

I am sorry no one has replied before me but it sounds like you had a terrible experience with this postdoc. Unfortunately academia is blind to bullying and focuses on results (or papers) over people. Everyone from the top to the bottom is under so much pressure to publish or recruit students that there is no time treat people properly. It really is publish or perish and academics somewhat revel in it, which I think is disturbing. Academics endured it themselves when they younger and expect us to suffer as much or more as them, which is hwy I think the complaint process is inherently flawed. Survivor bias is wonderful at clouding people's opinions about what is acceptable. So what I am trying to say is, you can complain about the post-doc bullying you but I highly doubt anything will happen at all and might make an enemy.

To answer your question, I don't think you have any IP rights. Even if you did the research and published several papers, it is perfectly fine for people to replicate your work.

Hi em89,

I am very sorry to hear what is happening. I know you were frustrated about your viva delay and to find that it is around the same time as your court hearing must be soul destroying. However, your children must be priority and I think you are doing the right thing focusing on them. I can't possibly fathom the stress you must be under with everything but bouncing between different things is not an efficient use of your time. If you want to reread your thesis, you need to commit to a realistic plan to do it in manageable chunks without worrying about everything else. Once you start reading it and "get in the zone" it will become easier, so don't feel bad about spending an hour reading as you are being more efficient. Do you have any family or friends who can help free up some time or could you delay the viva 2 weeks? Maybe say you have coronavirus? If not the viva will go better than you think, we are our own worst critics sometimes. Most reviewers or examiners do not pick up half the mistakes we see ourselves and in practice if you say something with confidence most people will believe you. Also, if you are expecting major rewrites, admit it at the start of the viva. If you say that something needs changed examiners are likely to agree and not be harsher than what you suggested.

I don't know what else to say except goodluck!

Have you got absolutely no access? That is not acceptable. I think you should be able to get 1 or 2 days a week access even if it is a busy lab area/ building. Otherwise you are sitting around and can't do anything and wasting precious PhD time. Though I do know some universities/deprtaments are prioritising access and I found that I had to extensively justify everything. I may have exaggerated everything to make my situation more dire and that might work.

I agree to both. Even BBcode would great so that we can make the text a bit more interesting. Though with deleting posts, can there be a time limit like a day to delete posts, to stop people deleting all their posts.

I am in the same situation. I have a long term experiment running that got interrupted by the last lockdown and praying we don't shut down in the next 9 days. The gossip at my uni is that they won't close the labs unless there is a full lock down again. At the minute the labs are open but with significantly reduced capacity which is making everything take that much longer. I am also a bit annoyed that lab access is not being allocated fairly and is highly dependant on who your supervisor is. How are things at your uni?

The UK government is pretty strict for visas at the minute however I think you should be able to get a student visa pretty easily. If you apply for a student visa without mentioning the volunteering you might be fine. Then you should be able to do paid volunteer work as long as isn't paid. However I am not an expert and you should check the small print of a student visa.


EDIT: I have just realised I didn't answer the question. I thought you most university courses were eligible for student visas, however if you are unsure you can email individual universities about visa for a particular course. University admissions offices are usually quite helpful about visa requirements.

I might be a bit late but have you asked yourself what you want to know? I think it is hard to look specifically for a gap in knowledge but it is easy to find to one if you ask lots of questions after reading a paper. If you keep asking yourself questions and trying to find answers you will eventually find a research question without a clear answer. Then once you have a question you can play with variables to plan an experiment.

Hi prejovi93,

I think side projects are good as 3 years on one project can get repetitive. Having something else on the side can help you stay motivated and interested in your PhD. I would just make sure you have realistic goals and don't get too distracted. As your main aim should be to finish on time but otherwise I would say go for it.

Done

The course being new can be good or bad, so don't read into it too much. If there are any current MRes students ask if you can talk with one and get their experiences, they will be your best source of information. Accreditation only matters if you want it for your career. Your university name will probably matter more unless you are going into a specific field that openly says that they want a certain accreditation.

I had no research experience when I applied. I would say a lot of PhD students have no research or minimal experience beforehand. It is nice if you have some but not having any doesn't eliminate you. If you are stuck for what to write about, talk about; your dissertation, any small project, your motivations or what you want to research. I applied to funded engineering PhD with a set project and for my application I talked about the research project and possible experiments.

Hi Mackem,

I have just read bits of your blog and I think it is quite informative. I think it would have helped me if I read something like that before my PhD.

I actually played that PhD board game! In one of the bigger labs someone brought in and I think 6 or 7 PhD students started playing it. It was quite causual but we are all progressing at roughly the same speed. I think there was 4 of us on 39+ and we were getting quite competitive, joking who would finish their PhD first. Until one guy overthrew the dice and it ended up stuck under a fume hood. Of course we tried to recover the dice but it was to no avail. So in the end we didn't finish the game or our PhDs. I just thought I should share that random story.

Hi yousi321,

I think your master's more than compensates for your undergraduate degree. You have proven yourself capable of high quality work at a higher degree level and you have mitigating circumstances for the undergrad. Most universities will consider your Masters results more important than undergrad and you will probably get several interviews. At the interview you just need to be vague about mitigating circumstances and how you bounced back. After that I don't think a 2:2 will hinder you much. Goodluck!

I don't want to be rude but I would highly recommend you not doing a PhD solely to become a lecturer. The odds of becoming a lecturer are slim at best. You can read up about lecturer career prospects elsewhere but I have seen several people crash after realising what an academic career really entails, low pay and no job security. I cannot stress enough that you should not be doing a PhD solely for improved job prospects, as you might come to regret it later. I am not trying to put you off doing a PhD and if you love the work/research definitely go ahead, but I think you should do a PhD fully informed.

Toxic people are just toxic. Both of my parents have degrees but my Dad was the only one is his family that went to uni. My Dad and his side of the family are super supportive, they are interested in what I do but are not jealous. My Mum's side however is completely toxic despite most of them having degrees. To them I am an "underachiever" that has wasted my potential, while my cousins are lauded for barely scraping into uni and passing with a 2:2. I constantly get told that my cousins "worked harder than you" and they "deserve it more", because they were not naturally intelligent. My family openly joke to my face that I am "Dr Binman" and that after my PhD I will become a binman because my PhD involves process wastes. So I don't know what to suggest other than learn to recognise toxic people, regardless of how you are related, and cut them out of your life. Toxic people don't change and are not worth the effort.