You will have to look at the entry requirements of the graphic design masters courses you're considering. I would imagine that most will require some form of art background and/or a portfolio of previous work in the area.

I did a humanities masters degree, and I had no exams at all. You should be able to find out what assessment practices each module will require.

Have you asked your supervisors what they expect? You should be able to access your university's PhD regulations too which might have some answers.

Is the scholarship something offered every year, or is this a one-time thing? Tbh, if you're already saying you're burnt out and want to enjoy time with your child, I'd say to hold off for now.

One of the requirements for receiving the postgraduate loan from SFE is to be living in the UK for the whole duration of your course. The only way around it might be if you had a semester abroad as part of your course (but even then, that's not the whole duration). Otherwise, you'd have to self-fund.

I think it's not so much the university's entry requirements that need to be known, but much more important is the requirements of any funding bodies you're applying to. Most universities will accept you with a 2:2 and a distinction, but for an unfunded place.

That's a good way of putting it. There are a few students at my uni who openly say that they are doing the PhD to be called 'Dr' and few other reasons. They don't plan to enter academia or do an industry job related to their research, but I guess if they are happy with doing it, good for them.

Hi curious_mind,
A friend of mine has a similar dilemma at the moment, although for some additional reasons too. She's an international PhD student (luckily on a full scholarship), and she's been told she might have to go to a country in mainland Europe for 4 months+ at some point. Not only is she not particularly keen, but her visa also only allows her to leave the UK for 3 months at a time. I don't know whether travel was in her contract, but she was surprised when her supervisor mentioned it, so probably not. I think she's currently discussing her options with her supervisor, as she entered a pre-existing project partnered with a university in the European country, which makes her position a bit tougher. If your project is something you proposed, I'd imagine you'd have more flexibility to decline suggestions from supervisors.

It depends on what you want to measure/capture as to which methods and designs are most appropriate. Your supervisor might also have certain expertise or preferences that may affect your decisions here.

You can definitely look for funding during your PhD, but it's unlikely to be huge amounts like studentships are. You can look for grants and scholarships offered by relevant organisations and charities, but obviously don't apply for ones for new PhD students if you've already started yours.

As to whether you'd be considered elsewhere - that's tricky. If you aren't funded, you aren't tied to your supervisor/university in that respect, but your prospective universities may be concerned about why you want to transfer. Whether you can move your research over may be down to your supervisor and how far you've got with your project. A PhD student who started before me had to leave just after her data collection had finished, but the university kept the data and the 'idea' for the project and assigned it to someone else. Equally, a new supervisor may not be happy to get involved with a project which they've had no input on for years.

If you aren't happy with your current PhD offer, and you aren't funded. it might be better to wait and apply to other places.

As someone doing a humanities PhD right now, I wrestled a lot for the self-funding aspect (only one research council funds my PhD area, and I was rejected). I would seriously warn against starting a PhD with the mindset that you will definitely get funding in Years 2 onwards, because that very well might not happen. I have heard of many people feeling trapped in their PhD because they started it thinking that they would get funding later, but it never happened, but they had already sunk a whole year into the PhD by that time, so felt like they couldn't quit. I would also say that after mental health, financial issues is the reason many PhD students drop out or don't complete.
I'd say that if you are really passionate about your project, that might be able to motivate you through; are there places close to the city that you could live in instead and commute in?

I'm a few weeks into recruiting participants for my first study, and I'm not getting the kind of engagement I was expecting. I've shared the link to my survey on social media, but I seem to only get 1 or 2 responses for every 4 posts I make. My participant group is quite niche (so not all adults over 18 or something like that), but I did another study a few years ago using the same group, and got a relatively good turnout in the same time period. I'm wondering if screen/online fatigue is playing a role this time - I know a lot of research has had to go online, so a lot of forums etc. are no longer accepting survey promotion posts.

I'm planning to approach some organisations direct to see if they are willing to help me with recruitment, but what I was wondering is: what would happen if I can't recruit the numbers required? Has anyone experienced this before?

They wonder why you proposed a methodology that you aren't happy with, but if they are flexible about the change, then you should be fine to do that. They may ask you to do a different methodology instead rather than drop that aspect of the project entirely, just so that your project still has the same amount of scope.

Have you spoken to anyone from your funding body about dropping the quant aspect of your project? I'm thinking that you probably got funding based on the project as it is, and they may not be happy if it changes too much. Is this a project that you proposed yourself?

Is there any training you can attend to help you feel more confident with quant methods? Is there another academic you approach for advice about surveys? I'm concerned that if you don't have a clear logistical/methodological/theoretical reason for rejecting the survey methods, they may insist you do it anyway. Also your funding body may not approve of the change (as it would be quite a big one). Will your project still have enough scope?