Hi, I am a Malaysian, i'm thinking of self fund my phd after attempt to get a funding failed after a year of applying. The total fees and living expenses for 3 years is extreme high as the huge difference in rating between Malaysia and UK which is about 260,000 Ringgit Malaysia. My plan is get a job in my neighbour country, Singapore, where the rating is slightly higher than Malaysia, which would take about 3 to 5 years to collect that amount of money. Is this effort worth to pay for a PhD? What is the chances for me to get a job in UK, so that i can earn back the money much easier. And what is the pay for a PhD holder with work experience if I go back to work in Singapore?

Personally that much time spent saving would put me off. I don't think it would be worth it. It depends how much you like the research area. Is there any other way you could try to get funding or do a PhD in another country?

I wouldn't bother. Save the money and use it to do something that makes you truely happy.

I don't think you'll earn the money back any easier with a PhD either. It seems to me that I'd be earning about as much as I do now if I had just knuckled down and worked in a job for four years, instead of taking the time out to do a Ph.D.

Well, it depends what you want to do with it. Certainly that would be a lot of work if you just want to do one 'for fun' or as a personal achievement that you are not actually planning to pursue after you've finished. But if you have your heart set on a particular career (e.g. in research) where a PhD is absolutely essential, then perhaps it is worth it. You can obviously work in research without a PhD, but realistically there are limits as to how far you can go without a doctorate, however good you are. But if you're thinking about investing all of that time and money then best make sure it's what you really want to do. A lot of people on the forum have very negative PhD experiences, but there are many people who have extremely positive ones as well, so don't be too put off by this! KB