Hi. I am brand new user here, but really need some advice from fellow students. I came to the UK a few years back to do a Masters degree but it just wasn't for me and I ended up moving back to my home country to start a PhD programme. Because my MSc dissertation wasn't due until after my programme here started, my present university (the same one I completed my BA at) accepted me on the strength of my BA, meaning I didn't technically have to finish my Masters. In the summer between programmes I found out I was pregnant and with that and the transcontinental move, I asked for and was given an extension on my dissertation. I finished all the coursework for my MSc with Distinction and fully intended to finish my dissertation by the extended deadline, but for whatever reason, I just didn't. I didn't even do the research.

The problem is because I am well-known in my department and everyone knew I was going to the UK for my Masters, everyone here thinks I finished the degree. And, I have gone with that and out and out lied about completing it to my supervisor, the head of my department and even fellow students. It's been a year and a half of walking around with this huge secret and now my university is hounding me about getting official transcripts from my UK programme, so I am about to be exposed. I don't think they can kick me out of the programme here as I didn't technically have to complete the Masters as part of my admission, but it is not going to go over very well.

I am a really good student and am doing very well in my current programme. I don't really know what happened with my Masters. I was severely depressed and uninspired and at that point I just didn't care. I knew it was going to come back to bite me, but no matter how much I told myself to pull it together, I couldn't find the motivation to do anything about it. Then, once the reality of what I'd done (or hadn't done) set it, it felt to late. I honestly don't even know what my choices are. My UK uni has offered to just award me a postgrad diploma or I suppose if I begged and pleaded and provided medical documentation they might let me write and submit a dissertation, but I still face being caught lying to people who have a massive amount of influence over my career and whom I need to work with for the next 2-3 years.

If anyone has any words of advice, I would be really grateful. Please don't tell me how stupid I am or that I shouldn't have lied. What's done is done - now I just need to find a way to deal with the fallout.