Done yours! Thank you for doing ours.

Thanks and done yours too. Good luck,

Thanks and done! Good luck.

Hi there, Appreciate if you could help us by completing this questionnaire for a Masters thesis project. It is about online shopping in particular ebay. It will take 5-7 minutes maximum. I will be grateful if you could pass this onto your friends as well. I thank you in advance. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IvygTDa9GqUxHXTR5Quk7_WsiNsRLQkQnstDSKKJL6k/viewform

Keenbean..sorry, I ignored Bangor in my reply when I said new uni's, because it is not a university for non-European. May be I was wrong (apologies in which case!) but I assumed the original post was from a non-european. It-s a very difficult thing to say but hey, that's me being honest. My assumption was based on the '..following universities in UK".. part in the original question. Pubs, skiing, football, being close to Liverpool :) may all be good for a Brit but for somebody else, it would be a nightmare to live there. It is always good to live near London. Otherwise yes, Bangor would be my choice too.

Except for Aberdeen, all the others are "new" universities as they are known. (Lincon I am not sure about!) . MBAs from any of them will have the same value. If you are writing from abroad, may be you want to stay close to London. UWIC has centres around London, so may be an option. Bangor is in the middle of nowhere and Brookes will be expensive to live, being Oxford.Coventry is cheap to live and only 2 plus hours to London. Others are all the same in every angle.

Your supervisor is right and wrong. He is right in a way the big names is what you should associate with in your writing. They will always have substances for you to learn from. But he is wrong to go after IFs. IF is not a good way to judge the quality of an article. You will always find big names publishing in even journals with smaller IFs.'Big'names is the name of the game.

Hazyjane has the perfect answer for you. Don't read all the newspapers. The long term reputation is what matters and QMUL is one of the best!

Having read more or less all the replies to your query, I must say, I am absolutely gutted! The world is changing and may be you are young but old enough to see this surely. Why do you think you are so blessed to decide between two very different choices; spending time travelling and doing a doctorate, while most people of your age in the other parts of the world have to try their guts out to even think about anything like the options available to you? The answer is simple, you are still in a strong economy. But as I said, the things are changing. Four years ago, UK was the fourth largest economy in the world but today it's something like 9th. If you take your travel option on and come back in an year, you will find the UK perhaps in a far worse situation than that. Remember, education was completely free a few years ago and next year, kids will be paying 9000 pounds a year in most cases. Also when you come back you might find scholarships are no more but you have to pay for your PhDs, and... high unemployment. May be I am scaring you off, may be the picture is not that bleak, but not far off, missing a chance is not advisable under current climate. While doing your PhD, you could take a few months off and travel. May be you could do it once in every couple of years. Even if you didn't travel at all, it is only three more years, the world will still be there for you to enjoy!

You have no idea what you can enjoy or not, until you start a programme. Unless you really dislike something, any field will open you opportunities. Your committment is what is needed.

Do they pay you or are they self funded programmes?

You have to be careful here. In a good university, you will find better connections, meet other good scientists. You will also see other people ding serious stuff and be inspired always. In other words, the future can always be bright there. In a mediocre univ, even if the prof is the Pope, unless he has money you can be stuck! So yu have to be careful.

Let me try to answer your questions in short!
1). Firstly, whether you have a masters or not, a PhD is an independent programme. Most academics in Britain are those joined PhD programmes straight after their first degrees. So a masters is neither a requirement, nor it matters. Besides, you will be qualified with a PhD before your friends with Masters start to look for PhD positions. Consider you are lucky!
Secondly, if the subject is familiar to you, turning down a scholarship is not something I would advice. They don't come easily nowadays!
2). Nobody can predict whether you will like it in 3 years time, but if you get into a programme, you will see how much interesting stuff is there in this world that you don’t know and that you can learn. You can choose between interesting and uninteresting stuff and make the programme interesting. You have the choice in an independent programme . Also,your prof will only like very interesting stuff.

3.) If you know the practical side, you can try to develop theory or find it in books and compare them. But you will only know what you found practically and how to interpret it. But if you learn and develop theory, you will know everything about it first and then whenever you find practical applications, you will know how to interpret/describe/explain and solve them. Acquiring theoretical knowledge is a way to rule the world!

4.) By choosing one topic, you will not isolate/forget anything else. This PhD will only be a passport for you to explore the entire universe. Once you have a PhD, you are free to do whatever you want. Before you do a PhD, going to study other branches is a struggle. My advice is, get your PhD from where you can and then the world is your Oyster as they say!

5.) If he is frequently travelling or busy, you will have more work to do, tight deadlines to meet. You will be driven to work ontime because you will be prepared to discuss your problems whenever he is around.

All in all, you have nothing to worry, but just to take it up and get on with it. Good luck!

I would like to know if anybody is interested in coming o Portugal to do a PhD in Renewable Energy! The medium of work is English and we have collaborations with many Europeans countries for you to Enjoy.