PhD support group?

misskool

hostie wrote:

Are PhD students exempt from council tax?

Are full time PhD / MPhil students entitled to a young person's railcard? (I am 30:eek: )

Full time students don't pay council tax.

Full time students can get a young person's railcard (I love how it sounds! I'm 28 and just got my railcard renewed for another year) In theory, you need to pick up the form and get it filled out by the university but when I did mine, I flashed my student card and she just did it without even checking how old I was.

I'm afraid I don't know about AHRC funding but I'm sure someone will be along soon who's in receipt of one.

misskool

missejackson,
Glad that it's working out for you now. Remember there are lots of support channels for you if you need it!

cupid_s

hostie wrote:

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can help me? I am trying to sort out my budget as I will be moving away from my present home, I think, so that I can get to the library every day. A friend has offered me a room for £500 per month all inlusive but it seems like a big chunk of my money and want to think carefully before I accept since I will have about £200 train fares on top of that.

to me £500 a month is very high though it depends on where you are. maybe that's cheap for your local area.

hostie wrote:

Are PhD students exempt from council tax?

yep
so if you were living with your friend they would possible get a discount on their council tax and so should at least take the amonut they'd save off what they'd charge you

hostie wrote:

Are full time PhD / MPhil students entitled to a young person's railcard? (I am 30:eek: )

all full time students are i think

mlbarrett

Hey hostie!

When I was recently looking for somewhere (before the bf's friend made a room offer), I had a look on easyroommate.com for a room. You can look all over the country, to share with students/non-students, quite a few with bills included, if you were to look elsewhere.
Like cupid_stunt and misskool have mentioned, full-time students don't pay council tax, even though councils seem send out bills automatically! Think it's a discount of 25% for a non-student housemate, but never had to worry about that personally so someone else would probably be able to give a more accurate figure.

Michelle

melancholly

hostie - whereabouts are you looking for? some unis have really good accommodation websites where people advertise rooms. easyroommate can be goood, but you may have to pay to contact people.

mlbarrett

I know you definitely have to enter a profile and can show interest in rooms/houses. I think you have to join if you wish to email them personally. If you show interest like I did, without becoming a member, the house/room owners can contact you.
Did find a lovely cottage but the owner wanted someone a couple of years older than me in the end.

hostie

Thanks everyone. It is all a bit scary moving out but I am sure I will find something. All the help with info on council tax and yp railcard has helped.
night night
hostie

melancholly

mlbarrett wrote:

I know you definitely have to enter a profile and can show interest in rooms/houses. I think you have to join if you wish to email them personally. If you show interest like I did, without becoming a member, the house/room owners can contact you.
Did find a lovely cottage but the owner wanted someone a couple of years older than me in the end.

we advertise spare rooms in my house there - but we don't pay either! either the person searching has to pay or the person advertising the room.... and a lot of people advertising don't pay (well, really stingy ones like us anyway!!!)

kberry_78

Hi,
I was looking through this thread as I hope to start my phd next september. I have helped a number of my students job hunt. I came across www.jobs.ac.uk and they have a great list of academic jobs and studentships.
Even though the thread doesn't apply to me as yet I just thought I'd contribute.

misskool

If you're specifically looking for studentships
https://www.findaphd.com is quite good. Nothing really beats asking around though.

I just found https://www.findapostdoc.com, anyone on here ever used it?