Petition to get student loans for postgrad study

Jersy

signed!!!!!!

aurora_borealis_2

studentphil wrote:

I see all that, but maybe I am wrong to expect stuff in journals to jump off the page at me and to say something really new and unheard of. A lot of journal articles just seem to be like the ones in the standard text.

I probably do have too high hopes for journals that is all.

I am not saying they are not really good work, but they just do not make me go "woW" and published work surely should.

They would probably have more impact if you understood them.

studentphil

aurora_borealis wrote:

They would probably have more impact if you understood them.

Some of them are unreadable that is true.

Even of the ones you can read and understand they do not seem that "WOW".

aurora_borealis_2

Jersy wrote:

signed!!!!!!

eh?

studentphil

AB, do you fully understand every article you read?

Working on a pHD you probably do get better at understanding them I guess

aurora_borealis_2

studentphil wrote:

AB, do you fully understand every article you read?

I assume that skill probably comes with doing a PHD.

I should hope so. My work tends to be interdisciplinary so if I need to understand articles outside of my field, I might need to go back a few stages first.

studentphil

aurora_borealis wrote:

I should hope so. My work tends to be interdisciplinary so if I need to understand articles outside of my field, I might need to go back a few stages first.

Well done, you do very well!

In a few years if I do a PHD I hope to be half as good myself.

melancholly

aurora_borealis wrote:

eh?

i thought he meant he'd signed the petition - the whole aim of the thread!!!
(although the side tracking is quite entertaining!)

cupid_s

Karnam wrote:

by your standing then cupid we would move out of a merocratic society and only the rich would be able to pay for PG study and to get good jobs paying over 13k and it would be a horrible cycle with the rich getting richer

I know a lot of people doing post grad courses, many non-funded, none of whom are rich by any stretch of the imagination. Career development loans are available, as are part time courses for those who want to work at the same time. My friend worked for 2 years whilst living at home, and saved every penny she could to fund her PG degree so it can be done.

melancholly wrote:

few people will be bothered to do a phd - you can coast through a lot of undergrad degrees and get a pass; even very lazy people manage. the same just isn't true of a phd. it takes hard work and commitment and i don't know anyone who has done one who would put themselves through it again. i'm in my third year of one and have spent the last month on the verge of losing it - i cry at the slightest thing and am so stressed i'm having trouble sleeping. it's not something you just get for rocking up for three years. i want to finish it (i can't wait to finish!) and i will have earned it. it's not something you do just to put off getting a job because you work 60/70+ hour weeks for peanuts (or nothing if you aren't lucky enough to be funded), try to write papers, fit in teaching to generally lots of undergrads who would sooner be in the pub, read stupid numbers of other people's papers and then spend the last few months praying that no-one else publishes anything too similar to your stuff. you have to WANT to do it, really really want to. cupid-stunt - when you are another 2 years in, your view is likely to change. there are a lot of people who drop out from phds or end up with mphils..... anyway, rant over!

When I'm another 2 years in? I'm in my final year with 9 months to go! I have found it very very tough just like you but I know a lot of people who have found it a piece of cake. God knows how, but not everyone finds it as difficult as we have. You really deserve your PhD by the sounds of it, as I feel I do. We've both worked long days and long weeks and obviously put in loads of effort. I've worked three 16 hour shifts in a week before, as well as doing full days on another three. But there are people in my department who treat it is a 9-5 job, do very little outside of these hours and still come out doing great (I want to hit them).

I've recently been on a course where apparently (not sure if this is my uni or all) less than 10% of all PhD students end up leaving with an MPhil or less which I don't think is a very high amount really.

There are a lot of people who want to do one but don't because of financial restrictions (which could be overcome in many cases if they really really wanted to study further) but if all these people did one then there would be far too much competition for jobs afterwards and the people who would have done a PhD regardless of anything else (like you and me) may get overlooked for jobs. After all as I've said before there are a finite number of jobs for PhD graduates.

Karnam

cupid_stunt wrote:

I know a lot of people doing post grad courses, many non-funded, none of whom are rich by any stretch of the imagination. Career development loans are available, as are part time courses for those who want to work at the same time. My friend worked for 2 years whilst living at home, and saved every penny she could to fund her PG degree so it can be done.

it should be noted that CDL are only available for vocational courses or courses where you can justify how it will help your career. which means 98% of humanities courses are completely out of the question, particularly research PG.

my partner got a CDL as he did a computing course but i have been told i cant have one cause i am humanties.

also its worth noting that just because poorer people can do PG by getting themselves into debt, working themselves to the bone and sacrificing thier grades while richer people walk in and pay thier way through it easy peasy, doesnt mean its fair.