Petition to get student loans for postgrad study

cupid_s

Karnam wrote:

surely having a 'good' job and pushing yourself through a PhD are not the same thing?

a PhD should be completely motivated by a personal innate desire to research, learn and experiment (with ideas or whatnot), rather than a desire to get a 'good' job.

the career thing should surely be a completely seperate issue? i sure as hell dont think my PG course will get me anywhere near a good job. already have the lidl's graduate scheme forms

It depends what you class as a good job. I class the lidl graduate scheme as a good job to be honest. I'm not expecting to be paid much when I finsh but that's not what makes a 'good' job for me. I just want a job in science - that's what I want to do for the rest of my life and that's why I'm doing a PhD. I bloody hope that after 8 years at Uni I can get a job in the field I want to work in.

cupid_s

studentphil wrote:

I have every sympathy but the same is true for UG degrees too. We all want a decent job that we might like. So the problem is universal from BA to PHD.

Maybe all government funding for HE should be scraped and just let the best fight it out for funding from UG to PHD.

I agree that at undergrad level there are far too many people per job. But I spent another 4 plus years at Uni on top of my undergrad degree to make sure that I can do something I like - to give me something more than your average graduate. That should mean something. You're thinking about donig a masters aren't you, surely you hope that will give you more chance of a good job (or at least one you like)

I think if all funding for HE was given on a prove your good enoguh to get money basis then degrees would be worth more in the end

Karnam

cupid_stunt wrote:

I agree that at undergrad level there are far too many people per job. But I spent another 4 plus years at Uni on top of my undergrad degree to make sure that I can do something I like - to give me something more than your average graduate. That should mean something. You're thinking about donig a masters aren't you, surely you hope that will give you more chance of a good job (or at least one you like)

I think if all funding for HE was given on a prove your good enoguh to get money basis then degrees would be worth more in the end

see this is the problem, you did 4 extra years to "make sure" but nothing can make sure of getting a science based job, the job market is just too unpredictable and volatile. it might give you a better chance but thats about it.

JuliaJolie

studentphil wrote:

Some of them are unreadable that is true.

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

Sorry, but academic journals are not for shamless entertainment purposes only. A slowly progressing dispersal of new knowledge is not supposed to be a rollercoaster ride of thrills, spills and chills. I don't mean to sound rude, but it's pretty unrealistic if you expect there to be revolutionary, eye-popping, tabloid-exclusive discoveries in every one of the millions of journals out there. No offence, but I think it's kinda depressing that if you find the academic journals - in what I assume to be your own area of study - that boring, then perhaps you're in the wrong field as you're not going to get any far with that attitude (unless you're just doing it for the money/job prospects and not for the actual educational enrichment).

If you want a "WOW gee whiz!" experience I suggest you'd be better off watching a movie with lots of random car explosions. :rolleyes:

studentphil

JuliaJolie wrote:

Sorry, but academic journals are not for shamless entertainment purposes only. A slowly progressing dispersal of new knowledge is not supposed to be a rollercoaster ride of thrills, spills and chills. I don't mean to sound rude, but it's pretty unrealistic if you expect there to be revolutionary, eye-popping, tabloid-exclusive discoveries in every one of the millions of journals out there. No offence, but I think it's kinda depressing that if you find the academic journals - in what I assume to be your own area of study - that boring, then perhaps you're in the wrong field as you're not going to get any far with that attitude (unless you're just doing it for the money/job prospects and not for the actual educational enrichment).

If you want a "WOW gee whiz!" experience I suggest you'd be better off watching a movie with lots of random car explosions. :rolleyes:

I mean they do not stun me with their fab new ideas.

I hate my subject anyway in the majority anyway

studentphil

cupid_stunt wrote:

I agree that at undergrad level there are far too many people per job. But I spent another 4 plus years at Uni on top of my undergrad degree to make sure that I can do something I like - to give me something more than your average graduate. That should mean something. You're thinking about donig a masters aren't you, surely you hope that will give you more chance of a good job (or at least one you like)

I think if all funding for HE was given on a prove your good enoguh to get money basis then degrees would be worth more in the end

I suppose wanting to do a masters is to stand out a bit.

Karnam

out of curiosity studentphil what is your subject?

Karnam

tbh i couldnt care less about any career path or job i want to do, i am as clueless as i was at 15. i wanna do my MA cause my UG degree didnt push me enough and i feel i can really do more and want to learn more. i can totally see myself at a tesco checkout with 2 degrees behind me and student debt in front of me.

no career direction generally means no 'good' job but at the moment a career is too far in the future for me to care about

melancholly

Bump!

I know this thread went off topic somewhat, but it's an important petition to get people to sign!

katakuri

I think you're right, melancholly. I've signed it [they're also on about nicking funding from the Arts to fill the Olympics deficit, the gits. And charging us for using the British Library :-( ] , I'm mid-MA and I'm soooo poor, I wish I'd saved some of my undergraduate loan so I could actually do fun stuff now. A loan would be very helpful - I'm putting together a PhD proposal (and I'm heading for an academic career, so I do actually need to do one. Trust me, if I didn't, I'd get a full-time job) and am seriously concerned about funding. Fingers crossed!