PG Course Fees

Roro_2

What are the real alternatives to postgraduate course fees? I'm hoping to start a discussion about what the options really are.

When you inevitably get turned town for AHRC funding, where should you go?

Career Development loans aren't suitable for a lot of PG courses, there are various charities and grants, but there can be slim picking, and lots of competition.

Working, saving, and coming back to it later, that's a great idea, however in my field and working with languages as I do time off won't do me any favours. Plus there is the academic snobbery, I have been repeatedly told I need to get my PhD before 30.

I'm trying crowdfunding, which is given me a little bit of money (about 2% of the fees) but personal loan is looking like my best option. I also have the added bonus of being in an unique field, so basically almost no one cares about it so there is very little money out there.

I want to try haggle with the university about a better instalment plan. Maybe suggest borrowing the money off the university to pay them the fees, and paying them back at say 9 or 10% over the next 10 years, that would be ideal. I'm surprised universities haven't started doing this, because they'd end up with more money, and more students.

Other than magically winning the lottery it looks like I'm going to end up with some serious debt at the end of this. But I have no dependants, and I'll regret not giving it a try.

How are the rest of you tackling this issue? Far too many students are being priced out of PG study, in the arts, we should try to find ways to help and support each other.

tomtontom

Who has said you must do your PhD before you are 30? That's utter rubbish!

The university are not going to negotiate over fee instalments.

I'm funding my PhD through savings, and yes I am over 30 - as are most of my fellow students.

iclayt

PhD before 30? Rubbish. I work in the languages department of a reputable university and PhD candidates are of all ages. Fewer and fewer are going UG > MA > PhD without much of a break because they simply can't afford to without funding like scholarships.

If you can't afford to do it out of savings I think a loan of some kind really becomes the only option. You could try to agree a payment plan with the university of some kind but I don't think the one you've proposed would be agreed to.

I quite agree that the funding opportunities for PG students in the arts are restrictive and the competition for even a few hundred pounds grant is ridiculous.

If you forget about the pressure to do this before you hit thirty (what happens at thirty? Nothing happened to me!), could you be prepared to wait it out and do battle for a scholarships or funding each year until you get it? If you have quite a specialised field you might just stand out.

bewildered123

1)If you are crazy enough to want to be an academic, I have one piece of advice: don't do a PhD in modern languages or any humanities subject unfunded. Honestly don't. I don't know anyone who did, who doesn't bitterly regret it. If you are trying to work and study part-time you just can't do all the cv-building things that are needed. There are very few academic jobs, far too many PhDs and if you are already in debt for the PhD you can't sustain the multiple moves for short-term contracts, or even worse the hourly paid teaching life, that is pretty much inevitable post-PhD. Apply everywhere suitable with AHRC funding, apply to the US where there is more funding, or why not do the PhD wherever the language in question is spoken? You could try to get work teaching English at a university abroad and do your PhD part-time alongside it.
2) If you don't want an academic career, is there a more rewarding way of doing what you want to research than a PhD? There's nothing to stop you doing independent research and writing a book - let's face it, it's cheaper to pay for a good library subscription than tuition fees.