Postgraduate Funding (PhD Art History)

FCSchalke · 16 February 2013 at 8:40PM

Hi

I am in my thirties, having worked and studied since the age of 18, and cannot find a means of funding myself for a PhD in the history of art, which is now essential (yes, essential) if I am to work in a more specialised position at the national museum I am currently employed by. AHRC funding has now all but disappeared owing to the general funding crisis in higher education.

I see there is the option of taking out a professional development loan from the Co-op or Barclays, which is government-assisted, however - from what I can tell - this is limited to a course timeframe of just two years, which is no use in my situation.

Has anyone discovered a way of circumventing this? I have obviously checked the various university funding pages, but nothing is that helpful. I work full time and earn £26k, and live very modestly in London (this is my only household income), using most of my salary to pay bills. I can only afford to save around £100 per month towards the cost of the fees, and so this will take me two years to reach the £2400 I need for just one year of my studies! I am hoping there is some great student loan option I have not yet heard of, but I doubt it.

I must emphasise I am *expected* to have this qualification in order to become a curator, which is what I really want to do with my career, and I feel time is now running out if I don't get started to pursue this part-time (5 years) on top of my employment. I'll be over 40 once I achieve this, and so cannot leave it any later. I have so far been held back in achieving this career goal because I'm from an ordinary background - no private income, no special internships, etc. I have had to study so far using my own funds through employment, and to publish in my spare time, so I can move my career along when not doing my day job. While I would never expect the luxury of not working full time when studying, it would be nice to know I could have some assistance with the PhD fees - those alone would suffice; I'd need nothing more.

thanks.

Voyager2002 · 16 February 2013 at 10:47PM

No, there is no magic solution. You will have to make contact with suitable university departments; build relationships with potential supervisors and their senior colleagues; explore options for fee waivers and/or fee reductions. Of course, you could ask your employer about assistance with your tuition fees...

Some other, "wacky" ideas that might be worth considering:
1. See if you can study with a foreign university. Tuition fees on the continent of Europe are very low, in some cases (France) zero. If you could find a suitable supervisor and could develop the necessary language skills, you might only have to pay to travel to supervision meetings rather than spending a fortune on fees;
2. See if you can collaborate with an academic in your field, someone who might have been a suitable supervisor had funding been available. If you manage to publish enough research-based articles in learned journals, you could earn a doctorate based on publications rather than a thesis. Equally, if you managed to write and publish a book that represented a similar contribution to scholarship to that made by a PhD thesis, you would acquire academic standing similar to that conferred by a doctorate and would probably gain the same career options.

agrinnall · 16 February 2013 at 11:04PM

I feel you need to get some advice on the feasibility of actually achieving what you want based on your circumstances. The chances of successfully completing a part time PhD while continuing to work full time is very low, and it doesn't look to me like you can reallistically reduce your working hours much and continue to live as you do now.

If you decide to go ahead anyway you may find that studying remotely, even if it's with a UK institution, may mean slightly lower fees as you're not being provided with facilities by the university (a head of department told me this just last week on a postgraduate open day).

fishybusiness · 17 February 2013 at 10:38AM

Hi,

As others have said, there is very little post grad funding available. It seems to have been made worse by the hike in fees over the last couple of years, the gap between incomes and fee affordability has become even greater.

Not a good situation

agrinnall · 17 February 2013 at 11:19AM

Postgraduate fees have not increased in the way that undergraduate fees have, so that's not really the issue, lack of funding is the big concern. For instance, the Masters course that I did in 2010/1 is the same cost now as it was then, but there is much less funding for it than (fortunately) there was when I did it.

Voyager2002 · 17 February 2013 at 2:35PM

agrinnall wrote: »

The chances of successfully completing a part time PhD while continuing to work full time is very low, and it doesn't look to me like you can reallistically reduce your working hours much and continue to live as you do now.

I disagree. The OP works in a museum and her/his work involves doing things similar to the research that a PhD would involve. S/he has already published the results of research completed in this way. So things could work out very well indeed: if only that little issue of funding could be resolved.

fishybusiness · 17 February 2013 at 2:56PM

Postgraduate fees have not increased in the way that undergraduate fees have, so that's not really the issue

Yes they have, and yes it is an issue.

If a potential postgrad student is using the career development loan route, there is only a finite amount one can borrow, at last look it was 10k.

As the fees increase, students will need to look more to alternate funding as the CDL will not cover as much as the costs as it would say 2 years ago. That idea follows through to anyone trying to find funding for post grad study, and that has maybe been planning it for the last 2 or 3 years.

My own postgrad course, starting is Sept 2013 has jumped 20% in price from 2012/13.

Also, have a read of this

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=416869

As you say, funding is very difficult to come by, compounding the problems.

laurylaury · 17 February 2013 at 4:42PM

Have you enquired about whether your employer will fund this for you? Given that the degree would be something that would also be of benefit to them they may offer some help with it in return for you guaranteeing to work for them for X number of years after completion of the course.

For example, my employer (a bank) will pay tuition fees for me for a business-related degree as long as I work for them for 2 years after course completion, otherwise I would have to repay them.

Even if they cannot provide the full fees, perhaps they can offer some assistance and you could combine this with a Career Development Loan.
As far as I can see from the following link http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/SFA/Professional_and_Career_Development_Loans_FAQ-May2012.pdf
the CDL can be used for courses longer than two years but can only be used for the final two years - so you would have to fund the first three years yourself.

agrinnall · 17 February 2013 at 7:21PM

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I disagree. The OP works in a museum and her/his work involves doing things similar to the research that a PhD would involve. S/he has already published the results of research completed in this way. So things could work out very well indeed: if only that little issue of funding could be resolved.

I'd agree there's a much better chance of success if the day job coincides with the research topic. But that's quite a big if, needing both the university and the museum to be in agreement as to the work that the OP does and its relevance to the PhD, so I would continue to argue that in the majority of cases a part-time PhD is less likely to be successful than a full-time one. The OP may be fortunate in this respect and only (!) have the funding to worry about.

agrinnall · 17 February 2013 at 7:23PM

fishybusiness wrote: »

Yes they have, and yes it is an issue.

If a potential postgrad student is using the career development loan route, there is only a finite amount one can borrow, at last look it was 10k.

As the fees increase, students will need to look more to alternate funding as the CDL will not cover as much as the costs as it would say 2 years ago. That idea follows through to anyone trying to find funding for post grad study, and that has maybe been planning it for the last 2 or 3 years.

My own postgrad course, starting is Sept 2013 has jumped 20% in price from 2012/13.

Also, have a read of this

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=416869

As you say, funding is very difficult to come by, compounding the problems.

Well, obviously it varies from institution to institution, but it's still a relatively small increase in comparison to the tripling of fees for undergraduate study.

FCSchalke · 17 February 2013 at 11:13PM

Thanks for your suggestions.

Unfortunately my employer (a big public art museum in London - cough) is not prepared to fund me or even offer a few days' study leave for the year - this is a customary policy there, even though they want you to be pre-formed with perfect qualifications for entry level jobs such as Assistant Curator, which pays a minute wage. And, unfortunately, there has been little manoeuvre there on the salary situation, what with the four year pay freeze which may continue a further couple of years. Salaries there lag behind others in the sector, unfortunately, but because I have worked there for some time - and have a final salary pension I don't want to relinquish too quickly, seeing as these no longer exist elsewhere - I have no jumped ship. Indeed, I'd rather jump ship when I am equipped sufficiently to move to a better position. Yet, that's difficult owing to my glass ceiling situation and not having that golden qualification - hence why I've been publishing all I can to try to redress the balance. On top of this issue of having no help from my employer, there is a rule that further salaried work (say, if I took a weekend job for a year on top of my existing full time employment) used to save for said fees would be legally outlawed by my contract. So, it's 'lose lose' from my employee point of view.

I will try the asking universities route, however I'm not all that hopeful. It's very frustrating that the professional development loan cannot be extended to a longer period. Just two years of course funding stops far short of what I need. I have been advised by an academic in my specialist field that I could achieve the PhD part time in four years, based on my knowledge and experience of writing, but - still - it's two years too many. Is there any way, do you think, that I could use that money anyway, by putting it in a high interest account and releasing it gradually for my four years of study? Is there any way the bank / gvt would find out? What paperwork is required for this funding? Do you think this could be worked somehow to my advantage?

If there are any lateral thoughts about that, I'd be grateful - especially from anyone who has tried and succeeded!

My other thoughts are to write the thesis over the next few years, sans supervision, and then - once I have the saved money - apply to a university department, then submit the thesis after two years of fee-paying. That way I need not part with too much cash. Have you heard of such situations before?

Postgraduate Funding (PhD Art History)

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