[evantej]

(Original post by Rakas21)
Just curious as i shall be going into second year but what would be my chances of getting funding for a Masters (taught) in Economics/Public Policy/Political Economy/Politics from any of the universities below assuming i got a First in Economics from Leeds Met.

queen mary
newcastle
essex
lancaster
exeter
glasgow
kent
dundee
birmingham
soas
bath
surrey
ucl
nottingham
york
edinburgh
bristol
durham
warwick
lse
oxford
cambridge
st andrews

Basically i know that i want to do a masters and i know that i want to do one of those 4 (currently narrowing down) but i want to know what kind of funding would be available for the subjects as coming from a benefits background there is minimal chance that i will be able to make much of a contribution.

I assume economics comes under the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). ESRC funding is distributed to 21 Doctoral Training Centres, and you can check this document to see who they are and whether or not they have funding for economics. You should then check the university websites to see whether they will offer funding in the year after you graduate (2014/15?). Some might not have this information displayed so you will probably have to contact them personally. Unfortunately, I do not think ESRC gives funding for masters programme so you would have to apply for one of their 1+3 programmes (i.e. a masters and PhD).

[nnnomi]

I've just accepted my place to study for an MA in Film & Television Research and Production at Uni of B'ham - apart from a Career Development loan, is it too late to apply for funding for a course starting in September?

The uni funding deadline was months and months ago, but does anyone know if there's any chance of me getting any funding?

Thanks

[gutenberg]

(Original post by nnnomi)
I've just accepted my place to study for an MA in Film & Television Research and Production at Uni of B'ham - apart from a Career Development loan, is it too late to apply for funding for a course starting in September?

The uni funding deadline was months and months ago, but does anyone know if there's any chance of me getting any funding?

Thanks

Highly unlikely, sorry Unless it's a scholarship from a charity or some other third-party organisation; university funding competitions are usually well over at this stage.

[LewisFTV]

(Original post by nnnomi)
I've just accepted my place to study for an MA in Film & Television Research and Production at Uni of B'ham - apart from a Career Development loan, is it too late to apply for funding for a course starting in September?

The uni funding deadline was months and months ago, but does anyone know if there's any chance of me getting any funding?

Thanks

(Original post by gutenberg)
Highly unlikely, sorry Unless it's a scholarship from a charity or some other third-party organisation; university funding competitions are usually well over at this stage.

Yeah, even some of the applicants that met the deadline wouldn't have been successful. It's safe to assume that there's no funding available at this stage. Don't let that discourage you though!

Congratulations on the MA acceptance. I'm now finishing my MA in Film Studies at UEA. I notice that some people have their reservations regarding a CDL. I received a small scholarship from UEA and took out a CDL in order to fund the rest. I've also worked part-time (weekends) throughout the MA in order to have some cash available and, if worst comes to the worst, I could even keep the part-time job and afford to make my CDL repayments after the MA (otherwise I don't think I would have taken it out without that kind of security). I'm hoping to hop straight onto a PhD in September, but need to wait a few more weeks regarding funding for that. Otherwise I'll have to wait a couple of years, but that's no big deal really seeing as I've completed the MA at 22. Finally, that is another reason I would encourage anybody to go straight onto the MA from BA if you feel confident in the step-up in academic difficulty, and if you intend the MA as a bridge to PhD. A PhD is more difficult to self-fund, given that it runs over a longer period of time than a Masters. With the MA completed earlier, you'll have more time to think ahead career wise at either a PhD or otherwise, whereas if I was looking ahead after undergrad., thinking 'I've still got to do an MA yet', I think I'd be discouraged from pursuing further academia altogether. But that's just my way of seeing it!

[evantej]

(Original post by LewisFTV)
[...] A PhD is more difficult to self-fund, given that it runs over a longer period of time than a Masters. With the MA completed earlier, you'll have more time to think ahead career wise at either a PhD or otherwise, whereas if I was looking ahead after undergrad., thinking 'I've still got to do an MA yet', I think I'd be discouraged from pursuing further academia altogether. But that's just my way of seeing it!

I am not sure I agree with this. On the face of it, a PhD is only more difficult to self-fund because it is a longer qualification. However, you no longer have classes which means there are fewer restrictions on part-time employment. You can find your research around your work commitments whereas at undergraduate and masters levels the university show no concern whatsoever about the implications of their timetabling. If you do your PhD part-time then you have even more flexibility. In addition, bizarrely enough, there are more doctoral awards available than at masters level so you might find it easier to find funding.

[Chocothunder]

This is in all likelihood a slightly idiotic question and has probably been asked and answered numerous times (though in a brief scan of the site and the FAQ page I haven't found a definite answer), but what's the deal with postgraduate scholarships? More specifically, when are they allocated? Is it done only after you've accepted a university for a postgraduate course, or are they sometimes offered beforehand as a way of sweetening the deal? Just wondering, as my ability to study my arts subject at postgraduate level will depend almost entirely on academic scholarships and whatnot, and so I could really only accept an offer if I knew that it came with guaranteed funding of some sort.

[Of the Standard of Taste]

Technical question here.

If you apply for a research council studentship and you also write to charities for money saying ' I am unlikely to receive a studentship because only X percent of students get them' and then you end up racking £10,000 from charities and it turns out that a research council has chosen you; does this mean you would have to pay the charities money back.

It is probably a silly question with a logical answer.

[Tasha1986]

(Original post by Of the Standard of Taste)
Technical question here.

If you apply for a research council studentship and you also write to charities for money saying ' I am unlikely to receive a studentship because only X percent of students get them' and then you end up racking £10,000 from charities and it turns out that a research council has chosen you; does this mean you would have to pay the charities money back.

It is probably a silly question with a logical answer.

Generally speaking charities that are willing to fund postgraduate research stipulate that should you win research council funding or any other substantial source of funding then the funding received from the charity will be rescinded.
Charities have been hit hard the past few years and so it would certainly be the right thing to do to not take their money if you don't need it.

[LewisFTV]

(Original post by evantej)
I am not sure I agree with this. On the face of it, a PhD is only more difficult to self-fund because it is a longer qualification. However, you no longer have classes which means there are fewer restrictions on part-time employment. You can find your research around your work commitments whereas at undergraduate and masters levels the university show no concern whatsoever about the implications of their timetabling. If you do your PhD part-time then you have even more flexibility. In addition, bizarrely enough, there are more doctoral awards available than at masters level so you might find it easier to find funding.

Sure, you can work during PhD. Notably, you mention the added flexibility of doing it part-time too. But personally, there's no way I'd want to work during a 3-year PhD, as I'd want to give it my all; trying to get articles published and module tutoring done while conducting one's own research would not allow time for being a wage slave. Also, part-time over 6 years is just not something I would ever consider. It's such a long time, I can't begin to explain how unappealing that is to me. But I'm aware that plenty of people do it, and for them it is perhaps more appealing.

As you said, there are more awards available for PhDs generally, but that still does not mean that there are a lot of awards haha. Especially in the Humanities (although I'm also led to believe that the Sciences are seeing a reduction in funding oop.s recently) with budgets being cut and funding suffering.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by Chocothunder)
I could really only accept an offer if I knew that it came with guaranteed funding of some sort.

You can accept any and all offers you get, you simply can't take any one up without funding. Therefore allocation and offer/acceptance can happen on slightly different timelines, and if you look around this forum you will see that they do. Different sources of funding set different rules on need, offer, acceptance etc so pretty much all varieties of process are out there.

[evantej]

(Original post by LewisFTV)
Sure, you can work during PhD. Notably, you mention the added flexibility of doing it part-time too. But personally, there's no way I'd want to work during a 3-year PhD, as I'd want to give it my all; trying to get articles published and module tutoring done while conducting one's own research would not allow time for being a wage slave. Also, part-time over 6 years is just not something I would ever consider. It's such a long time, I can't begin to explain how unappealing that is to me. But I'm aware that plenty of people do it, and for them it is perhaps more appealing.

As you said, there are more awards available for PhDs generally, but that still does not mean that there are a lot of awards haha. Especially in the Humanities (although I'm also led to believe that the Sciences are seeing a reduction in funding oop.s recently) with budgets being cut and funding suffering.

I did not say there were lots of funding, merely that there is more funding at doctoral level than masters level, which seems counter intuitive at first.

I did not suggest working during a full-time PhD. But financial imperatives sometimes dictate things so you might have to take on some work to cover your living costs. If you do not want to study part time then that is understandable of course. But I can personally see a lot of benefits to this approach for me as a humanities student though.

[loizoskounios]

I've been conditionally accepted (TOEFL examination on August 17th) at the University of Leeds for a Masters in Artificial Intelligence. Really happy about this - hell, proud even; I've graduated with a BSc in Computer Science from a local college in Cyprus. Leeds has got a fantastic reputation and will provide me with options if I'd like to progress with a PhD.

The problem: the tuition fees alone are £10,000. That is shockingly expensive, considering I've got no savings and that my family cannot support me at all. I'll need about £20,000 for 12 months to cover tuition, accommodation and living expenses.

The good part: haven't had a student loan yet.

Could anyone recommend any way I can get funding? Leeds' scholarships have already been given - I've asked. I've been reading about charities, hardship etc, but I do not know of any names/terms to Google for. I'll take anything even if I've got about 1% chance of getting the aid. I'm an EU national if this helps.

Thanks in advance.

Louis

[ClaireyG]

Sounds like a Professional and Career Development loan from Barclays or the Co-op. Only thing with that is that they max out at £10k...

[Pherenike]

(Original post by Pherenike)
Thanks for your quick reply. Just confused by this I suppose:

http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportu...dMarch2012.pdf

I am so grateful for the funding (and have been over the moon for weeks) but my course fees are around £8000 so obviously if the funding didn't cover them all I'd need to budget for that... I *really* hope it does (as I have other postgrad plans to save for etc) but I will still love them forever even if it doesn't. Does anyone know what the £3628 or £3828 bit refers to if not the amount they'll pay towards fees?

Just an update from me, in case anyone else in the future has a similar question (though a word of caution: these things seem to be dependent on uni).

The £4372 left over after the AHRC contribution were waived by my uni (UCL). I am immensely pleased and grateful and can't wait to get studying now!

[socioanth]

Just a quick question, apologies if this has been posted and I've missed it.

I am doing a self / scholarship funded taught Sociology Masters, but not my department's ESRC recognised research-masters.

Will this immediately disqualify me from any ESRC PhD funding at my current / other universities? The introduction of DTCs appears to have put student eligibility matters largely into the hands of the university, so I was hoping that as long as I could show some research-training evidence that satisfies the school, the ESRC recognition of my masters becomes somewhat of a non-issue.

There is time for me to switch to the pure research course but for module-choice reasons I would prefer not to.

Any advice welcome.

[gutenberg]

(Original post by socioanth)
Just a quick question, apologies if this has been posted and I've missed it.

I am doing a self / scholarship funded taught Sociology Masters, but not my department's ESRC recognised research-masters.

Will this immediately disqualify me from any ESRC PhD funding at my current / other universities? The introduction of DTCs appears to have put student eligibility matters largely into the hands of the university, so I was hoping that as long as I could show some research-training evidence that satisfies the school, the ESRC recognition of my masters becomes somewhat of a non-issue.

There is time for me to switch to the pure research course but for module-choice reasons I would prefer not to.

Any advice welcome.

As you say, the universities seem to have a lot of autonomy in deciding eligibility: have you contacted the relevant person in your school to ask about this?

My concern for you would be that other DTCs may have an issue with your not doing the ESRC-approved course. Obviously in your home university they will know you and so on, and you will be able to make a case, but outside of that *could* be problematic. Similarly, have you contacted other universities that you might be interested in attending to ask?

[socioanth]

thanks for the reply!

I'm waiting until Orientation next week to ask this question of my new school. Apparently last year they were telling people that the only option was to switch to the research-masters for future ESRC funding, but I know things changed quite a bit in October last year so I'm not sure how relevant the old guidelines will be.

I am also awaiting a response from the ESRC admins at the school I am considering for a PhD, which was where I did my undergraduate. The brief contact I have had with professors in my old department suggest they are not sure of the exact rules so I will wait to see what the admin staff who usually handle ESRC matters will say.

[gutenberg]

(Original post by socioanth)
thanks for the reply!

I'm waiting until Orientation next week to ask this question of my new school. Apparently last year they were telling people that the only option was to switch to the research-masters for future ESRC funding, but I know things changed quite a bit in October last year so I'm not sure how relevant the old guidelines will be.

I am also awaiting a response from the ESRC admins at the school I am considering for a PhD, which was where I did my undergraduate. The brief contact I have had with professors in my old department suggest they are not sure of the exact rules so I will wait to see what the admin staff who usually handle ESRC matters will say.

Ah ok, well good luck! I only know from anecdotal experience from friends (I'm with the AHRC), specifically those who did economic & social history. In order for them to be eligible for ESRC funding, they just had to take certain research methodology courses alongside their history modules and that was sufficient; however if the rules have changed, as you implied, then best to ask & make 100% sure I suppose!

[rise17]

Not exactly very familiar with the UK funding scenario (as I'm an international student) - but I did read up a bit on how AH/ESRC work.

I think if you want to be considered for the AH/ESRC competition for studentship funding, you have to be doing your Masters (with research training provided) at a recognised HEI:

"The studentships may only be held for Masters courses linked with HEI outlets which have
successfully gained ESRC 1+3 'recognition'. (See List of Recognised /Institutions, Courses &
Departments/Outlets, Programmes). These will be described as 1+3 programmes within the Recognition List."

The details can be found here: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/Postgr..._tcm8-3106.pdf (esp. pp.10)

[IlexAquifolium]

Even under the old rules there was discretion for departments to argue that you had equivalent experience or training to except you from the 1 requirement. I'm not in front of a computer at the moment to pull up the relevant paragraph, but it happened quite frequently for quota and open awards, usually when someone had work experience. However the question is whether the admitting department is willing to a) recognise it and b) go through the hassle of persuading the ESRC. In the first instance I would contact the relevant staff member at any departments you are interested in to explain the situation and ask their advice. I expect most will suggest you switch, but it's worth a shot.