The Official Funding questions/moans/possible joy Thread

Hi, I wonder if anybody knows anything about charities that could support students in PG study? I don't like to be so arrogant about being given the chance to continue to study but I was really quite surprised to get absolutely no funding at all. I graduated from Manchester University in Art History a year ago with a very high first, high enough to get me into the top 30 of the whole university that year and with £1000 prize. Encouraged by my tutors, I took a year out to apply for PG study, and now I'm at the point where all the institutions I applied for didn't offer me anything at all. I didn't really expect to get the AHRC studentship for any of them as that is so competitive, but I thought I might at least get course fees.
Now really I think my only option is the Courtauld Institute, as Oxford's college fees is really an extra £2000 for nothing, but thinking how I will fund London accommodation is a bit of a worry, even with a part-time job (I live up north in Blackpool so can't commute like I did to Manchester). The Courtauld's scholarship page links to http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/ but I can't really work out why, since the charities there seem to have slightly more worthwhile causes than helping individual students keep writing about medieval art.

I have been reading this thread for a while so I know about Career Development Loans and all that, and since there's not been any discussions about charities I would guess its kind of a long short. But at least it's a bit of an example to anyone who thinks they are a shoe-in for some sort of funding, as I would say (with caution) my high first was the equivalent of a regular Oxbridge first, as Manchester does have a well respected Art History department. Although, that said, it did seem at some points I was in a very small minority in the undergraduates who actually showed interest in the subject they were studying.

Also, to get AHRC, your research ideas and aims (although at a lesser extent for a MA) have to be within the realms of 'sexy and in favour'.

Well, they need to be 'sexy and in favour' with one or more influential members of staff at the place you're applying to, since it is the institution which decides who receives AHRC funding - the actual council itself merely rubber stamps nominations forwarded to it (barring any eligibility issues), it would never decline an application because the proposal wasn't 'sexy' enough.

Hi, I wonder if anybody knows anything about charities that could support students in PG study? I don't like to be so arrogant about being given the chance to continue to study but I was really quite surprised to get absolutely no funding at all. I graduated from Manchester University in Art History a year ago with a very high first, high enough to get me into the top 30 of the whole university that year and with £1000 prize. Encouraged by my tutors, I took a year out to apply for PG study, and now I'm at the point where all the institutions I applied for didn't offer me anything at all. I didn't really expect to get the AHRC studentship for any of them as that is so competitive, but I thought I might at least get course fees.
Now really I think my only option is the Courtauld Institute, as Oxford's college fees is really an extra £2000 for nothing, but thinking how I will fund London accommodation is a bit of a worry, even with a part-time job (I live up north in Blackpool so can't commute like I did to Manchester). The Courtauld's scholarship page links to http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/ but I can't really work out why, since the charities there seem to have slightly more worthwhile causes than helping individual students keep writing about medieval art.

I have been reading this thread for a while so I know about Career Development Loans and all that, and since there's not been any discussions about charities I would guess its kind of a long short. But at least it's a bit of an example to anyone who thinks they are a shoe-in for some sort of funding, as I would say (with caution) my high first was the equivalent of a regular Oxbridge first, as Manchester does have a well respected Art History department. Although, that said, it did seem at some points I was in a very small minority in the undergraduates who actually showed interest in the subject they were studying.

Applied for a loan at Barclays 2 weeks ago. Have not heard from them yet. Fingers crossed. Will post here how it goes but as far as I have red here that its sort of a lottery, if we trust this information. Some could get with rather bad financial situation, some couldnt even though the finance looks fine. Not sure about myself as Im not british, whihc i assume isnt a plus to the application even though i have lived here for enough time.

Good luck to you if you consider to apply!

It shouldn't do. The AHRC doesn't know what you've applied for as far as I know, they just look at your research proposal/references/transcript/writing sample. That said, does your university have a block grant of its own AHRC places for the program, or are they applying to the AHRC for a place? Because if they had their own places, they'd have told you if you were successful by now. If they're applying to the open competition, you won't hear for another month, but they have very very few places available anyway, so the chances are minute.

Just to let you know that I received a letter from Barclays today (28/07) so my letter obviously did arrive and the Post Office website is just crap; the letter is dated the 22/07 so the turn around is not too bad at the moment. Anyway, I have to ring up, which I will leave until tomorrow, because there were some details missing apparently!

Woaaaah....I've just been told I've got the funding!! I can't quite believe it. I applied for the open competition and I didn't even get a first so I'd presumed I wouldn't get it.

The funding for Postgrad thoroughly confuses me. I've read all those websites several times and I'm still not sure about the whole thing.

One basic question I'd like answered is this: can you apply to several different Universities for places, and just apply for funding once? Or do you have to put in an individual funding application relating to each University application?

Under the old system, it was one funding application you put in. Money has been devolved in the last few years back to the 30 or so leading/largest universities who have their own selection commitee and anything between one and 15 places to give away per subject. So now you have to put seperate applications in to all of them. For instance, I put in applications to Bristol, Glasgow, St Andrews, Oxford, KCL, Imperial, LSE, but decided for my research it was better to be in Scotland- so when I got funding offers from Gla/St Andrews and they wanted notification whether I accepted/rejected, then I pulled out of the ones that hadn't yet decided. It means a load of paperwork though.

Ah, I was afraid of that. I'm not a fan of paperwork. :/
Thanks for the info though.

It's no more paperwork than applying to 4 different unis. Funding applications tends to be more of ticking a box which says 'i intend to apply for 'insert research council name' funding.

Yeah- I love it when that happens. Even better when they say an application in itself is an intention to be considered for all avenues of funding. Imperial did that, it was nice. There's no flaming consistency though. Once you have the application in, Glasgow, St Andrews and UCD all wanted separate AHRC forms with statements of why you're applying there, etc. Bristol didn't even have an online form for application, you had to download a .pdf and post it, KCL had a stupid myKCL portal, Edinburgh didn't have a clue what was going on and kept sending me duplicate emails, Oxford just wanted a box tick, and Cambridge wanted you to cut down the nearest forest, turn it into paper, and then post five copies of the application form and all the other supporting documents, to both the faculty and the board of graduate studies. One online form FTW.

Thanks for all the replies, they've given me something to think about if no magic solutions.

Although could I just ask for some examples of the charities you applied to, evantej? On your advice I would be very unlikely to pester them, however.

Good luck to you too! I rang them up last friday to check if everything is ok and they have received my application. Didnt notice anywhere that htey were asking for verified copies. I sent mine without any verification. So did it this monday. Fingers crossed!!!

Anyone who has been accepted for a loan, do you have overdraft/credit card debts?

Well, that was quick. I received the letter from Barclays on Wednesday, asking for more information. Rang them up on Thursday morning to give said information. And now I have received a letter to say that I have been provisionally accepted!

I hope you get some good news too.