The Official Funding questions/moans/possible joy Thread

I'm a bit late to applying, but I am looking at applying for Advanced Computer Science at Birmingham, Machine Learning and Data Mining at Bristol and the MPhil in Computer Science at Bath, possibly even the MSc in Economics at Bristol if my chances are low on the others.

The whole funding process has gone way over my head and I found this thread after searching on Google, so I thought I'd ask here. What am I supposed to do? None of the courses I've read up on say anything about getting funding. Should I apply to these universities first and then apply for funding? Will the university be the one applying for funding for me? Have I got to contact the research councils themselves (because I can't find any way of doing so)?

I'm a bit late to applying, but I am looking at applying for Advanced Computer Science at Birmingham, Machine Learning and Data Mining at Bristol and the MPhil in Computer Science at Bath, possibly even the MSc in Economics at Bristol if my chances are low on the others.

The whole funding process has gone way over my head and I found this thread after searching on Google, so I thought I'd ask here. What am I supposed to do? None of the courses I've read up on say anything about getting funding. Should I apply to these universities first and then apply for funding? Will the university be the one applying for funding for me? Have I got to contact the research councils themselves (because I can't find any way of doing so)?

Firstly, you need to see whether the courses you're applying to have funding available, whether that's through a research council or the university itself. It should say somewhere on the webpage designated to that course. I'd imagine that you'd come under the ESRC for funding but not every course is approved by the ESRC for funding in the first place.

Isn't comp sci ESPRC? They're swimming in money...

Just so we don't clog up other threads, thought we could have a funding based moans/questions/despair/rant/possibly happy? thread

I'll start - the AHRC funding or lack of is causing me sleepless nights For something like my research area, unless I hop over into an English department somewhere, I'm severely limited to where I can apply (and with other factors like location, supervisor) to the extent that it's really 8 places with 2 being 2 of the best universities in the world.


Also for those not in the know, some suitable wiki links:

Funding in general: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Funding_Postgraduate_Study
Funding in the Arts: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Postgraduate_Funding_in_the_Arts
Funding in the Social Sciences: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Postgraduate_Funding_in_the_Social_Sciences

I've got offers from UCL and York for MA in English, but now I'm panicking about what to do about funding! I've already said I want to apply for AHRC but now there're are application forms to send off to the individual universities to try and get nominated for AHRC. The problem is, if I apply to both am I going to have to pull out if I get funding from the other place? I'm also still waiting to hear from Oxford and what if they offer me funding at the last second? It kind of seems like I'll have to choose which place to go to before I have all the information..Is anyone else in a similar situation?

Did you get any funding for your MA?

I've got offers from UCL and York for MA in English, but now I'm panicking about what to do about funding! I've already said I want to apply for AHRC but now there're are application forms to send off to the individual universities to try and get nominated for AHRC. The problem is, if I apply to both am I going to have to pull out if I get funding from the other place? I'm also still waiting to hear from Oxford and what if they offer me funding at the last second? It kind of seems like I'll have to choose which place to go to before I have all the information..Is anyone else in a similar situation?
Sorry I think that's kind of incoherent, but to be honest that's how the whole funding issue seems to me right now!

No as I didn't apply. At the time, the funding for my MA was under the old scheme aka apply to AHRC direct and they'd fund the best 100 students anywhere (if the course fitted the requirements set by the AHRC etc). I did ask about it but got told not to bother because my undergrad results weren't good enough (and that was with high 2:1s and firsts in my third year work).

I self funded as had the money to do so. Saying that I did work during my MA which really did help matters

Tbh, even under the new system, AHRC funding for taught History Master's is very very small in terms of amount of available. There are 55 MA funding allocations for all Master's in History for 2010 entry spread across the 20 or so unis that have BGP funding. Remember though that Oxford and Cambridge combined will have about 20 of these!

Yes. Finding myself in a smiliar situation. My second and third year are littered with high 2:1s and firsts. On interview, I enquired and was informed that my chance of obtaining full funding would be around 30%. Might give it a shot, but we'll see.

Yes you will then have to decide which offer you take and get put forward officially for (if any - you'd be in a highly envious position if you get more than one )

It's unfortunately part of the funding process but I believe that the BGP funding works to the same time scale that the open competition does. So you should hear April/May time. The problem comes when a university imposes a deadline on you for responding and you could still be waiting on say Oxford for a decision. For example, I know for the PhD in History at York, if you're nominated for AHRC, you have to reply/confirm by something like the first week of April - which is early compared to some unis.

Yeah I realise how ridiculously unlikely it would be to actually be offered funding from more than one place, let alone one! I think I'll just hope for the best and accept anyone who does offer funding whether hearing from Oxford or not. After all I'd rather go somewhere I know I can fund than wait for an offer and then not get funding for Oxford..
It is all a bit crazy, I think they deliberately make it hard to weed out anyone not willing to untangle the knots of the process!

Thing is though, surely if you did accept one place for funding and then you had good news from Oxford, you can always withdraw (along as the J-eS form hasn't been submitted) and go for the other option. They can't MAKE you take the offer & funding and they'll always have a reserve list for this reason.

I'm in the 'I'll take money anywhere' thought too.

They can't, but if the other department has already started working on the J-eS (writing references, summarising proposal, explaining how your research fits into the culture of the department) it's pretty low to pull out right at the last second and leave them potentially hunting down a list of applicants several months after they'd told them there's no room at the inn. It's a situation I found myself in and I guess it can't be massively uncommon. Although hypothetically you can always say to yourself, 'oh, well I'd just tell them no if choice number one comes in', once you know the people involved and are in the situation of potentially having to screw them over (not to mention do a reverse ferret once you've already started planning for the next three years), I think that it's a lot easier said than done. I suppose, trying to glean some kind of point from all this, whilst you may have initial preferences (and fear that 2 will come in before 1), the actual process of funding offers can often change your mind and cause you to stake loyalties somewhere you wouldn't necessarily have imagined yourself favouring at the beginning. Although, I think if you were worried about another preference, it's only fair to make it very clear to the department whose initial offer you accept that this is the case, so that they're not left in the lurch should you change your mind. (The difficulty here is that if you do eventually go to them anyway, you may not be very popular if they're second best - which brings it back to the issue of loyalties).

Am I being silly, or is a career development loan + part time job probably the easiest way of funding a 12 month taught-postgraduate course in London?

Am I being silly, or is a career development loan + part time job probably the easiest way of funding a 12 month taught-postgraduate course in London?

Firstly, you need to see whether the courses you're applying to have funding available, whether that's through a research council or the university itself. It should say somewhere on the webpage designated to that course. I'd imagine that you'd come under the ESRC for funding but not every course is approved by the ESRC for funding in the first place.

Secondly - be aware that the majority of MSc/MA students are self funding because funding is limited, although given your subject area comes more under the sciences than the arts, you'll probably have better luck.

Thirdly - if the course does have funding - there should be info about how to apply. It's usually done on the same application form and can be as simple as ticking a box right through to a complete separate process. Best advice is email the relevant admissions tutors for advice.

You won't need to contact the research councils direct, it's all done through the individual university these days

I've been running through a couple of application forms (online) and most of them ask where your funding will come from with two of the options being "UK Research Council or "I require funding/a grant". I assume that the university will sort out the funding issues for me and I'll be given a response once my application is complete?