Urgent: got an award for fees but no living costs

Hello there
I applied to do a PhD full-time and for scholarships at the same time. I have now been told I have got a scholarship in the form of a fee waiver but no stipend for living costs, plus my PhD involves fieldwork abroad.
My current financial situation is very very bad and I have no savings or job. I was thinking of becoming self-employed where I know from experience I could earn a small amount of money.
I have to decide whether to accept or decline this PhD scholarship in the next three days.
Can anyone suggest anything please?
I have wanted to do a PhD for a very long time and scholarships, even just fee waivers in the UK are hard to come by in Arts subjects.
Thanks everyone all suggestions welcome.

Reply 1

jelly1000

21

Original post by Musicleads

Hello there
I applied to do a PhD full-time and for scholarships at the same time. I have now been told I have got a scholarship in the form of a fee waiver but no stipend for living costs, plus my PhD involves fieldwork abroad.
My current financial situation is very very bad and I have no savings or job. I was thinking of becoming self-employed where I know from experience I could earn a small amount of money.
I have to decide whether to accept or decline this PhD scholarship in the next three days.
Can anyone suggest anything please?
I have wanted to do a PhD for a very long time and scholarships, even just fee waivers in the UK are hard to come by in Arts subjects.
Thanks everyone all suggestions welcome.

as you yourself have acknowledge funding for an Arts Phd is hard to come by. If have no money to support yourself then you'll need to work and save up for a year or two and either defer your Phd if possible or reapply.

Reply 2

Klix88

17

I've been looking for a fully funded Humanities PhD for three years and I've found only one in all that time. There's no quick fix for PhD funding - there's very little of it out there in Humanities subjects, it's highly competitive and most will be past their deadline for a 2013/14 academic year start.

Sorry - no easy answer.

Reply 3

SimpleTom

11

Original post by Musicleads

Hello there
I applied to do a PhD full-time and for scholarships at the same time. I have now been told I have got a scholarship in the form of a fee waiver but no stipend for living costs, plus my PhD involves fieldwork abroad.
My current financial situation is very very bad and I have no savings or job. I was thinking of becoming self-employed where I know from experience I could earn a small amount of money.
I have to decide whether to accept or decline this PhD scholarship in the next three days.
Can anyone suggest anything please?
I have wanted to do a PhD for a very long time and scholarships, even just fee waivers in the UK are hard to come by in Arts subjects.
Thanks everyone all suggestions welcome.

Get a job. If a kid who hasn't got any A levels yet can earn £8 an hour, you definitely can!

Reply 4

Musicleads

OP

Original post by SimpleTom

Get a job. If a kid who hasn't got any A levels yet can earn £8 an hour, you definitely can!

You have no idea of my situation, my disabilities or how many jobs I have applied for.
Simple Tom maybe you could offer a less simplistic and more constructive solution.
If I was prepared to move to France, Germany or just about anywhere else I could get full funding but due to various commitments I have to stay in the UK where education, and other essential institutions in society are overpriced, and anyone who is not earning lots of money is treated like a bit of a leper.
The UK is going backwards while other countries are progressive and forward thinking and are investing in people.

Reply 5

SimpleTom

11

Original post by Musicleads

You have no idea of my situation, my disabilities or how many jobs I have applied for.
Simple Tom maybe you could offer a less simplistic and more constructive solution.
If I was prepared to move to France, Germany or just about anywhere else I could get full funding but due to various commitments I have to stay in the UK where education, and other essential institutions in society are overpriced, and anyone who is not earning lots of money is treated like a bit of a leper.
The UK is going backwards while other countries are progressive and forward thinking and are investing in people.

Do your parents not have any money they can lend you? You could go to a bank and explain your situation to them?

Reply 6

Klix88

17

Original post by SimpleTom

You could go to a bank and explain your situation to them?

There's only one commercially-available loan available for postgrad study and that's the Career Development Loan. It's a maximum of £10,000, which won't go far over three years. Also, unlike SF undergrad funding, it has commercial repayment terms which mean that you're obliged to start repaying it on a given date, regardless of whether you have work at that point or not.

It's only offereed by Barclays and the Co-Op, who seem to be gradually rejecting a higher proportion of applications, so it's not a given that everyone will get it.

Reply 7

Musicleads

OP

Thanks everyone, sorry if I am snappy, I am tired and have been staying up without sleep emailing anyone and everyone. I only have one parent who is willing to give me the odd meal or £20 but doesn't see the point of my studying and I have no partner.
I have read through all the options on various University Postgraduate funding sites and also on the Prospects site and this one but this very short amount of time is making it difficult. I cannot reject this scholarship so will have to accept it and then work out some way of obtaining funding.
I have written to my MP and also got the NUS involved, surely something will come up. Self-employment is still probably the best route for me.
Thanks for all your advice.

Reply 8

Klix88

17

I'm really sorry about your situation, but sadly it's all too common. A colleague on my Masters course has now been offered four PhD places (including Oxford) and has had to turn them all down as she was unable to find the funding. Any kind of PhD-level funding funding is ridiculously competitive and only the minority will get it. It sounds like nobody made this clear to you when you applied, which was very unfortunate (not to say, cruel).

The very best of luck to you. If you find a solution, do let us know. I'll have to abandon my own PhD next year due to lack of funds.

Reply 9

Musicleads

OP

Hello There

The situation has improved a lot since last week.
I do have funding of course for the course I am studying but just the fees so far.
I am currently applying for smaller bursaries for other expenses and will now study part-time.
I am looking into a way I can use my PhD research to generate paid non-academic work in broadly the same area through feature writing, other media coverage, blogging with advertising, royalties etc... I will also look into sponsorship from institutions and companies that might be interested in funding my subject area. If all fails I will try to find a way to do a PhD abroad and try to bring my nearest and dearest with me!
I just hope I can be well enough to do it all.

I hope that this is useful to someone out there.
My advice is don't do a PhD in England unless you have no alternative.

Urgent: got an award for fees but no living costs

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you