1 to 15 of 22 PhD Forum Posts
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Mark_B
[Registered User]
11 May 2018 14:23
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PhD loans - what do you all think?
User: Mark_B - 11 May 2018 14:23
Hi folks,
You're *probably* aware of the UK's new PhD loans - £25k per student, no additional public funding, etc. We're carrying out a little research into the new funding over at FindAPhD and would appreciate it if any prospective students here had time to complete a quick survey. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes and there's a chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher as a thank you.[url=showthumb]https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/phdloans[/url]
I'll be speaking about the results at a policy forum later this year (with several fairly important student finance people in attendance) so this is a chance for your views to be heard (in a manner of speaking).
Cheers!
Mark
FindAPhD
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Tudor_Queen
[Registered User]
11 May 2018 14:34
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User: Tudor_Queen - 11 May 2018 14:34
Actually, I hadn't heard of these. Is there a good website to find out more?
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Mark_B
[Registered User]
11 May 2018 14:36
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User: Mark_B - 11 May 2018 14:36
Of course -
;)[url=showthumb]https://www.findaphd.com/funding/guides/uk-phd-loans-scheme.aspx[/url]
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Tudor_Queen
[Registered User]
11 May 2018 14:36
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User: Tudor_Queen - 11 May 2018 14:36
Oops, I am not sure if I was supposed to start this. I'm a few questions in and it is asking questions like "where do you plan to do your PhD". So presumeably it isn't for existing PhDs/PhD students. I've just noticed in your original post that it says for "prospective" students. Sorry!
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Mark_B
[Registered User]
11 May 2018 14:38
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User: Mark_B - 11 May 2018 14:38
Not to worry - we are mainly interested in what prospective student think, yep. I'd still be happy to hear other people's thoughts here on the forum though. It's all useful.
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Tudor_Queen
[Registered User]
11 May 2018 18:53
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User: Tudor_Queen - 11 May 2018 18:53
Thanks! So is the 25k for the duration of the whole PhD? It doesn't seem that it would be a enough to cover fees and living costs?
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Mark_B
[Registered User]
17 May 2018 16:08
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User: Mark_B - 17 May 2018 16:08
Apologies - missed your reply here. Yep, that's the limit. As with the Masters loans, the intention is for the money to make a 'contribution' to a student's costs. Remains to be seen how useful that ends up being. . .
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bongmaster5000
[Registered User]
18 May 2018 11:18
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User: bongmaster5000 - 18 May 2018 11:18
Already on a PhD so can't take survey. My two cents - not much help. £25k might seem like a big wedge but over 3-4 years it's a drop in the ocean. I think my studentship, bells and whistles included, is worth something near £70k and once you factor in 4 years of living costs, tuition and all the rest of it, that's spread pretty thinly. I expect to be working part-time during my writing up year even with saving part of my stipend each quarter.
If you take out a £25k PhD loan you're going to need to find at least another £30 - 40k from somewhere. Might be handy if you're self/family funded as it relieves some of the immediate outlay but otherwise I don't see the point in it. Anecdotally, I've seen people discussing the loan elsewhere who seem to think it's going to cover most of their costs - clearly not doing the maths. If the loan ends up encouraging more people to take on a self-funded PhD than would otherwise do it, fair enough, but I wonder if it might encourage some to take on a bigger financial burden than they can realistically handle.
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pm133
[Registered User]
18 May 2018 13:31
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User: pm133 - 18 May 2018 13:31
If you are prepared to stay away from city centres and London, don't have a car, have no dependents or debtand are prepared to flat share, it is absolutely possible to live very comfortably on less than £10k per year.
£25k would give you about 60% of that so you'd need a part time job as well.
Honestly, if you can't get full funding for your PhD you really need to take a step back and listen to the message the system is telling you. I would personally never take out a loan or self fund.
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bongmaster5000
[Registered User]
18 May 2018 15:01
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User: bongmaster5000 - 18 May 2018 15:01
Honestly, if you can't get full funding for your PhD you really need to take a step back and listen to the message the system is telling you. I would personally never take out a loan or self fund. Yes, I think this is the main point.
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Tudor_Queen
[Registered User]
18 May 2018 21:35
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User: Tudor_Queen - 18 May 2018 21:35
I think it is better than nothing (that 25k is available now). I know people who are part funded - and working their socks off to pay the other part. So this would help them nicely. Other than that, yes, it isn't enough!
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chaotic1328
[Registered User]
18 May 2018 22:00
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User: chaotic1328 - 18 May 2018 22:00
Quote From bongmaster5000:
Honestly, if you can't get full funding for your PhD you really need to take a step back and listen to the message the system is telling you. I would personally never take out a loan or self fund. Yes, I think this is the main point. Why?
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Tudor_Queen
[Registered User]
18 May 2018 23:15
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User: Tudor_Queen - 18 May 2018 23:15
Some people aren't getting funding because they aren't striking lucky. I say this as a person who did get funding. Not getting funding may be sending no message other than: there isn't enough to go around - you were unlucky.
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pm133
[Registered User]
19 May 2018 10:21
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User: pm133 - 19 May 2018 10:21
It's sending a strong message that your research is not valued enough by our society to bother funding.
It's not a great place to start a PhD from.
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chaotic1328
[Registered User]
19 May 2018 14:25
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User: chaotic1328 - 19 May 2018 14:25
Quote From pm133:
It's sending a strong message that your research is not valued enough by our society to bother funding.
It's not a great place to start a PhD from. LOL. If you say so.
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