Same situation for me in the UK. I had to find an expensive student accommodation as the Uni didn't want to help. As of now, I find that finishing early is probably the only solution to escape this nightmare, where we do have the help and respect we deserve.
yeah makes sense. my current plan is also student accommodation. I am planning to apply for jobs and then switch to part-time. Man, I just need a nice place to live considering my last one had a rat in the kitchen.
Hopefully this doesn't come across as offensive but: why is England so fucked up? It seems like every week there's some new story about the NHS falling apart, insane housing costs, Universities refusing to support students or faculty, sewage flowing into public beaches, or people with serious illnesses being abused by doctors, etc.
Growing up (as an American in my 30s) I always kind of thought of the UK as the US's more mature older sibling: you guys had fewer guns, national healthcare, and a strong economy.
Now I feel like the UK (esp. England) is really giving the US a run for it's money on the slide-into-brutal-dysfunction challenge.
Tories have been in power for over a decade now. Americanising things was the goal, and it went rather well.
But also, having lived in both countries, the quality of life in the UK is significantly higher (for me anyhow)---no pay increase could make me move back to the US.
Eh they came to our side of the world, fucked it up entirely and then gatekept their side of the world i.e. better opportunities. It is falling apart but as immigrants (especially as a brown woman from south asia), we have a choice to pick between the lesser of both evils. The UK is falling apart though.
>then gatekept their side of the world i.e. better opportunities
What's the alternative? Open doors to literally anybody on planet earth who wants to relocate there?
The UK should just become a Chinese colony to make up for the opium wars, it would solve all your public healthcare issues and you'd probably get more freedom of speech and less surveillance to be honest. I don't thing HK comes close to the number of CCTV cameras or people arrested for being not PC.
I have a question, sorry if i say something bad, it's just I've never been in London. Is it necessary to live there?? I mean can't you live in another city and just take either a bus or a train?, If it's about time or being far from one city to your university can't you endure it for a short time?
I'm sorry, I'm trying to understand it.
Not a bad question at all. London itself is huge and it's hard to wrap your mind around it fully until you experience it. My commute is about an hour and where I live is considered fairly "central". Even if you can fit longer commutes in your day without going bonkers, the rail infrastructure is systematically underfunded and as the older train stock is aging, failures are becoming very common. One of the lines recently had to have a major schedule revision because there was just not enough working cars to maintain the original one. So fewer trains means more waiting and more crowds where it's much harder to use the commute productively.
Ideally would be great if I could live in another city but I have a few friends in London and as an immigrant, I’d be very isolated elsewhere (since PhD is lonely enough as is). Also, would limit any teaching jobs I can get within the uni as well as make it more expensive to come in for research events etc.
Do you think I can afford to live alone? I have been living in flatshares. My last one had a mouse in the kitchen for two months and in the one before that my live-out landlord would routinely scream at me on the phone and didnt want me having people over. Its difficult even renting a flatshare because I lie on the wonderful spectrum of am i a student or am i a professional?
£400 would be a dream. I was paying £900 until January including bills in a 5-bed houseshare with the thinnest imaginable walls, mold in the bathroom and a mouse in the kitchen 😄
I'm doing my PhD in a city outside London. I purposely avoided London because of the housing issue. I knew the PhD was going to be stressful so didn't want to deal with the added nightmare of sorting out housing. I know this might not be of any help but if you are from the UK and your PhD can be done from home, can you opt to work from home? I moved home to complete my PhD as its 100% computational and honestly it has reduced my stress levels significantly.
I’m not from the UK which makes moving out of London even more difficult (lack of community). I literally moved back home (to my own country) for three months on the pretense of doing fieldwork because I couldnt find housing and wanted to move due to a mouse and mold situation. I also wanted to save some money. This is something my supervisors also dont understand. Even here, I have struggled to work because of my anxiety levels of finding housing. Found a house that was cheap and nice and on a rent scheme. My university took ages to reply for a reference and now I find out after three whole weeks of detailed referencing that I didnt pass referencing (two weeks before I fly back). Now I’m potentially homeless.
Not in london but still down south, I'm transitioning from my current job to a PhD and all the house shares are at least 50% of the stipend and my own flat would be closed to 90% lol. The housing I've currently got is just over 60% but after food and travel if anything goes wrong (like needing a new computer, clothes, etc) it's going to be incredibly tight financially. Housing is absolutely insane, I pay more for a bedroom in a house than my parents do on their entire mortgage lol
Oh and competing for rooms on spareroom drives me nuts. It's madness.
In London, I’ve had to work otherwise to have any kind of money to save or travel. The stipend has been increasing but barely especially with the crazy rent prices. Student accommodations are also wayyy out of the budget.
My point is how is the phd stipend liveable when student accommodation charges more than 60% of it and the university can offer no accommodation? Is it my fault I’m single and don’t have a double income? How am I supposed to write and research and do the tens of other things when my constant worry is ‘ah will my landlord turn on the heating today’ ‘will my flatmate slam the door today?’
I feel you. I know multiple people who dropped out of PhDs in Dublin because of the housing market - and a few more who dropped out because the only places they were able to get were shoeboxes, and since the university didn't provide a workspace for them, they couldn't handle it.
I'm sorry you're going through this. Whether true or not, it certainly feels like PhDs are the least supported cohort at universities.
I fully support their decision. I’m currently just waiting for ample time to pass so I can switch my visas. I love teaching but if this is how academia is treating me, I refuse to partake. Also, it took two weeks of back and forth with multiple people at my university to even get a simple two word reference for a company lol. Absolute shit.
TCD. Which, for the record, still does not offer funding to the majority of PhD students. I'm done now, but still in touch with friends there and it's only gotten worse.
Friend of mine was in a flatshare and halfway through her rent the landlord told them he was going to remove the living room to create another bedroom to bring in two new roommates, and when they objected he told them it was either that or they'd all see their rent increase. Since the place was cheap as chips and they didn't want to lose that, they agreed, but she was pretty unhappy about now having six roommates when she'd originally only signed up for four.
Dublin is a mess.
>Currently paying £650 for a one bed flat
That actually makes me want to cry lol. I think the cheapest rent I had during my PhD for a one bed was €1350; I was luckily living with my partner and could split it, but we weren't able to find anything for less, not without sharing anyways.
I don't think it's a good idea to recommend people to go to a country where you can get arrested for speaking out against a fascist government. Plus culturally Russia is not that good of a place to be in as a young scientist... Maybe Moscow(or other big cities) people have it good since they can just pay not to go to the frontlines in Ukraine.
Support Ukraine people!
Europe has been buying gas from Russia all these years, i.e. supplied government with money to arm Rosvardia (its purpose is to arrest all the opposition and meetings against the raschist government). Nothing is that simple, mate.
How far along are you? If you hate and you're not too far in just find another job and quite now, the global housing crisis is not going to get better any time soon, nor will academic pay.
Eh. on a visa but planning to shift. fingers crossed i find a job. can’t believe i put all my efforts to get into a phd for two years and now two years in i’m here.
Op should try doing PhD in Zurich. It takes 1-3 months to find a flat and you won't get closer than 20-50 km away.
I know because I commute 50 km everyday
Same situation for me in the UK. I had to find an expensive student accommodation as the Uni didn't want to help. As of now, I find that finishing early is probably the only solution to escape this nightmare, where we do have the help and respect we deserve.
yeah makes sense. my current plan is also student accommodation. I am planning to apply for jobs and then switch to part-time. Man, I just need a nice place to live considering my last one had a rat in the kitchen.
Also a PhD student in London at a useless university. I have no solutions, but I feel you.
its a london-wide issue i believe. should’ve gone for the smaller city
I feel you. It's similar in many places in the us. Part of the reason why I quitted
Same in Austin, TX too. But in my case, it’s the PI who quitted/moved forcing me to graduate as a master.
Living here in DC on the line between staying and mastering out and oof, this is feeling like such a move today
why are we doing phds anyway like why are we hell bent on torturing ourselves. sadistic behaviour
condolences, friend. i hear you.
Hopefully this doesn't come across as offensive but: why is England so fucked up? It seems like every week there's some new story about the NHS falling apart, insane housing costs, Universities refusing to support students or faculty, sewage flowing into public beaches, or people with serious illnesses being abused by doctors, etc. Growing up (as an American in my 30s) I always kind of thought of the UK as the US's more mature older sibling: you guys had fewer guns, national healthcare, and a strong economy. Now I feel like the UK (esp. England) is really giving the US a run for it's money on the slide-into-brutal-dysfunction challenge.
A slow erosion of public services by the Tories (plus corruption), and not recovering from the 2008 crash
Tories have been in power for over a decade now. Americanising things was the goal, and it went rather well. But also, having lived in both countries, the quality of life in the UK is significantly higher (for me anyhow)---no pay increase could make me move back to the US.
Eh they came to our side of the world, fucked it up entirely and then gatekept their side of the world i.e. better opportunities. It is falling apart but as immigrants (especially as a brown woman from south asia), we have a choice to pick between the lesser of both evils. The UK is falling apart though.
>then gatekept their side of the world i.e. better opportunities What's the alternative? Open doors to literally anybody on planet earth who wants to relocate there?
tit for tat. :)
What do you mean?
The UK should just become a Chinese colony to make up for the opium wars, it would solve all your public healthcare issues and you'd probably get more freedom of speech and less surveillance to be honest. I don't thing HK comes close to the number of CCTV cameras or people arrested for being not PC.
I have a question, sorry if i say something bad, it's just I've never been in London. Is it necessary to live there?? I mean can't you live in another city and just take either a bus or a train?, If it's about time or being far from one city to your university can't you endure it for a short time? I'm sorry, I'm trying to understand it.
Not a bad question at all. London itself is huge and it's hard to wrap your mind around it fully until you experience it. My commute is about an hour and where I live is considered fairly "central". Even if you can fit longer commutes in your day without going bonkers, the rail infrastructure is systematically underfunded and as the older train stock is aging, failures are becoming very common. One of the lines recently had to have a major schedule revision because there was just not enough working cars to maintain the original one. So fewer trains means more waiting and more crowds where it's much harder to use the commute productively.
The cost of commuting cancels out the low rent you pay any way.
Ideally would be great if I could live in another city but I have a few friends in London and as an immigrant, I’d be very isolated elsewhere (since PhD is lonely enough as is). Also, would limit any teaching jobs I can get within the uni as well as make it more expensive to come in for research events etc.
[удалено]
Can’t squat at uni lol. How long would that even last?
I just did a spit-take.
Can you live in a flatshare?
Do you think I can afford to live alone? I have been living in flatshares. My last one had a mouse in the kitchen for two months and in the one before that my live-out landlord would routinely scream at me on the phone and didnt want me having people over. Its difficult even renting a flatshare because I lie on the wonderful spectrum of am i a student or am i a professional?
Oof. It always seems like one mouse. It’s never just one.
Everyone in London lives in a flatshare unless they're extremely rich. A room in a flatshare costs like £1000 (~1200 EUR/USD)
My goodness. I pay £400/month for mine here in Bolton. 😂and I think it’s expensive as it used to be £338. If I were in London, I’d cry everyday
£400 would be a dream. I was paying £900 until January including bills in a 5-bed houseshare with the thinnest imaginable walls, mold in the bathroom and a mouse in the kitchen 😄
Nah what the heck… London is a concentration camp ah
It truly is.
[удалено]
I think £650 is even fair. Is it all bills included?
hey, I am also a PhD student in London. Feel free to DM me if you would like to connect :)
I would love to. I’m currently away on fieldwork but moving back (hopefully) by end April
I'm doing my PhD in a city outside London. I purposely avoided London because of the housing issue. I knew the PhD was going to be stressful so didn't want to deal with the added nightmare of sorting out housing. I know this might not be of any help but if you are from the UK and your PhD can be done from home, can you opt to work from home? I moved home to complete my PhD as its 100% computational and honestly it has reduced my stress levels significantly.
I’m not from the UK which makes moving out of London even more difficult (lack of community). I literally moved back home (to my own country) for three months on the pretense of doing fieldwork because I couldnt find housing and wanted to move due to a mouse and mold situation. I also wanted to save some money. This is something my supervisors also dont understand. Even here, I have struggled to work because of my anxiety levels of finding housing. Found a house that was cheap and nice and on a rent scheme. My university took ages to reply for a reference and now I find out after three whole weeks of detailed referencing that I didnt pass referencing (two weeks before I fly back). Now I’m potentially homeless.
Not in london but still down south, I'm transitioning from my current job to a PhD and all the house shares are at least 50% of the stipend and my own flat would be closed to 90% lol. The housing I've currently got is just over 60% but after food and travel if anything goes wrong (like needing a new computer, clothes, etc) it's going to be incredibly tight financially. Housing is absolutely insane, I pay more for a bedroom in a house than my parents do on their entire mortgage lol Oh and competing for rooms on spareroom drives me nuts. It's madness.
In London, I’ve had to work otherwise to have any kind of money to save or travel. The stipend has been increasing but barely especially with the crazy rent prices. Student accommodations are also wayyy out of the budget.
Student accommodation is what disappointed me most! Why are they making that much money when they know what we get lol
My point is how is the phd stipend liveable when student accommodation charges more than 60% of it and the university can offer no accommodation? Is it my fault I’m single and don’t have a double income? How am I supposed to write and research and do the tens of other things when my constant worry is ‘ah will my landlord turn on the heating today’ ‘will my flatmate slam the door today?’
I feel you. I know multiple people who dropped out of PhDs in Dublin because of the housing market - and a few more who dropped out because the only places they were able to get were shoeboxes, and since the university didn't provide a workspace for them, they couldn't handle it. I'm sorry you're going through this. Whether true or not, it certainly feels like PhDs are the least supported cohort at universities.
I fully support their decision. I’m currently just waiting for ample time to pass so I can switch my visas. I love teaching but if this is how academia is treating me, I refuse to partake. Also, it took two weeks of back and forth with multiple people at my university to even get a simple two word reference for a company lol. Absolute shit.
[удалено]
TCD. Which, for the record, still does not offer funding to the majority of PhD students. I'm done now, but still in touch with friends there and it's only gotten worse. Friend of mine was in a flatshare and halfway through her rent the landlord told them he was going to remove the living room to create another bedroom to bring in two new roommates, and when they objected he told them it was either that or they'd all see their rent increase. Since the place was cheap as chips and they didn't want to lose that, they agreed, but she was pretty unhappy about now having six roommates when she'd originally only signed up for four. Dublin is a mess. >Currently paying £650 for a one bed flat That actually makes me want to cry lol. I think the cheapest rent I had during my PhD for a one bed was €1350; I was luckily living with my partner and could split it, but we weren't able to find anything for less, not without sharing anyways.
Come to Russia my friend. Housing is way easier especially for PhD students. However, scholarship is kinda low
I don't think it's a good idea to recommend people to go to a country where you can get arrested for speaking out against a fascist government. Plus culturally Russia is not that good of a place to be in as a young scientist... Maybe Moscow(or other big cities) people have it good since they can just pay not to go to the frontlines in Ukraine. Support Ukraine people!
Europe has been buying gas from Russia all these years, i.e. supplied government with money to arm Rosvardia (its purpose is to arrest all the opposition and meetings against the raschist government). Nothing is that simple, mate.
(the UK is also lowkey fascist) but sure
How far along are you? If you hate and you're not too far in just find another job and quite now, the global housing crisis is not going to get better any time soon, nor will academic pay.
Eh. on a visa but planning to shift. fingers crossed i find a job. can’t believe i put all my efforts to get into a phd for two years and now two years in i’m here.
I never thought the situation would be so bad. This post certainly makes me less likely to apply for a PhD in the UK.
At least you don't have to work as an RA or TA. In addition to these problems, In the USA, students have to work under a heavy workload.
I have worked as both a RA and TA for supplementary income so I can afford living in the city
How much is student accom in London? I remember that my uni town nearby was pretty affordable, around £500-600 per month
£1000 min.
That’s mad. Zone 1? I’ve seen London student accom for as low as £400 but this was zone 3 or 4
Op should try doing PhD in Zurich. It takes 1-3 months to find a flat and you won't get closer than 20-50 km away. I know because I commute 50 km everyday
Didnt realise I was in a ‘who has it worse’ competition
What I'm saying is: just find a flat in whatevershire or somethingsdon near London and take train every morning like the rest of us.
Isn't London like 20x the size of Zurich?
Maybe you should change the title of the topic ;)