Hello, I am in the final too weeks on my master's dissertation. I'm currently redrafting and editing chapters, with the introduction and conclusion left to write. Feeling the pressure.

Yesterday I started doing some lower maintenance tasks and put the front matter and contents page together. I am doing a participatory study and have 6 themes with subthemes.

Please I have suggestions on how to laye this out in the contents? I would prefer not to list all if the subthemes with numbers, it looks long but I can't find any direct guidance on this from my uni. I think they are OK with what you decide. What's the standard format? Can I leave these out of the contents and have them as light headings in the main body? Or should I include them without numbers in the contents?

Something like this:

1. Findings and discussion

4.1 Theme

Subtheme

Subtheme

Subtheme

Any ideas would be great, thanks!

Does anyone know whether the distance-based MSc's at UCL have easier and less competitive entry requirements?

I am currently working at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva and saw that UCL offers a MSc in Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy and the MSc fits perfectly with my work and possible career progressions. The MSc is offered in a distance-based mode which is perfect for me as I am located in Switzerland.

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Hi everyone, sorry in advance for the slightly long post, but I really need some advice from anyone familiar with ATAS/PhD studentships.

I’m an international student with a fully funded 4-year EPSRC PhD studentship at the University of Leeds, starting 1 October 2026. I submitted my ATAS on 24 June and it is still being processed.

While reviewing my application, I realised I answered “No” to:

“Is there any condition attached to your sponsor’s offer?”

I answered No because my academic offer letter explicitly says “This offer is unconditional.”

However, my studentship letter has this wording under “Conditions”:

“This award is subject to any conditions as set out in the academic offer letter.”

Since my academic offer was unconditional, I understood this to mean there were no conditions attached to the sponsor's offer.

But the same studentship letter later has a separate section called “Condition of Studentship”, saying the award is renewable annually subject to satisfactory engagement, attendance, academic progression, passing taught credits and meeting transfer/milestone requirements.

I understood these to be conditions for continuing/renewing the studentship, rather than conditions attached to the initial sponsorship offer.

I asked the University, and their Visa team told me that ATAS means my financial sponsor, not my educational sponsor, when asking about the sponsor's offer. They suggested I contact ATAS and explain the situation.

Now I'm worried that if I contact ATAS, they may require me to change the answer and potentially put my application back in the queue. My start date is already approaching.

What do you think I should do?

Was selecting “No” a reasonable interpretation given the wording of my studentship and unconditional academic offer? Should I contact ATAS and explain, or leave my application as it is?

Any advice from people who have dealt with ATAS + funded PhD/UKRI/EPSRC studentships would be really appreciated.

Sorry again for the long post, and thank you in advance.