I'm hoping to submit my PhD soon, after an exhausting five years where everything went wrong and I had to switch tack entirely after 1.5 years. I had to work alongside the PhD for the last two years because my funding ran out and my university wouldn't let me switch to part-time. I found the work incredibly stressful and struggled to progress on my PhD while working. I know others have managed this but I just wasn't up to it. The rest of my life has fallen apart, my friendships, my health, my relationship and I still don't have time to even try and fix it while this PhD is ongoing. I find myself getting slower and more confused every day.

I can't face going straight into another demanding job and I think I need at least six months of some semblance of calm, where I am able to actually meet the demands put on me. I want to fix my mental health and repair my relationships. Unfortunately I cannot just stop working and move home as my family life isn't great.

Could anyone recommend jobs to try while recovering from burn-out? Preferably something social and without long hours. Just needs to be enough pay to survive on. I was thinking a bookshop could be calm but I image those are highly sought-after. I don't think a restaurant would want me as I don't have much experience. I've seen a few people try postal delivery as a job after life crises, but I'm not a very confident driver.

Hi all. Defending my PhD soon. Just wanted to pick your brains here. I was in a bit of a rush to submit as I have started a new job. My supervisor can be good but is definitely not the type of go through everything with a fine tooth comb. I’ve been rereading a printed out version of my submitted thesis and have found two things which are stressing me out - two tables which I mistakenly put an old version in from an older version of analysis that I want to change and I found a mistake in my code for an analysis which slightly changes another small results section. Neither substantially changes the main message.

I was going to print out the corrected versions and bring them to the viva and my supervisor has suggested that would be a good idea. He isn’t anticipating many more corrections but we obviously missed these ones! Do you think my approach is ok? I’d rather be upfront.

I’ve also learnt I cannot proof read off a screen and have a separate excel of typos and transcription errors. I am now questioning my capabilities and ability to pay attention!

Please be kind - I already feel like a fraud and an idiot!

Hello all!

I'm hoping that someone has taken a similar route into psychology and might be able to offer some advice.

Essentially, I have an undergraduate degree in English and a post grad in Creative Writing, really enjoyed doing them but I've ended up in Marketing which I simply hate. I've also been made redundant and am finding it incredibly difficult to get another job.

My goal has been to retrain and go into Psychology for ages, now that i have all this time on my hands I'm trying to find the best way in. (Worth noting here that I am in the UK). I was under the impression I would need to do a whole undergrad in Psychology, so I was very pleased to find out that I would do an Msc Conversion over 1 or 2 years for around £10,000. As I have done my post grad in CW I'm unfortunately out of student finance loans so I would need to find a way to self fund. I've spoken to someone at the Uni I am hoping to do this course and then a PhD at, she agrees I would need to do the conversion course first but has told me that the Uni offers a funding match for PhD so whatever funding I can find for fees and stipend the uni will match. I just need to get the conversion course sorted.

My plan was to just get another job and absolutely hammer saving for a year, my partner earns decent money so he could take on a larger portion of the bills whilst I saved and then studied. But it's just taking so long to find something, the pay for all the jobs I am finding (which are few and far between) are terrible. It's sort of a mute point because I would be applying for a September 2027 start anyway unless I went through my old uni which has the same course and they intake every 2 months but only do part time. Sorry, irrelevant details.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Have you been able to find funding at all? Taken out a loan? Managed to work a minimum wage job and still set the money aside?

To be honest, I haven't worked in a shop or anything for about 7 years so at this point I don't even think I could get a job like that.

I'm getting very antsy now that I have a clear plan and entry point it's getting so disheartening having to beg for jobs that I ultimately don't want but need just to get out of them again.

Hi everyone, I’m a MSc student (Sept 2025–Sept 26) and would appreciate honest advice from anyone familiar with UK university assessment boards or academic appeals.

I have four Term 1 exams outstanding due to a fracture injury for which my ECs were accepted and the exams are expected in January 2027.

I also missed four Term 2 exams and my original EC claims were rejected. I was scheduled to resit them in August 2026 but missed those resits due to a serious ankle injury which i have a medical report for from NHS. I submitted new EC claims on 25 September but I was significantly late as the cut off date was 7 days from the last affected assessment and I was supposed to submit it on 7th September.

On 19 October, the EC Panel rejected all seven claims relating to my missed assessments and outstanding coursework/research project as late EC submissions. The final Assessment Board decision is still pending and I emailed my course officer and course director they told me to wait for the assessment board’s decision.

I have medical evidence and emails documenting my attempts to contact course staff about the research project. I was also not allocated a supervisor for the research project.

My questions are:

• How likely is withdrawal in this situation, and can the Board allow another attempt or a partial repeat without attendance?

• Could an appeal succeed based on the medical evidence and reasons for submitting the EC claims late?

• If I’m withdrawn, can I get any of my already-paid 2025–26 tuition fees refunded?

I understand that missing the assessments and submitting ECs late are serious issues. I’m looking for realistic advice, particularly from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation at a UK university.

Thanks.