Dear MECCSA Members,

This is an invitation to contribute a guest post to The New Academic's new section "Brains, Time, Money"<http://www.nadinemuller.org.uk/category/the-new-academic>, which will collate the experiences of part-time and self-funded postgraduates, past and present. The series will launch on 1 May 2013, and while the deadline for contributions is a rolling one, it would be great to receive as many posts as possible by 1 May 2013, to ensure the series will run as smoothly as possible and draw attention to the situation of part-time and/or self-funded postgrads in the UK and beyond.

The New Academic was launched less than 6 months ago, and has so far had 11,000 visitors in that short time.

If you are interested in contributing or know someone who may be, please take a look at the guidelines below and feel free to circulate this email.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

All the best,
Nadine

Dr Nadine Muller
Lecturer in English Literature & Cultural History
Liverpool John Moores University
Dean Walters Building
1 St. James Road
Liverpool
L1 7BR

Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Twitter: @Nadine_Muller
Website: www.nadinemuller.org.uk


TOPIC & REMIT

Quite simply, no more than ca. 1,000 words on your experiences as a self-funded and/or part-time postgraduate student. Talk about the things you want people to know, and that you want to share. You're the ones with the experiences in this, and it's completely up to you whether you want to focus on positives, negatives, or both, if this is your act of speaking out against constantly being ignored, or your opportunity to highlight the fabulous support you've received.

The series is intended to provide first-hand accounts of what it's like to be a part-time or self-funded postgraduate student, be that experience bad or good. So some of the questions you may want to consider for your posts are these (and they are really just prompts, please feel free to ignore them):

  *   What are the personal or professional positives/ negatives of studying self-funded and/or part-time?
  *   Did you feel integrated and supported by your department (personally, socially, in terms of training, …)?
  *   If you have finished your studies, do you feel you are disadvantaged by having done your degree part-time and/or self-funded?
  *   What do you feel is needed in order to better cater for self-funded and/or part-time students?

SCHEDULE & PROCESS

The series is set to launch on 1 May, and will one post per week will be published.

I will proofread your post and suggest any corrections/ changes to grammar, spelling, punctuation, though the style is really up to you (I'll only change what my eye/ sense of grammar can't bear!). If you feel you can't write something by 1 May, simply send your post along when you can.

Important: unless you write something that has nothing to do with the topics described above, your post will be published! There won't be a fierce selection (though there may be fierce editing if you need help with grammar, etc.); this is about hearing a variety of experiences, and "the more the merrier" really applies in this case.


FORMATTING

You needn't worry about anything other than sending me your post in a file format I can open and edit (i.e. Pages or MS Word). If you feel inspired to quote something, please reference as you normally would.


PLEASE INCLUDE


  *   A biographical note (as detailed or mysterious as you wish, but ideally including your degree, subject, website, Twitter handle, and any other activities you want people to know about).
  *   A note on whether you want your name and/or institution to be anonymous.

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