[miki]

Hello,
i just graduate and i´m planing in do my postgraduate study in UK.   
I've been talking with some helpfull people of my city ( Lisbon, Portugal ) British council, but they told me that in postgraduations you should establish direct contact with the university.
where should i study?    I'm in the computer science area. allready visited some UK univeristies websites. but still not sure how many people apply to this area, or if its hard to get a scholarship.
I've read that the shefield university is very good in my area and that the city is the place to go if you like bouldering.
any postgraduate student or professor around that can give me some help in this step of my life?

thanks,
Joao

[Paz]

IF you want to do a masters, then you won't get a student ship easily as the presumption is you'll go off and work in industry and earn shit loads aterwards.  If you want to do a PhD, then the rules are more complicated depending on the research council, and whether Portugal is in the E.U. or not, but it is possible to get a studentship. 

If you show abit of interest to your superviser and have a degree,and jump through all the hurdles then getting on a course isn't that hard.  It's the studentship that's the issue, but there's a pretty big demand for post grads.

I would've thought Computing is moving so fast it makes very little difference down the line where you did your course.  You need to identify a course, or research group or department, then email either the course director, or head of group/dept.  There are also Post graduate director's of studies but I don't know what they do. 

My best tip is to telephone the secretary of whoever organises the course, or the secretary of the head of department.  They'll be doing most of the organising anyway, and will be able to tell you straight awa how many places are left on a master's course.  The allocation of PhD studentships is a bit more complicated, and I doubt they'd just give that away over the phone.  Basically they do have a set number of studentships each year (from the research council, dunno about Uni ones but if you get one of them you'll have to do loads of teaching), but you need someone to supervise you, and this person then needs to compete with all the others for one of the allocate spaces.  In this situation my best tip is to say "I've read your paper in this area, and am interested in talking about it. I'm looking to do a PhD". 

[saintlade]

Know very little about the PHD side of things after my brief foray into higher education, but I studied Electronic Engineering for a while at Southampton which is supposedly the best place in the world to study that course. Their research is pretty hot and extremely well funded by a lot of big firms. I'm not sure how good it is for a more pure programming course like Computer Science but I imagine they rank quite highly in that area as well.

Alas the drawbacks of studying in Southampton are it's a god awful city with no decent bouldering nearby. Portland's not far away but only really worthwhile if you're into sport, though I think the cuttings have seen more recent development. I suppose Dartmoor isn't a million miles away and has some good bouldering. Sheffield is probably the place to be if you want to spend as little time as possible working on your PHD and maximising climb time by the sounds of it.

[Paz]

I forgot - they're so used to climbers applying for PhDs etc. in Sheffield that they sometimes ask you "If the Peak District National Park was closed for three years would you still want to do this course?".

Not telling them you're a climber isn't the same as lying to them is it?

This may be an urban myth. 

[dave]

and whether Portugal is in the E.U. or not,

genius.

[miki]

first thanks for the replies.
my main goal is to do some postgraduate study or if that's not possible to work in my area in a different country ( UK seems close, ranked highly in the area and i don't have to speak german of something like that ). because i love computer science and also I'm a good student, but i also have some teaching and working experience.
if can continue to climb that would be great because i really like bouldering ( still a novice climber - V6 recently). if not it's ok, at least i can go out in the weekends 

I've been searching some universities websites, sites that rank universities by subjects. and downloaded some prospectus. sadly the Shefield University form to request a prospect isn't working well and they don't let you download it  .
i will continue searching and keep posting the news.

thanks again,
Joao

[miki]

btw Portugal is in the E.U.
and i will be considered as home student ( less expensive, maybe easier to get funding? )

[Paz]

I had an Italian friend (Italy being in the EU, NATO and FIFA), and it wasn't so simple for her.  If you have EU funding then fine, I believe moving countries is a condition of some of the grants, but if you're applying for a studentship from a UK research council then I don't know, I'd be very surprised if it's easy. 

I think it's easier to get funding on a PhD (there're a couple of other Italians in my office anyway) - they aren't as hard to get on as you think, just show enthusiasm, if you say you love your subject you're most of the way there, just do some reading.  They take years less in the UK too than in Europe (at least everyone else's does), and you can still come out with an MPhil after a year, even though that's code for 'not a PhD' (unless you're at Oxford). 

Like I said, as far as I know they just don't fund Computer Science MScs.  If anything you have to pay fees, but I can ask my friends if you like. 

All the rules on eligibility for climbing sponsorship are on the research council websites, e.g. http://ww.epsrc.ac.uk
When I did mine, I managed to find a list of all the funded MScs in my area, then crossed off all the ones that weren't near climbing which left about three or four. 

One of my housemates is Portugese and from what she said degree fees are basically about 90% cheaper there per year.

If you're going to fork out a lot of money, then you know you can do an MBA don't you?...   .... in Fontainebleau!

Don't want to put you off, it's a great way to climb in another country, but the weather's crap over the winter when you've got the free time, and over the summer (I suppose when the locals would tell you it's too hot/midgy for the Grit) you'll have some massive computing project to do.