I can relate. I did my PhD with a £10,000 (per year for 3 years) scholarship, from which I had to deduct £3,465 for the tuition fees per year. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a second “night” job as a freelance developer I wouldn’t had been able to pay for rent or food. I could write a compendium of tricks on how to live well below the poverty line lol
It is strange to read comments like that, I used to be under the impression that PhD was a paid job as it is that here in Denmark. Here they get around £3400 per month [0].
Copenhagen University [1] has it as 35,250kr/month, which is almost £4300/month.
Taxes and cost of living are higher in Denmark, but it's still more than double what a student in Britain gets. I had friends studying in both countries, and I was shocked when I found out the difference. (It was all science research.)
A couple of years ago, I saw a job advert at a British research institute I was working with. It was a PhD position, funded and managed by Copenhagen University, but living and working mostly in England to use the special equipment the institution had. The salary was higher than a senior researcher position, also listed, and higher than all the developers I was working with.
I think each country has different laws/rules/regulations for PhD. Where I live it's really common for the job to be tied to teaching hours for instance. It's also easier to do a PhD and live on it than going postdoc (it pays less and there are fewer positions).
Currently in a similar situation. I have about £7k after paying tuition, £6k of which goes to rent. The price of food here is increasing here too due to global shortages. I could definitely write some tips on how to live below the poverty line.
Due to COVID, the University is also trying every trick in the book to further reduce any funding and increase costs where possible, due to the lack of foreign student income. That's all good and well, but there's only so far a person can go.
