Actually, I believe that this method is practiced across the entire board of Bachelors degrees. The stuff that you learn from the 1st year is trivial (but you'd better understand the basics or suffer in the later years when the stuff becomes more complex), and some of the modules are introductory. But if you don't do reasonably well, you will not be allowed to progress to your second year, so be warned!

For UK undergrad masters, the weightage is typically 0 - 30 - 30 - 40 (%).

A Malaysian with an European passport? As a Malaysian, you are not allowed to hold another passport. Your friend could be forced to make a decision if they probe and find out he's been studying in Malaysia as a Malaysian citizen and suddenly he's trying to go on a European passport....

Oxbridge wouldn't bat an eyelid at you if you getting nothing less than a first class from a top rated university. Other top universities demand nothing less than a 2.1.

Boxsystem: More precisely, you answered the following:

My answer: A PhD course in the UK runs for three and a half years as standard; out of that three years is research and half a year is for the write up.

I quote the fees for Imperial College (which is probably a couple of thousand £s more expensive than other decent universities):

Overseas students-Postgraduate research

Petroleum Engineering/Geoscience £19,300
Department of Chemistry £16,500
Clinical Medicine £21,500
Mathematics; Centre for History of Science Technology and Medicine; and Humanities £10,250
All other postgraduate research £13,300

This gives you a range of £30,750 to £57,900, for just what you pay to the university alone*.

Living expenses in London? On the conservative side, £10,000 for a full year.

So the total costs of the 'cheapest' PhD, at one of the highest rated universities in the world, in London, would be in the region of £65,000 ~ RM500 000. But of course if you go to Imperial College you really wouldn't be doing humanities, you'd be doing something more science based, so the total cost could jump up to over RM700,000 (at the medical level).

Let's pick a more 'realistic' PhD, let us say Sheffield. Their Arts postgraduate research fees can cost anywhere between £8,500 to £16,000. Science postgraduate research fees* have two bands at Sheffield, starting from £9,940 and £11,340 and jumping to £17,940 and £19,340 respectively. The medical research fees are comparable with Imperial's. Let's choose the lower science band. Living expenses at Sheffield are probably around, let's say, £9,000 a year (just a ballpark figure I am throwing around). The total cost of the PhD? Probably around £60,000, or higher.

*Does not include bench fees (contribution towards research materials), which can another £5,000 a year.

The University of Bristol has quoted on their site that a biochemistry PhD, including bench fees, will cost £77,340

In summary: Your figure is no where near my estimations, or official university estimations, I'm afraid.

This post has been edited by elb: Nov 1 2006, 07:56 AM

PR? You can only get a PR after spending 10 years in the UK / working with a work permit for 5 years. The most direct way to get a PR via studying only is:

A levels (2 years)
Undergraduate + 1 year internship (4 years)
Postgraduate Masters (1 year)
PhD (3.5 years)
Total = 10.5 years.

Of course, it helps if you did your O levels in the UK as well. If you're an international student doing technical studies, well, that's all a handsome sum of money to pay, assuming you get no scholarships.

Council tax is basically residential tax. It has nothing to do with taxable interest.

What on earth are you on about? Your surname IS your last name!

edit: Did not read carefully enough and got confused because your statement was not very clear. That aside, I did not have that problem with my bank when I opened my UK account. My surname was correctly put filled in as the last name etc. (Am I still confused over your statement?)

This post has been edited by elb: Nov 10 2006, 11:43 PM

yeah: No offense, but you should start doing some of your own homework. Do NOT expect spoonfeeding. You will need that change of attitude if you wish to get into, and to survive the more decent UK universities. Try to search for the information, and if you are really lost, then come and ask.

Use this webpage to help you: http://www.shef.ac.uk/undergraduate/

Some of us have already done that over a year ago...

It can be cheaper than the term time prices, or as azarimy said, on par.

MAS economy class? Better? I have to disagree. Me and some of my friends stopped using MAS a few years ago and have switched over to Emirates. Not solely because of the cost, but because the seats are better (767s against aged 747s), the food is better, the in-flight entertainment is better, and for me, the opportunity to break at Dubai and to visit my friends there. All that, and a cheaper ticket? More value for my money!

Not to mention advance online check in (no idea if MAS implemented it since then), and a much better service (MAS NEVER sent me my Enrich card nor attended to my complaint, and Emirates gave me mine within a month). Not to mention that Emirates don't really care if I check in 30kg at Heathrow. MAS would start charging for overweight luggage (even more money saved on top of the savings earlier!)!

Between LHR/ LGW and KUL, the transit time can be anywhere between one hour to nine hours, depending. Why not break for a couple of nights, even?

I've been in Dubai in excess of 72 hours, and never had to for mine.

Probably the former. I specifically asked if I could break for a few days. Plus, they fly several times a day between LHR/ LGW - DBX and KUL - DBX, so connection problems isn't an issue.

Never happened to me. I've shifted computer electronics (checked in) several times on my flights and nothing's happened... yet.