Help Ben Get Another Education

Greetings! I'm Ben and I really need to restart my career. Good news: I've been given an unconditional offer to do a masters in Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors at the University of Birmingham. Bad news: it's expensive and I'm broke.

I already have a doctorate in X-ray spectroscopy, but just as I was starting my career in that field, I lost one postdoc due to COVID lockdowns, then my next postdoc was impacted by COVID restriction, financial problems within the institute I was working at, and the disbanding of the group I was part of at the end of my contract. All of this has resulted in me being trained in a very specific niche, but also unemployed for the last three years. With no publications for the last six years I can't find a job in the field that I'm trained for and I can't move into a related field because I don't have experience in it and I'm up against people who do. Industry don't want an X-ray spectroscopist. Worse, the longer I'm unemployed, the less employable I get.

At this point, I've burnt through my savings and have had to move in with family to survive. I need to do something to restart my career. A degree in an expanding field is just the thing - there are plenty of job openings in industry and research, especially for recent graduates. Unfortunately, because I already have a masters degree Student Finance won't touch me. And you can't claim benefits whilst in full-time education. So I have no way to pay tuition fees or living costs - that's why I'm turning to you.

All-in, I expect this degree to cost about 28 k£. That's a lot of money, but between your donations, whatever my family can scrape up, and hopefully one of the scholarships that I've applied for, I'm sure we can make it. I don't have to raise it all at once either - term starts in late September 2025, but accommodation costs and tuition fee payments are spread out over the whole year.

So please, help me restart my career by sending me back to school. Thank you.