When Free Isn’t Really Free

So, exciting news, I won a prize at school. And, to be clear, before I grumble about some logistics and my own questionable spending habits, I do appreciate it. It was for the faculty heat of the 3MT competition and, if you're interested in seeing my nerdy presentation, it's right here:

But if you've skipped a three minute elevator pitch about my research, totally understandable. You're here for the money bits anyway.

Well. I won £1000 prize. But it came with some restrictions that it had to be used to fund approved research activities.

Research activities are a little weird when you're already in your write-up period and you study immersive theatre.

Like, can I please have some theatre tickets, sir?

And this got held up a bit. So in the meantime, I asked for funding to attend Mental Health First Aider training, because it was mentioned by several people during my interviews and workshops and I've never attended.

Good new, sometimes free is free, especially when it's just two days of online training. So in this case, £225 of that £1000 was spent pretty easily.

But everything isn't online, right? And that's where things get a bit tricky.

So the school did eventually approve a research trip to study theatrical risk management in non-English speaking contexts.

This was a fancy way to say I got them to send me to Portugal for a weekend to see a cool immersive theatre show, which will now have to wind up a line or two in my thesis somewhere (probably along the lines of my research is generally limited to English speaking, Western cultures and there is significant scope for future studies in other contexts, for example, this performance in Portugal…).

And I was pretty excited because I've wanted to A Morte do Corvo for like a year now and could not justify going all the way to Lisbon just to see a show.

But here's the thing, anytime an institution is reimbursing you, there are limitations. And some are a bit sneaky.

Like I was able to claim reimbursement for food, and even though my address on record is nowhere near London and my travel day began at 8:45 AM to get to the airport on time, I could not claim reimbursement for lunch at the airport, in London (I mean, is Luton really London anyway?). So there goes £18.35 because airports are notoriously budget friendly, right?

I also didn't have a checked bag, so there goes another £14.53 to buy sunscreen so my pasty, pasty body doesn't burn to a crip walking around outside.

I was also there mid-crazy heatwave (like over 100 degrees in the unaircondition hostel I was staying at), so I drank a lot of water. To stay alive. But outside the specific meal receipts, I was not getting reimbursed for the water. Fortunately, this was fairly cheap in Portugal and I got hip to what was happening and started stocking up at every meal when buying bottled water was an option, but there goes another £10.

I would argue those were fairly necessary expenses and £ 42.88 is a reasonable amount for a Portuguese adventure. Yes.

But then there were the expenses that were 100% my fault but wouldn't have happened if I didn't go but… YOLO, right?

There was the $17.62 at the airport on the way back because I heard horror stories about going through immigration and arrived at the airport like five hours early. Was there a line? Of course not. Was there shopping on the other side? Yes. And now I own some lightweight slacks for Egypt.

Or the $84.77 because I was there to attend a 9:30 PM show on Friday and a 9:30 PM show on Saturday. What was there to do otherwise? I figured I might as well book a tour and go see something. So I went to Pena Palace and saw the westernmost tip of Europe. Kind of cool. Also kind of a last minute expense.

I also bought a shot glass and a magnet for boyfriend. There goes another $5.29.

Overall, was it worth it? Yes. But here's one of the biggest reasons why.

My school, like so many other PhD student's schools I talk to, seem to assume we are their bank. So while I spent like $150-175 out of pocket for a really cool trip, I have temporarily spent like $500 until they pay me back.

If my previous experiences with their reimbursement system are anything to base my expectations on, I will see that money in October? December? When I graduate? They are genuinely the worst. I mean, am I basing this off winning the same prize and the next higher level of the prize last year, expecting and being told I would receive the money in September and then not getting it until January and having to scramble to find £2000 in tuition money that was promised to me in June at the last minute? And is £1500 of that still sitting in my student account that I can't access until I graduate. Yes. Yes, it is.

So if I didn't have the savings to pay off my credit card, can we guess how much of the interest I would've been able to claim on my reimbursements?

Did we guess $0? Because that's what it is. So just a thing to keep in my mind, my fellow PhD students, that far too many multi-million/billion dollar universities rely on the bank of the PhD student to fund things and then get that money back to you whenever they feel like it, in an entirely unpredictable and able to plan for the future kind of way.

I mean, of course we're not worthless worms, but sure seems like the school pictures us that way sometimes.

So that's today's little rant/cautionary tale about prize funding as a PhD student.

Anyone else have crazy stories about how long it took their school or job to reimburse them for expenses?