"Stu do you have a degree in Physics, geology, chemistry ?"

No, I was doing a part-time self-funded PhD in vertebrate palaeontology until this time last year, when I was forced to withdraw after three years because my senior supervisor 'left' and no suitable replacement was found, and it turned out the specimen I was working on wasn't owned by my institution but was still partially in private hands and so I had to stop working on it. This put the kibosh on the whole endeavour and I was out. Appalling mess. I had just finished gaterhing the data on this specimen too, so that was three years pissed away.

Although I go my fees back, I spent at least as much again on travel, equipment etc and I couldn't budget for another seven years of research, so I'm hoping to do an MPhil and see how I go on from there.