I was going to suggest you check the RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) results. See http://www.rae.ac.uk/results/qualityProfile.aspx?id=23&type=uoa

They're still a little crude because they're for Computer Science and Informatics, and a department might be brilliant at some aspects of computing, but not so good at software engineering, or vice versa. But they should still be a guide to good research departments.

Sorry to hear that. Try to look after yourself as much as possible. Good luck for the last push.

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I recently completed a part-time 6-year PhD, my second go at things after leaving a full-time PhD (in totally opposite discipline) over a decade ago.

From about halfway through up until about 6 months before completing I thought about quitting every single day. Really really wanted to quit. But I kept creeping forward. I still wanted the end result - do you? And I kept on setting myself to-do lists of things to be getting on with, so I could make progress, however small and slowly.

I did hit a major breaking point 3 years ago and took a medical break for 5 months to recharge my batteries. I figured that if I didn't take a break I would be quitting, so I might as well stop and see how I got on. And, even though things were still hard when I returned, I was stronger and better ready for it. So maybe taking a break would be a good thing for you.

Do you have some sort of plan/timetable for reaching the end? It can be flexible, and change as need be, but helps give you a road map. Also do you keep a proper track of your achievements? It's easy on a part-time PhD to drift and not realise just how much you have done. I would keep a simple month-by-month spreadsheet record, filling in a brief summary of what I'd done in the last month in terms of research, reading and writing.

Good luck!

I also thought it was going to be about insurance! Then again I'm not a statistician, and reading the message left me completely baffled :p

Hi Matilda,

Personally I'd recommend the full break, but if you don't want to go for that do you maybe have some relevant academic reading material (books, journal papers etc.) that you haven't got to yet, and could relaxedly look through?

I definitely wouldn't recommend tweaking your draft until you get your feedback back.

Enjoy your fortnight off!

Thanks Chris. I got a really quick reply from my uni libary: no go, due to licensing arrangements the electronic journals can only be made available to current staff/students.

I've just fired off another email, this time to my sup, to see if an honorary research fellowship could be arranged for me. That would solve an awful lot of the practical problems, and be totally above board. Can't hurt to ask.

Well I've just fired off an email to my uni library to see if their provision for electronic journals access is better for non-staff/students than the other uni library where I'm a life member. Not optimistic. Another option might be to wangle an honorary fellowship, if I could get away with it, but still not sure that would get what's required for the electronic journal access. Mmm.

No my library doesn't have open access terminals. The only ones available (in both my current uni library, and the nearby one where I have life access) require people to login with current uni details.

My husband still works at the uni so I could go through him, but I'm not entirely happy about that. I'd rather do something above board, so to speak!

Thanks for your PM offer. Much appreciated.

No one with any more comments on this? I'm rapidly approaching the time when I'll lose my online library access, at least until my OU course starts next year, so it's becoming a bit acute.

On the plus side I still have life access to a nearby uni library, but that doesn't include their electronic journal subscriptions. For those I can see myself having to fork out highly for key papers, or requesting photocopies of specific things by post from a distant copyright library.

At least my two journal papers in progress are nearly written.

I did a PhD part-time, but the same principles apply. You need to keep the momentum going, so find a routine you can work with week on week. 4 days of work + 2 days for MPhil sounds quite hard to be honest, allowing just 1 day a week to recuperate and relax. So look after yourself and make sure you don't burn out.

Also because your work is related to your MPhil you need to keep clear divisions between the two. Make sure you and your bosses are clear about when it's work time, and when it's MPhil time, and don't let the two blur.

Other than that good luck! Hope you enjoy your MPhil as much as I enjoyed my research degree.

My supervisor invited lots of staff/students round to his house for a garden party some years ago. He's inviting those of us graduating round next week again too :)

Tennant's still my favourite, but I've voted for "The new bloke is supa dupa" because I really think he is excellent, and one of the best. I was incredibly sceptical when he was cast, but he's been great from the word go. I'm very impressed with him every week.

And I've been a fan of the programme since 1978 - ages before many folk here were born I suspect! "My" Doctor for a very long time was Tom Baker, the first one I ever saw.

Another historian here. My chapter structure was outlined in the last paragraph of my intro i.e.

"The chapters which follow are organized thematically. Chapter 2 addresses the issue of ***. Chapter 3 looks at how ***. Chapter 4 considers what people ***. Chapter 5 develops this to consider the manner in which people were ***. Chapter 6 investigates the relationship between ***. Finally Chapter 7 pulls the threads together to present overall conclusions of the thesis to the core questions."

My main chapters didn't roll automatically from one to the other, but were more like segments of an orange, each looking at a different aspect of my research topic. Then chapter 7 was the big sum-up.

I had to do similar presentations twice in my part-time PhD, assessed both times, in front of a mix of PhD students and members of staff. Both times went ok, and it was definitely easier the second time. And the worst question on the day in terms of most difficult to answer was asked by my supervisor - the rotter! I think this is really good experience though for coping with a viva, since you can be asked totally off-the-wall unexpected questions, and learn to think on your feet.