I'm part-time, and my fees were the equivalent pro-rata of full-time, even though I wasn't in campus every day, didn't have an office space (though my department - in humanities - is a bit rubbish at providing desk space for postgrads), and hardly used the library. But I just accepted it as how things were, a bit unfair, but nothing I could do very much about. As a part-time at-home student I felt very cut off from support networks like other students, which was more of a problem during the tough patches.

At my uni you can request an ILL more urgently than usual, using extra vouchers. Might that be possible at yours?

Oh and btw 1990 doesn't seem that old to me. Partly because it's the year I first went to university, and I'm not that ancient yet! And secondly because I have journal papers from the early 20th century in my thesis bibliography, and a very large number from the middle of that century.

Hope you can track it down somehow. My uni doesn't have this journal either.

Another option would be to pay for a photocopy. Would cost, but can be quicker than an ILL. I've got photocopies from the National Library of Scotland very quickly this way (a UK copyright library, so should carry this journal and just about anything else).

I don't have a holiday planned, but would maybe like to manage a short break to Venice with hubby before Christmas, if I can manage it. Would be lovely.

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I signed away my intellectual property rights at the first university where I was a PhD student. I didn't sign it away at the second one, and wasn't asked to. So, unless I'm very wrong, I own the rights. My funding council is relevant too, but they don't own the rights, just want to be acknowledged in publications etc. Mmmm.

Forgot to mention my field: was computer science the first time around, history the second.

No, I think I'd just get on and talk about it.

Talk to your supervisors and give them a copy of the chapter to read first.

I was in a sort-of similar position, where I found out less than a year into my PhD that another student at a nearby university had started a closely related topic.

My supervisor reassured me then that it would be ok, and even if we were researching exactly the same thing (which we weren't: there were differences), then two separate analyses of the same question would also be equally valid.

So don't worry too much. I doubt you'd need to go for an MPhil. But talk to your supervisor.

Well I wasn't working as I said, so didn't have to switch between work and study. However I was very ill, and could only study in chunks of up to an hour at a time, adding up to 5 hours over the week if lucky. So I constantly had to reacquaint myself with the PhD. I had to get into the work quickly, or I'd have lost more valuable time. But I found that ok to do. I always had to-do lists of things to be getting on with, knew what I needed to do when I started again, and got on with it.

I never had the feeling that I had to play catch-up with full-timers, but I was based off campus, so not constantly comparing myself to other students. I did have a concern that another student moved towards my research topic, and because he was full-time he would complete years before me. But my research was still important, still justified, and still passed the final viva.

I think a part-time PhD requires a lot more dedication than full-time, for various reasons. You need to establish a routine that works for you, but it's certainly possible.

I echo all the advice to work out a plan and get that approved. Also Sue's advice about physically rearranging printouts is really good. I've done something similar in the past with index cards, summarising each separate section on an index card, then moving them around until I find an arrangement that I'm happy with. I find it very difficult to think of a big picture due to my brain damage, but can think of the smaller parts, and shuffling them around made things easier for me.

Even once I had a plan I found it helped to draw up a list of the component parts, and then start working through (and ticking off) those that looked least intimidating. That way I'd start to make progress, without worrying abou the huge task in front of me.

Good luck!

I think the potential problem with part-time, and working full-time as well, is how much time you will have to work on the PhD. I've known other people in this situation who struggle to find any usable time, being too exhausted from work. Equally others have had to work less than full-time to fit in the PhD. This is particularly important in my discipline because historical archives are generally only open Monday-Friday, 9-5, so the student needs time in there to go visit.

I wasn't working during my part-time PhD, but I was extremely seriously ill, managing on only just 5 good hours or so a week by the very end. It was very minimal, I was sort of supposed to be half-time (or at least allowed twice as long as full-timers), but I was nowhere near there. But by keeping plodding away, even at that slow rate, I completed within 6 years.

The other option for teachers and the like is to work more during certain times of years. But for many people that isn't feasible, and it's better to keep slogging along slowly, rather than hoping for a future time when you will have more time available, that will practically never appear.

Oh and I should also have added that I tried to predict what my examiners would ask, based on their research interests etc. I thought my external would critique me on a number of specific factors. But they didn't bother her at all, and she asked totally different things.

So don't try to predict too much what will be asked on the day. I think it's best if you know your thesis, can defend it, and can deal confidently with any question that will come up. And that includes saying "Mmmm, interesting question. I might need to think about that more." to hedge out of it! If you're not confident about the question-answer format then maybe having a mock viva would be a good idea. But I didn't think it would help me, and didn't have one.