I agree with Joyce. It's fine to disagree with them, but repeatedly doing it in their lectures is not going to be appreciated. If it's a pattern then it may look like you are deliberately going to undermine them. You don't have to be a parrot and nod but, if you think about conferences, people limit their questions comments and don't bring up every little query they have. The nature of a lecture/short talk means they can't go into as much detail as may like, so I would try to give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes.

Interesting post, Chippy. Thanks for sharing your approach - which worked well for you. Very well done on coming out with your PhD. Honestly, I think that so many supervisors have bad motivations and bullshit their students, so why can't it go the other way if the situation warrants it! :p

I've never heard them referred to as congresses either. Searching for conferences would probably throw up better results at least!

Slizor, did he/she elaborate on why? Like is it not well-suited to your research? I guess they have a responsibility not to give you high hopes.

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I definitely think it is doable. If you look at other threads here you will see that a lot of people work full or part-time, and some of them have children too. Also, as a senior lecturer you presumably have a lot of the skills that a PhD requires anyway. I expect it will be a bit easier (though obviously not easy) for you to get one.

As for whether you should do one, or be expected to by your faculty: it's understandable in many respects. With so many PhDs being completed compared to the demand, it is important for universities to try have certain equality in terms of qualification required. Obviously you got your lecture position and promotion to Senior lectuer because you are very capable, but times have changed and I suppose your faculty is right to acknowledge that out of respect to all the people with PhDs who would love to take over your job. ;-)

Good luck with your decision!

Lindalou, I take it your supervisor explicitly told you to give conferences a miss for the time being? I know in theory that makes sense - less distractions - but sometimes I think that have something else to focus on for a short period can actually refocus on your energy on the main project!

Today I've been editing 2 conference papers and am in the middle of editing a (considerably longer) paper. There's red pen everywhere! The rest of the day is reserved for actually making the changes to the documents on the computer.

Whatever the exact reason, it definitely sounds promising. I doubt anyone would read a thesis unless they had a good reason to do so. Maybe he would like to collaborate with you in the future and is seeing if your style seems compatible with his. Or, yes, maybe he wants to see what you are capable of. And even if you know you're capable of more, to have passed your thesis is probably a good read to anyone who isn't sick to death of the topic. :p

Batfink, I agree it's probably best to have to submit it today...even if it is an added stress. Otherwise you would be tinkering with it all week!

Today has been fairly productive so far; am nearly done restructuring a paper I'm writing and did some reading this morning. Also, went to the gym.
Goal for rest of day: print out and edit some hard copies of writing.

Lindalou, thanks for posting the powerball video. I may invest in one at some stage!

Today has been my least productive days in weeks - had a 2.5 hour meeting this morning and it completely drained me. Haven't been able to concentrate all afternoon! Tried to bribe myself with chocolate and sweets but even that didn't work. Will definitely have to work Saturday to make up for it.

I feel your (wrist!) pain. Are power balls, the same thing as squidgy stress balls? which look very like this guy: :-)

Good luck to anyone working this evening.

I've been reading this thread for a while - particularly enjoying Lindalou, Batfink and Button progress...vicariously!
I figure I may as well start posting too. Have done nearly five hours today, but my goals for the afternoon/evening:

1. Finish writing conference paper, so that tomorrow I can do an edit.
2. Begin writing a paper (submission deadline is March 31st). I'm reworking a bigger piece of work, so it's more a case of framing the case and editing down. It will be my first submission so I'm not expecting it to be accepted and am viewing it primarily as a learning process. Hopefully one that will get me some feedback so that I can resubmit!

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12 is a huge amount... although I suppose it works out roughly the same as 6 where they are the sole supervisor. Each candidate only has one in my university. I'm sure having two can just make them both think the other one will provide the help when they don't! I know how useless yours were. :-s

I've been wondering about the motivation for departments to take on a lot of PhD students. Is it a substantial source of income for them? Do you think they are encouraged to take on as many as possible, even when they would rather not due to their own workload and employment prospects?

I ask because in my department, each lecturer has about 6 PhD candidates (it's a small department). Some of these are coming straight from undergrad degrees in the same dept and I'm genuinely concerned that the supervisors motivations aren't entirely honourable and that they can't realistically support 6 at a time, while doing their own teaching/research/admin.

I know this is part of a broader problem, but I am curious as to the monetary benefit of taking on each student.

Very well done! Great to hear there was a positive outcome in the end! thanks for coming back and sharing :-)

HaloChanter, you are the reason I try not to read threads like this! ;-)
But thank you for pointing out that you are in a different situation to most first year PhDs, given that you have been researching in your area for some time. Well done on making such progress.

I started in September and already have changed directions slightly several times. I knew to be open-minded to the research progress, but it is a bit strange to suddenly find myself looking at a very different thesis. I'm determined to remain flexible, however; the last thing I want is to stubbornly stick with a topic simply because initially it seemed feasible. I'm presenting case studies at two conferences in the coming months. I think I will feel happier when I have gotten that hurdle out of the way.

That's good advice, Iseult, thanks for sharing. I agree that it is very easy to get bogged down by detail too early, spending huge amounts of time on things that might not even be relevant to the bigger picture.