Bath specific info here
http://www.bath.ac.uk/prospectus/postgrad/programmes/#research

In the UK, you must submit a substantial thesis (size dependent on field, typically 60,000 - 100,000 words (exc. refs and appendices)). The thesis must be defended during an oral examination (viva voce) to a panel of experts in the field (one internal to university, one or two external). The examining panel will not have been involved with your research in anyway. The thesis should provide evidence of novel research and show a contribution to knowledge in the field and it should be obvious from your performance at viva that you wrote the thesis! There is no requirement to publish work before a PhD is awarded but it's always good to publish ASAP.

http://www.findaphd.com/students/explain.asp
http://www.findaphd.com/students/funding.asp#3

Good luck

Your Prof must think you have a good chance, good luck, hope it works out for you!

It seems to me that everywhere I look, people consistently spell 'lose' (i.e. to misplace something) as 'loose' (i.e. not tight enough).

A PhD is essentially a period of research training. A person who has successfully completed a PhD should not need to do another one!

Congrats!

I'm a quantitative researcher, hence I'll keep this brief (cos have little experience!) but a year doesn't sound particularly excessive to me, it sounds realistic. By the time you research the literature, create a pilot and send it out, chase up the responses, chase up the responses again, get feedback and revise it (and perhaps repeat process), the weeks and months soon slip by. Good luck!

Search the archives, plenty of helpful info there. Good luck!

Steve, I am assuming your comment was deliberately provocative, in which case I really shouldn't be rising to the bait. However, I can't help but say that those students who can't get a degree without resorting to plagiarism shouldn't get a degree, period.

Interesting article here
http://www.kevinboone.com/university.html

Read the section entitled 'The Brain Drain', about a third of the way down the page. Very interesting discussion of rising student numbers and average IQ. Perhaps explains the requirement for essay mills.

Hmmm, I think I see where you are coming from...I undertook my PhD with my eyes wide open. I'd worked alongside 2 PhD students for 3 years prior to starting mine and witnessed all the stresses of PhD life first hand. I also knew that there was no guarantee of a job at the end of it i.e. I knew that there were way more PhD students than post-doc jobs and far more post-docs than lecturer vacancies etc. If you had been led to believe that post-doc jobs would be easy to come by then clearly it's going to be more of a shock to the system

No, maybe not However, I don't think your query is one that anybody other than the person directing your research can answer. Hope you get the info you need, one way or another. Best wishes.

I think your guide/supervisor is the best person with which to discuss the scope of your project. He/she won't expect you to have all the answers but if you can show that you have been thinking about the issues involved (which you obviously have) then that will be enough. Good luck for your meeting.

For those of you too young to remember (1991 I think) or who have successfully had therapy to rid themselves of the memory - fear not, here it is in all it's glorious tunelessness, hehehehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wvIa7Zppmc

Do you remember the Samantha Janus entry? Cringe-worthy!!!