It honestly varies. You need to ask him. Sometimes there is some support as part of a research council funding, but often that will only cover a limited number of conferences, or put a limit on the costs it will cover. Otherwise you will have to find other funding sources, or yourself. Sometimes conferences will give bursaries to help graduate students attend, sometimes departments can help a bit, but usually only a modest amount. It's not unusual to have to pay for at least some of it yourself.

Who is funding you? I went to an international conference early in my part-time PhD. My AHRC award didn't provide any support to cover it, but I applied for and won a student bursary from the conference organisers ($US 500) which paid for some of my expenses. And my department gave me a small amount (£100) as well.

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Why didn't you ask your supervisor? Funding support for this depends on individual situations, individual funding arrangements. There are no standard rules that apply generally.

You should ask your supervisor directly next time they mention it. Or take the initiative and bring up the subject.

Personally I don't think conferences are that important. I rate publications more highly. And as a partly self-funding student (for most of my PhD my AHRC award - full award, but part-time - only covered fees) I was paying for extras like conferences. So I had to spend my money wisely.

Oh and can't you consider an academic career in another institution? It's not normal for people to be tied to just one institution. Even if you are restricted by family/personal circumstances and can't move ther would normally be other institutions within reach that you could target.

Most of the PhD-ers from my department who have gone on to academic careers have moved onto other institutions, taking up lectureships elsewhere.

The trouble is if you really wanted to do publications you could have done so before. You didn't need your supervisor to encourage you or authorise it. I produced 2 journal publications during my part-time history PhD, both off my own back, single authored, and just written because I wanted to. I told my supervisor I was doing it, and that was that. End of story.

Also I'm not sure supervisors are the best people to give careers advice. I think other academics might be better at that. And there will be a careers service at your university. I think supervisors' focus should be on getting you through the PhD, and I've no reason to doubt your supervisor has done that.

But since you don't want to work in academia this is more of a moot point. Though I hope you will produce journal articles on topics of more interest to you, as I'm doing. It takes relatively little time once you've finished the PhD to produce journal papers - I'm managing on just odd hours here and there in the evenings - and can be very satisfying.

Good luck!

The trouble with publications during the PhD is that they take quite a lot of time, and that's time away from your research/thesis. If you had done publications it's likely your PhD would have taken longer, possibly running out of time. Some PhD programmes expect them more than others. In my own field though it's very rare for students to produce any publications during the PhD. We are told, instead, to concentrate on finishing our thesis in a timely manner.

I'm not a fan of conference attending. I don't think it's essential at all. It's nice, networking is nice, but it doesn't count for me in the same way as publications do. Now you're at the end of your PhD you could focus on publications. I'm publishing and I'm not even employed by a university! But it depends on whether you want to pursue an academic career. If you do, publications are important and you should focus on them now. If not, why bother at all?

I started my first go at a PhD (full-time, science) because I wanted to become a university lecturer. I had to leave that one after progressive neurological disease struck.

Nearly a decade later I started my second go at a PhD (part-time, humanities) because I loved my subject, and wanted to research it. I was very scared to try another PhD though. I'd grieved very painfully for my lost one and was scared of failing to succeed again. But I got through.

I can't work due to the illness, but am doing independent research as I can, and enjoying turning my research into more journal papers and outputs. Having a completed PhD gives me confidence to carry on as an independent academic research, albeit a bit free-wheeling from institutions.

Ok I'll chime in. I'm spending 12 months while I have an honorary research fellowship converting my PhD thesis into more journal papers (I had 2 published during my PhD). Recently 2 papers were accepted by journal editors, including the most eminent journal in my field, 2 more papers are currently with editors/reviewers, and 2 more (including 1 based on my Masters dissertation) are in preparation. So things are going very well. And all are single authored papers, so just me.

Ok first question are you full-time or part-time? That dictates how much time you should be spending on it.

Then how much time a week are you spending on it? And how much do your supervisors expect you to? (they should have quantified this)

Progress is a harder one. People can drift for a year in a full-time PhD doing a literature review. Personally I think this is a waste of time and I hit the ground running in my part-time PhD, completed the literature review inside 3 months, and started researching properly afterwards. But I was a bit unusual! What progress have you made, and what progress do your supervisors want?

I can't comment personally on the practitioner/observer issue. I don't really understand what you're referring to apart from anything else.

I took a 5 month break during my part-time PhD. That was only possible because I needed to take a break for medical reasons. My funding council would only allow breaks for either maternity break or medical reasons. I was reaching breaking point, battling with the progressive neurological illness and the PhD, and would have quit if I hadn't taken the break. The break allowed me to recharge my batteries, and come back afresh.

I hope your break helps you sort things out. Sounds a bit strange though, so early on. I would have thought you could jointly decide the way ahead without such an extended break.

Good luck!

Health. I was fighting a progressive neurological disease during both my full-time science PhD (which I had to leave cos of the illness developing) and my part-time history PhD (which I completed). People often take their health for granted, but if you lose it like I did things are far more of a struggle than they should be.

Would you be taking your laptop to uni on the bike? If so a large laptop is a definite no-no. A 13" MacBook Pro (or similar size) would be fine, but a MacBook Air might be better, if you want to go with the Mac.

On the downside the Mac won't run some software that you can run on your Windows machine. What software do you need for your PhD? That should be a factor. Word processing is easy on the Macs, either with Microsoft Word, or things like Apple's own software Pages. Ditto for spreadsheets. But if you are using for example statistics software that wouldn't run on the Mac, except under Windows emulation. Oh and you can get EndNote for the Mac.

I used a Mac throughout my part-time PhD. Near the end I got a 15" MacBook Pro which I wrote all my thesis on, very happily. I now have a 13" MacBook Pro which I'm very very happy with.

I spent the evening quietly with my husband. I'm not generally supposed to drink alcohol because of the many chemo drugs I take daily. But I had a small bottle of champagne, and treated myself. Well if I hadn't earned the right then I didn't know when I would.

And I totally failed to sleep the night after my viva, just as I'd failed to sleep the night before my viva. My mind was still racing far too much. I spent most of the next day asleep though.

I also spent quite a lot of time emailing people to let them know the result, such as supervisors (old and current), friends, and my former colleagues/supervisors for my previous go at a PhD which I had to leave after the neurological disease struck.

Oh and I passed mine, with just ridiculously minor typo corrections. So I had very big cause to celebrate.

After my corrections were approved hubby and I went for a meal out to my favourite restaurant. That's probably as close as we came to any conventional sort of celebration :p

Well to be fair I did have some healing involved with the first PhD I had to leave due to falling ill with a progressive neurological disease. I grieved for my lost full-time PhD. It took me years to recover - not fully - from that.

But the second successful PhD was fine. I was part-time, battling increasing disability and brain damage. But the PhD side of things - even at just 5 good hours total a week for my part-time PhD - was fine.

Hope you come out ok the other side. Sorry you've had such a bad time.

Heal?! That sounds very dramatic. I didn't heal in an injuries/illness sense. I was the same person during the PhD and afterwards. Well maybe a bit more confident in academic terms. Passing the PhD viva gave me quite a boost of confidence when it came to going for my own post-doc papers. But I wouldn't use the word "heal". That makes the PhD process sound truly dreadful :p

Wooh hoo! Congratulations Dr Dunni 8-)