I have a different take on this. My research is niche too, but my thesis is particularly rich in examples. And my external examiner, at my viva, advised me strongly to restrict access to it for the short term. This isn't a permanent thing, but only a short-term thing (for a year or so) to give me a chance to publish first. She has seen other theses like mine be "mined" by other researchers, who publish first. She didn't want this to happen to me.

So my thesis is currently not available to view at my uni. But I will lift the restriction as soon as journal papers in progress get out the other side.

I would tell him. If it has been affecting your work he needs to know. And then you need to work out a way forward.

A temporary leave of absence would be one option, to give you time to get some treatment (either counselling or medication, or both - what treatment are you getting?) and for it to take effect. For that, depending on your funding source, you may need medical evidence - like your letter.

And if your supervisor knows about it he can discuss with you what you think would help take your PhD forward, given the medical diagnosis.

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Oh and this applies to part-time PhDs (mine was part-time too). They tend to take over your life, and good breaks - even for part-timers - can be very hard to fit in. If you're part-time you could be overwhelmed by a PhD for up to about 6/7 years. All the more reason for enjoying your break now.

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I agree with HazyJane. You will have very little chance for a break once you start the PhD. Make the most of the break you have now.

Glad you've got some good news. That's also plenty of time for you to prepare (or re-prepare!) for the viva. Sending positive thoughts your way.

Things I'd put in a PhD proposal (and did for mine, when applied to AHRC, and won funding) are:

previous research / context - including citing specific researchers / writings of relevance
a brief summary of what you want to do
your research questions
methodology to be used
any provisional thesis you might have now
how your prior study/background prepares you for this
and why you want to get a PhD (i.e. if you want to go into academia)

If he's asking for superficial changes would they really be that hard to do? Sorry if this seems harsh, but it sounds like the sort of thing you could easily do in the time available. The supervisory panel feedback is irrelevant because they hadn't seen your written thesis, only a plan for it.

Do you want the MPhil? If you do, go for it.

Good luck.

I was a part-time humanities PhD student (history), and had quite a lot of expenses in terms of arranging for copies from archives, travelling to distant archives etc. I was funded by AHRC but only received a maintenance grant at the very end of my PhD (when rules for part-timers changed). I received no support for out-of-pocket research costs, nor could my department help.

For an art history PhD the costs are probably less, but will still be there. For example what artworks is she planning to study? Are they local to her or will she have to travel to them? And for her thesis she is likely to have to negotiate photographing/reprographics costs (at high quality) of the art works, and possibly pay a permissions fee for that too.

There are plenty of older students out there. My former OU tutor did his PhD in his 60s, and was still tutoring us all in his 80s.

Many don't give up work though. Many study part-time, alongside full-time (or nearly full-time) jobs. I was an older PhD student the second time around, ok much younger than you, but still much older than the norm. I was a part-time student, managing on just a handful of hours a week by the end (no more than 5 a week by the end, in 1 hour chunks spread throughout the week). But I got through.

Good luck! 8-)

If you walk away from the MPhil you aren't letting your supervisor down, in fact you're probably doing them a favour. They're not going to have to read drafts, give feedback. Leaving the PhD is the big thing that can cause problems for supervisors. Walking away from the MPhil is nothing.

Given this, I'd recommend emailing, unless you are more comfortable phoning. I left a full-time funded PhD in 1996, after falling seriously ill, with what would turn out to be a progressive neurological illness. I had a difficult chat with my supervisor, as we tried to bash out a solution. But in the end the only real option was for me to leave, and not even with an MPhil. I left by email. I regret that. I wish I'd said goodbye face to face. But it was easier for me. I couldn't bear to set foot inside the building again. I never have.

But in your case email would be fine I think. Honestly, you're over the worst bit already, having walked away from the PhD.

I didn't have a quote at the start. I was a humanities student. Neither did my husband in his PhD thesis (computer science). I think they're superflous and daft :p

I think a month total for both chapters if you're full-time is reasonable. You might be quicker, but budgeting a month allows for hiccups.

My 3 months (part-time) for my intro/lit review included the reading as well as the writing. If you're just writing a separate intro then, not the lit review and doing reading for it, it's quicker.

I personally found it helpful to write the intro at the start, not least because it set down for me what my approach was, and I could then go forward confident in that knowledge.

The hardest bit I found about writing the final chapter was figuring out my big "so what" and what the big conclusions were. Each chapter had its own mini conclusions, but I really needed to pull them together into an over-arching conclusion/finding. And that wasn't quite what I'd anticipated figuring out at the start, although with hindsight it was rather obvious.

I wrote my intro chapter in about 3 months of starting my part-time PhD. It was a mix of literature survey and methods and outline for the rest of the PhD. I changed it very little later.

My final conclusions chapter took about a month to write, again part-time. It was quite hard to get the structure right, and figure out what to put in there. But once I had it clear in my mind it was ok.

My thesis structure was

intro/lit-review
5 chapters of thematic topics (each with their own little lit-review + conclusions)
final conclusions chapter

My PhD was humanities, a mix of qualitative and quantitative, but definitely leaning more towards the former.