======= Date Modified 19 Apr 2011 19:36:26 =======
Many humanities students self-fund themselves, typically part-time. I did this for the first year of my PhD, but won funding from AHRC to pay my fees for the rest, though I didn't get a maintenance grant until the very end of my PhD, when the rules changed to support part-timers that way.

I wasn't working during my part-time PhD (long-term seriously ill) but hubby was, so he supported me. But typically part-time PhD students are working full-time and support themselves that way.

One drawback of studying part-time is that, in my experience, institutions can favour full-time students who are more visible on campus, get teaching opportunities etc. As a part-timer at a distance off-campus I felt very cut-off, and had much fewer support mechanisms. Hence this forum being particularly important.

Be careful though, if making voluntary contributions they don't always make you eligible for benefits. This includes the contribution element of JSA, and Incapacity Benefit which was the hole I fell through.

See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/intro/benefits.htm

For some benefits - like JSA contributions element - only NI credits from employment count.

For questions about NI contributions and pension eligibility etc. have a look at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/index.htm

I think going from science to arts is a big step, and full credit to you for managing as well as you did.

My first degree was a science one, and I started a full-time science PhD before falling seriously ill.

Arts (humanities specifically) was quite a challenge to me, but I worked up from a new BA(Hons), then a Masters, then the PhD. And even then I was struggling with the non-scientific approach to writing.

The best book that I found when working on my part-time humanities PhD (my second go at a PhD, having had to leave the full-time science one many years earlier) was Dunleavy's "Authoring a PhD". It's useful for all disciplines, but I found it particularly good for explaining the approach taken in more humanities subjects. I'd recommend you look at it if you get a chance.

I think you can successfully complete with the help of your new supervisors, and I'm not convinced that looking for other supervisors would be a sensible use of your time. What you need to do is start going through your thesis, line by line, and identifying the areas where you can improve the critical analysis. You've been given some really good tips here on how to write like that. I think you can do this on your own, but with supervisors providing backup support.

Good luck!

Thanks Delta. I wrote to MPs and complained a lot at the time. Got some of the frustration out of my system! The rules have improved a bit since. I like to think it might have something to do with my campaigning. Now the benefits allow people to be full-time students for longer and still get such benefits. When I was first ill they only supported students under 21. Fat lot of use for someone who had gone on to study a PhD! There are still benefit traps. But not as bad.

It shouldn't be a problem to take a leave in the final year. But check that you are actually allowed. If you are funded by a funding council they may only permit breaks in very limited circumstances. I took a 5 month break, but it had to be on medical grounds. That was easy in my case. It sounds as though it would be easy for you too if so stressed and depressed. If I hadn't taken the leave of absence I would have quit :p

When I took my break my studies were put on hold, and when I returned the relevant deadlines were pushed back 5 months by Registry, to account for my time out.

Oh and you won't be entitled to any maintenance funding for the period of your break. So consider that. I was a part-time funded student and got no maintenance grant until near the end of my PhD when the rules for part-timers changed. So that wasn't a factor in my decision.

Oh and re benefits, I fell into a benefits trap because of being (originally, many years ago) a full-time PhD student who then fell seriously ill. I couldn't claim incapacity benefit (the obvious benefit) because I had no NI credits from my PhD years. Even voluntary contributions wouldn't have been enough. Only NI credits from employment counted. So I was benefit-less. And because my husband was still a PhD student we were ineligible for lots of other benefits. Mucho poverty ensued until hubby passed his PhD viva and started working.

You can get a state pension with NI credits for fewer years, but your pension will be reduced.

If you are in your early 20s I would not worry too much about missing some NI years. But if you are an older PhD student I would recommend considering paying voluntary contributions to make up the shortfall. You can pay these later when you are earning. You are allowed to pay voluntary contributions for so many years back in time.

I think you'd be best to contact universities where you are considering studying to ask them directly. Differences between international degrees are complex, and policies will vary by university.

It's not normal at either of my two local universities in Scotland. There are cafes in both libraries, but students are not to eat food or drink in other parts of the libraries.

Trying to hit a graduation deadline is daft. You may have corrections to make which can't be done in time for summer graduation. Does your university have winter graduations? Could you graduate then? Or would it be so awful to wait until the following year?

Once your degree has been confirmed by the senate or whoever writes to you it will be official. Graduation is just a formality after then.

As others have suggested ask your supervisor straight out what the rush is. Why does he want you to submit within the next month? Then make a decision based on that. But you need to ask your supervisor.

I know your supervisor is unpredictable, but in the current economic climate I would go with your head, not your heart, and apply for jobs.

Good luck.

I didn't hear anything from my uni post submission until 3 weeks before my viva. So that may happen to you.

My viva prep didn't involve a young family, but did involve having very few good hours at all in the week to study, so having to grab moments here and there. I don't think it is necessary to spend days and days viva prepping. You will be fine.

Here are my tips, in case you haven't seen them before:

My viva preparation involved reading a viva preparation book (Tinkler and Jackson) to demystify the process, rereading and summarising my thesis to familiarise myself with it and spot typos (I took a list into the viva on the day and handed it out - all examiners/convenor were very grateful), and thinking about and memorising my answers to 5 key questions: originality of my thesis, contribution to knowledge, methodology, weaknesses/gaps/mistakes, and what would I do differently if starting again.

- of those rereading and summarising the thesis was the most intensive and time-consuming, but still not that bad, since I had written it and did recognise some of it LOL!

======= Date Modified 09 Apr 2011 18:24:58 =======
But surely a funded PhD student isn't an employee, so doesn't have the same rights? Won't it depend what is in the relevant contract, if there even is one? Funding councils tend to specify what they will do for their students, but if a university funding directly hasn't done this before I can easily see how it would be a test case, however unhelpful that might seem.