I did my MA part-time at night school (Birkbeck) while holding on to a really full on job as an accountant in industry.  During the two yeast of the MA I planned our wedding and got married in November of my second year and then in the January we decided to try for a baby thinking it would take quite a long time (I had had a couple of miscarriages previously). Needless to say I got pregnant the first month of trying, sat my final exams 6 months pregnant and submitted my dissertation (17,000 words plus 8,000 of appendices) end September three weeks before my son was born.  I started my maternity leave early September having written about 1000 words and spent the rest of the month frantically writing - instead of resting and nesting I was doing long days into the early hours. I could have got an extension but figured it would be harder to do with a baby.

Good luck what ever you decide.

There do seem to be two types of phD - one where you are given the topic and more or less told what to do and the other where you conceive the topic, justify the relevance, design and justify the methodology and so on.  I am doing the latter (self funded social science) and although at times I wish someone had given me the topic, in preparing my research proposal I started to get to grips with the aims of my research and methodologies that may (or may not) be appropriate. I already have and MA and an MSc but I feel as though I haven't done enough research methods training.  I know at times it can be tedious reading research philosophies, methodologies and so on but it is essential. How much research have you done before, what research training have you had, are you / have you been reading research methods texts.  If you have only done a first degree and have not been engaging with research methodology texts you will find it even harder. But it seems to be not entirely your fault - you need to speak to your supervisor.  Are there any other phD students in your department you can talk to?
Good luck

Lots of unis are bringing in maximum timescales to prevent the 9 or 10 year an still not finishes PhDs.  My uni has removed the writing up period and now has a 3 year (5 year part-time) submission timetable with a further 12 month until conferment.  In exceptional circumstances relating to the nature of the research then they may consider an extension (but it is pretty rare and you have to submit chapters to prove you have been working at the appropriate pace) and you can suspend for a year due to ill health or other mitigating circumstances. I think they get penalised now if they people don't complete.

I would have thought that over the life of a PhD more than one notebook woudl be needed - I only registered (P-t) in December and have filled on book and am well into another - I decided that thematic note books are what is needed. I pity anyone who woudl have to look through them though as they use a fairly random (but to me totally sensible) system of layout...:-)

I'm just in Kuala Lumpur on my way home from my first conference as a PhD student (although I have presented at a couple of conferences previously). 

I would take every opportunity to network with people and discuss your research - for me that has been the best thing to come out of the conference. Very eminent academics in my (very niche) field were willing to spend quite a lot of time discussing my research (which has hardly started) and made some great suggestions.  Make sure you have a business card to hand out (make them yourself if your uni don't provide them) so people know how to get in touch with you and maybe a copy of your paper (if already written) or a summary of your research to hand out. Also network on the social side as well - I find it quite difficult to start up conversations with people but managed it this time and (after a karaoke session late one night) made some more good contacts.

I recorded my presentation - not so I could listen to it but so I could get all the comments and suggestions.  Practice how you are going to deal with the comments which criticise your research (as I had) - I thanked them for their ideas and said I would think about how they could be included or the research could be adapted - if it's a valid comment then it may benefit you , if not then ignore it when you get home.

I have come away buzzing with ideas and changes to improve my proposal.

Follow up with people you particularly want to keep in touch with when you get back. I've sent brief e-mails saying how good it was to meet them, and suggested ways to stay in touch.

I must have done something right as the conference advisor has already said he hopes I will be in Oman at the next conference end 2011/early 2012.

Thought I would share with everyone what I have been upto over the past week. I had a paper to present at a conference in Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo for those who don't know) and was travelling out (24hr+ journey with 5 flights) on Thursday morning. Got a text at 5am from BA saying my flight (Man-LHR) was cancelled - no details so i decided to get my mum to take me straight to the airport to see if there was an earlier flight (at that point I didn't know everything was cancelled). Chaos and no info at Manchester airport but as she was driving I was looking up train times on the internet (hurrah for smart phones) - there was a train at 6.11 which got into Euston at 8.15 - no other options so I reckoned it was worth a try. Arrived Euston, jumped a cab to Paddington then the Heathrow Express. Arrived at Heathrow at 9.15 for a noon departure to Kuala Lumpur. At check in I was told to be at the gate early as the airport was closing so we might need to leave early. Arrived in KL (to be greeted by texts from head of Dept saying too bad I got caught up in the disruption and could they get me on a flight tomorrow!) on time made my three domestic connections and arrived at the conference venue very tired, very jet lagged, very bedraggled after a 28 hour journey but I MADE IT.

Needless to say most of the Europeans (not very many - mainly Aussies) were addicted to CNN (since net access was £8 per hour or part of an hour and was soooooooooo slow we didn't bother) and phoning home for updates. Had a great conference - loads of ideas to develop, some great contacts who are potential interviewees and an amazing location (a World Heritage Site in the rainforest only accessible by river (6 days) or 30 minute flight (which restricts the number of visitors).

Left the conference venue this morning for the start of the journey home - because connections were not great I decided to break journey in KL for 2 nights so am due to leave on Friday night. Looks like I will be one of the lucky ones as I have a reservation for then and flights have now resumed. Fingers crossed.

My heart does go out to everyone who is stranded though.

If it is in the right area then it won't be too soon - I registered for my PhD in December and submitted an abstract at the end of December and got it accepted - off to Malaysia on Thursday.

Good luck

Congratulatiosn - I hope you will still continue to inspire and guide us with your postings now you have passed

The uni I worked at (to where I am doing my PhD) will pay for a proof reader for staff prior to submission (but as I have only just had my proposal accepted I am no where near to even finding out the process or cost)

Can't really comment on what you should do other than to say you are 25 and think time is running out oh dear - I've just started my (part-time) PhD and I graduated form my first degree probably around the time you were born.  It's never too late (and there is a lot of sense in having some experience of the world outside academia (esp if that is where your career aspirations lie) before you do your PhD)

I have just had my PhD Proposal accepted by the research committee - I had to go through a lot or writing and rewriting over the last five months (part time to get to this stage).  I submitted a rough outline which was circulated throughout the uni I applied to (I already had my MSc from them so they knew my academic abilities although it was 5 years ago so many of the staff had changed) and was picked up by my supervisors as an area they would be interested in supervising but it was not academic enough (too much like a consultancy project). I then had to write a formal proposal which was originally ripped to pieces by my supervisors (words like "Yuk" "get rid of this" "don't like this" are still imprinted on my mind).  I then submitted it to the research committee where it was rejected for i) aims being too MPhil and not PHD enough and ii) not enough detail on methodology.  I then met with the independent scrutiniser to get guidance on what he wanted (not that it was much help - he just wanted it improving!). I then redrafted and redrafted (I think there were 26 versions) and it got accepted.  When I had doubts about whether I could do a PhD if I couldn't do a research proposal, I remembered that my MSc research proposal got me my worst mark but the actual research helped get me the distinction.

My point is that you need to seek guidance and you need to read and when you think you have read, enough read some more (my original submission was a rough idea based on a book and a couple of articles, my final submission was 1200 word and two and a half pages of references) and yes by the end it was academic enough. I had help form a couple of people (other than my supervisors) who read through things and made suggestions but at the end of the day YOU have to write it.

Keep reading and writing and ask for guidance from the universities

Very quick reply as I am just back from holiday and am trying to catch up (yes I know I should be catching up with uni e-mails but they can wait until tomorrow)

Many years ago someone told me that men glance at a job spec and see one or two things on it they can do and immediately apply (even though they don't have the rest of the essentials) whereas women look though and see one minor desirable that they don't have and decide that there is no way they can apply.

Go for it.

Lecturer salaries are fairly standard - most unis have lecturers on Grade 7 or 8 and then you go up a grade for senior lecturer, principle lecturer / assoc prof /reader, full prof and so on.  The UCU website probably has the grades and salaries on but there is quite a wide band.

(Oh and if you still don't think with all your qualifications you are worth it - look at what Aldi offer graduate trainee store managers - to save you all looking it up its c £40k plus a car rising to £60k plus an audi after 3 years)
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/graduate_management/article5512243.ece

I think it depends what the issue is - bereavement, illness (yours or close family member (if serious)) etc I think fine but squabbles with boyfriends or problems with landlords not so sure. I always ask my undergrad students who come with requests for extensions due to "personal problmes" to think about whether they are serious enough that your employer would give you time off to work them through (unpaid if necessary) or make allowances for them - if so then fine, if not then they are not really relevant. I will give guidance where they ask for it but there is no room in my workload to listen to them moaning about breaking up with their boyfriend for the nth time this term.

But I do find that the students with the most serious problems often just keep going and sometimes I wish I knew what they were going through so I coudl help (even if it is only tea and biscuits or the occassionally soft extension)

(Does this make me sound like a total Bitch? If so it is probably a product of working in industry for 16 years where personal problmes were just not relevant (to the point that when I was in hospital having surgery following a miscarriage other staff were told I had a virus and when I came back they were telling me that they had had it too but were off for less time))

So I started my part-time PhD in December and it is now Easter vacation - how should I spend the time?

Is this for a PhD or a Master's Dissertation?

At the moment it is far to broad (even for a dissertation) - you need to decide what aspect you are going to focus on and the only way you can do that is by reading more about your topic (and there is plenty of material on cultural and heritage tourism). You also need to keep in mind that cultural tourism is a well researched area and so you need to make sure that you are producing somethign original. If it is for PhD applying existing work to a new location is probbaly not goign to give you enough scope to advance scholoarship (as required to be demonstrated by the Dublin Descriptors / FHEQ).  

What do you mean by cultural tourism? Are you thinking of the traditional (ie high culture) perspective or are you interested in a broader perspective (popular culture)?  Mike Robinson has written some interesting stuff on cultural tourism (he made a comment after I presented at a conference in this area along the lines of "since all travel involves interaction between different people from different places it is by definition 'cultural tourism' ") so you could take a look at his work. What / where is Sangaai?  What type of tourism exists - are you looking at existing provision or touristic potential? You might look at this form a supply side perspective (what exists) or for a demand side perspective (what do people want - does / can Sangaai provide what they want)?  Who are the tourists - actual and potential?

Since tourism is a multi disciplinary subject and can be addressed from many perspectives, you also need to think about where you are grounding your work - is this a social science / geography study, is it management based, and so on. What theoretical perspectives are you going to consider?  Your question as it stands at the moment seems more like a consultancy report than an academic research project.

It seems to me you need to do a lot more reading. At the end of the day (an I write as someone who is just finalising her PhD aims after six months reading) only you can come up with the aims of your research (and four months ago I was told by my supervisors that my proposal was more like a consultancy report than a PhD).