Hi Happyclappy,

You do not have an obligation to disclose this information to anyone, including your supervisor, unless you choose. So you might want to think about why it is you want to tell your supervisor-is it because the depression and job have meant that your work has fallen behind? Or something similar?

If telling your supervisor would be helpful to you and would enable you to get back to doctoral work productively (or will enable you to enlist your sup's support in an extension or similar) then you might want to tell them. You also want to be fairly sure that you trust your supervisor and that disclosing this information would not have further implications or ramifications down the track.

So- in a nutshell- my opinion would be that if you believe that telling your supervisor this information will help you, and/or support you through this challenging period-and you trust your supervisor and believe that telling them will not affect any future prospects, then do so.

If you are unsure about these things, then I would merely say (if you had to say anything) that you have experienced a period of ill health recently (doctors will not disclose the type of illness you have on a medical certificate) and you need a bit of time to recover. I only say this, not because there is anything shameful around experiencing depression but because sometimes people have a poor understanding of what depression is. And, as mentioned earlier, you are not obliged to disclose or make public the nature of any illness you may have (whatever it is) unless you choose to do so.

I hope this is helpful and wish you the best in term's of recovery and with regard to your PhD and its completion. Take care HP :)

In terms of the qualification- a PhD is a PhD- and your degree certificate will not mention that it was part-time. It will simply state that on such and such a date, you were awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy-it may also specify the area but I am not sure if they all do. I think mine will say Doctor of Philosophy (Education) for example. (That is when i do actually get it!)

When it appears on your resume or CV you may include the dates, and this is where it would be apparent that you were a part-time candidate. However, you don't necessarily have to include the start and finish dates-it would depend on how you were organising your CV-or whether you wanted to highlight the years you spent on this course of study.

I've found a part-time PhD is a bit of 'different animal' to the full-time version. Not in term's of final knowledge or learning-just in the way you learn and the rate at which you learn it. The experience of the part-timer can be qualitatively different to that of a full-timer. An example being, I find it hard to really get in and contribute to the life of the faculty, as a part-timer. I know if I were a full time candidate, I would be much more involved in aspects of the faculty life and goings on.

However, I console myself with the fact that I do become very involved in my professional working life and I use the knowledge gained in my doctoral studies to extend my professional knowledge and expertise. At a recent seminar, when I was bemoaning the fact that my degree was only part-time, several of the academics present pointed out that in my faculty, the part-time PhD student was the norm-and this was often the case in faculties that prepared students for professional life (education, technology, nursing and medicine and similar).

Hi Aimcatcher,

I am going to paraphrase what I think you are asking. This might help clarify things so that others can respond to your post.

You are a qualified lawyer from Iran with a high GPA of 4 (Distinction+ average). You have received some awards when you were studying and have already published 2 papers in peer reviewed journals.

You applied to study a Masters in International Human Rights (and you are doing this in Finland). However, since beginning this Masters, you have discovered you really are not interested in Human Rights as a postgraduate field of interest and you are much more passionate about commercial, contract and E-commerce law. (I imagine the last is to do with law that governs business transactions on the internet or similar?)

What you are asking is:

1 Should you quit your current Masters and apply for a Masters in one of the areas you are interested in-I:e commercial law, contracts or Ecommerce law.

2 Should you quit your current Masters but rather than applying for another Masters level course-apply instead directly for a PhD?

(My personal response is-it might depend on how much you have completed of your current Masters, and whether your financial situation has any bearing on your decision making.)

If it were me-I would try to convert my Masters from the Human Rights specialty into a commerce or contracts specialty, and gain some academic credit, for what I could on the original Masters. I probably would not go straight into a PhD, in this situation but would try to complete a Masters-but one in an area that I valued and enjoyed.

I actually did do this with my own Masters-swapping from a Masters in Special Education into a Master of Education(Research). Once I had completed this second qualification, I then chose a topic that I knew would sustain me in my PhD.

Good luck-and I hope I have summarised your situation correctly.

You have to set boundaries, both in professional work and in the PhD. It is so easy to be swallowed up into a form of obsessiveness otherwise. Treeoflife is right in that many professional jobs are very time consuming and take a large chunk of your life as well. And with this form of work you have to ensure that your personal wellbeing, your relationships take priority at points. You have to allocate time to actually look after yourself, your home, your life. However, that being said, the very nature of theoretical study can be especially debillitating at times.

Today I tried to get to grips with the nuances between social constructionism and constructivism and then constructivism as educational theory and then how this impacts on phenomenological interpretation (while analysing transcripts). After a few hours of this I basically wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Honestly, understanding theory in a context, when it has a practical application and can basically do some good in the world-well there are no problems but once it is divorced from a human practical context-I HATE it with a passion.

So sorry to hear about your recent health scare Marasp and hope that things improve rapidly for you. Take care of yourself and your life-and remember to set those boundaries with your study (you will have to do it with your employment as well, whatever form of professional work and life you work within). You too Nick1-stay away from those theoretical black holes in Humanities and hang onto your original sense of purpose-it will be there somewhere buried within but still alive.

I am not in write up stage yet, but data collection, transcription, analysis stage with Phd. However, l had to do my major write up for 25000 word Masters while working in a new job when my study leave for Masters finished but my data collection for that thesis had not (due to ethics committee and supervisor delays).

I know what it is like to come home feeling 'shattered' from work and not wanting to do the PhD-or even worse-having to continue with work commitments and share home time between left over work from work (admin and marking from the day) and PhD work. I do a lot of PhD work on weekends and usually only a small amount on week nights.

But what I do find works for me on those nights, when I am really tired and don't want to do it-is to give myself a minimum amount-say 90-120 minutes. I set myself a time to just work for this long with a 5 minute tea-facebook-whatever-break in between and just force myself. I usually have a reward at the end, like a dvd or a book that I actually want to read. I also tend to give myself one or two nights off from any work at all during the week, if I am exceptionally tired. That being said- TreeofLife's comments about planning what work it is you will do beforehand is also really helpful and when I do that I find I actually achieve what I plan-often to my own surprise.

You can do it and remember Jan 2014 is really only 4 months away-not said to frighten you-but to remind you that this period of intense working will not last for ever. Good luck-you are so close to the finish, and deserve to complete your dissertation.

That sounds like a really good idea. But I hope the message I conveyed was not 'don't do a PhD'. They are a worthy challenge and achievement to aspire to-but more just to be really clear sighted about how tough getting academic work from them might be, and to think laterally when it comes to gaining employment from them.

If you performed a search on this site of post phd prospects or check out Satchi's long thread on employment prospects (using a search on her name), you will get a good understanding of what the employment market holds for new 'Dr's" looking for academic or research work. It might be that if this PhD is a long-held personal dream of yours, that you do it anyway, not worrying too much about gaining academic work at the end OR that you continue with it part-time, while hanging onto a job that pays you a living of some sorts. Best of luck with the Masters. :)

I don't think that age is the issue here, so much as lack of employment opportunities for academics who are entering the research workplace. But getting postdoctoral fellowships may be easier than getting the academic job.

The trend within Australia, for example, is starting to look a little like the trends people reported on in the UK and US in the last few years. Job redundancies, fewer openings, cuts in most faculties-especially the humanities, and university faculties filled with brilliant postdocs and part-timers on contracts, working like mad, publishing like mad and waiting for the rare tenured (or even limited tenure or contract post) to open up. And many, many applicants for each position, when such a position does arise. Applicants from the dried up overseas market applying for local positions and adding even more competition to what was always a pretty competitive market.

Doing a PhD can be a really rewarding experience-and can and should be done at any age- but there seem to be far fewer opportunities for academic work than there are PhD students and candidates. So if you do one, keep an open mind about the sort of work you are hoping to obtain at the end of the PhD. For example, when I complete mine in around 3 years, (doing it part time), I will be in my early fifties, but I will remain in professional work and will use the PhD to enhance my current career and open up further opportunities within it. Good luck-I hope this didn't seem too grim a post. :)

Hi Peppa, I agree with TreeofLife, you have 6 months to go before submission and even if your funding has finished, you still have five chapters in draft form. However, if you submitted now without a bibliography, even if you have 60k words, I don't believe your work would be considered as a pass-no matter what the writing is like. The bibliography and citation system is so important to your thesis.

Perhaps you could sit down with your supervisor and make a detailed plan about what you need to do to finish and submit (make it realistic) and then follow the process step by step until it is done. Don't think about the 6 months or everything that you have to do, just think about the 'next step' and reward yourself in between for completing each step, with something nice-it doesn't have to be an expensive or time consuming reward.

Perhaps you have to get a job as well for financial reasons, but finishing off your thesis while working is not impossible-it is a challenge certainly, but many people do this. Sorry to hear about the personal crisis-and hope matters here resolve themselves.

Hi , the title 'doctor' is used both in and outside of industry and academia within Australia-and is a commonplace in Education, especially for those of us who seek or have obtained senior positions within schools, systems & sectors, government agencies and other related fields.

Within Australia the title 'Dr' for an MD or medical doctor is also used for general practitioners and 'Mr' or 'Mrs' for surgeons and other specialists. Most people seem to understand this.

Within my own university, academics who do not have an Associate Professorship or 'Professor' title are listed as Dr Jane Books-with all relevant qualifications listed in a separate line underneath the title. However, if they were to be published in a journal, they would simply be 'Jane Books' in their bio (with qualifications mentioned in their bio later). When anyone contacts them by email, the ettiquette for first time email (from student to academic) would be to use their title. In sending emails and making phone calls thereafter, one would use their first name.

In schools and colleges, certainly in my own college-which is a private school- qualifications of all educational staff are published annually in a Magazine or similar and all of your qualifications (and any associated titles) are expected to be listed. I would imagiine that other industries and sectors would have similar practices. We do not study the PhD or a professional doctorate for the title, certainly, but the title does confer that a certain level of expertise and study has been undertaken and, in my experience, most people don't find this too difficult to understand.

In private life, people may make different choices depending on their own personal preferences (which are theirs to make). Personally speaking, I will use my qualifications and title professionally (once I have them), as my employer will wish me to do this, and I will have spent much time and hard work in earning that qualification and professional status, but in personal life and when flying-probably not. But that's my choice.

Hi Griffith,

Your supervisor is more or less correct from my understanding. You will probably publish an article (or more) from your PhD but the PhD is the first step really for younger researchers-and to some extent perhaps even the older ones, or mid career professional Phder's as well. The thing is your topic becomes so narrow by the time you finish, that you have to broaden out from it again.

I am currently in the the middle years of the PhD- probably equivalent to just coming up to the 3rd year of a 4 year degree (3+1 type PhD). I'm doing one in an area I chose 2 years ago that suited my current job, after finishing a Master's thesis in a topic area that suited the job I held previously. I now have 2 years worth of work left to go (or the part-time equivalent for me would be 3 years or so to go), in this 2nd area that has some links with the first areas of study but not that many.

And in a month's time, I start a new role in an area that has some connections with this current topic but is different yet again. My current topic is useful and connected (to some extent) to the new job I will be starting but but the time I have finished the study, I know that my area of professional interest will have expanded, changed and shifted yet again to adapt to the area of my field I will soon be working in.

Once I wanted to do the PhD as part of a long held dream that had been interrupted in earlier years. Now I want to finish it as a process, so that i can use the knowledge, skills and improved critical thinking in my career, especially to help me with publishing and presenting as an accomplished professional in the education/social sciences fields.

Finally you have to do what is right and works for you, but don't discount what your supervisor says either. If you can manage to finish roughly on time, you will then have the freedom to move on and explore a range of areas in your field-and you can still conduct studies and projects in your area of original passion if you wish. Hope this makes sense and best of luck.

"Also I dont think I am very good at selling myself, for example I dont know how to answer a question why do you want to do this PhD. I always wanted to work for cancer research since I was about 20 and it is the most interesting thing in the world but I cant say that, can I? Also my mum and son battled cancer but dont know if to mention this as a reason for my interest. I dont want anybody to feel sorry for me and also this could be taken the wrong way as like I am living in the past."

HI Loki,

you have just stated that you have long held a strong passion and interest in cancer research and that you also have a deep personal and emotional investment (Mother and son) in your topic. This isn't living in the past or acting like a victim. It is the truth and it will help carry you through the boring middle years and the tedious finishing months of the PhD. You should certainly mention these things but you can do so in a way that demonstrates that you can turn your passion into a professional concern and also in a way that respects your own personal journey with your loved ones' illnesses.

Best of luck-certainly arm yourself with lots of research for the interviews and applications but you also need to be yourself.

Another alternative to joining a drama group or similar is to look for a specific public speaking amateur group or debating society. These often only meet monthly for a couple of hours and provide you with an opportunity to practice public speaking-giving very specific tips and coaching.

As a teacher, I often coach very young teenagers with public speaking and find that even the shyest will improve both in confidence and ability with some specific coaching and practice in front of friendly and encouraging peers. Good luck with this and don't let this anxious moment prevent you from future presentations-public speaking is a skill and can be learned and improved on by all. When you don't feel as pressured by the combination of public speaking, getting your paper sorted and the worry of watching academics, it will all come right :)

A huge congratulations Dr Buttons! Well done-that's fabulous news :)

This is a sort of 'how long is a piece of string?' question in that really you can't assume either option is more likely at this point in time.

They may need to discuss it, they may need more time, they may not have even had the chance to really discuss or formalise it because they are busy and are meeting later...this would be one thing in a long line of things that they have to do and there is not enough evidence to assume that the reason they haven't got back to you a day later is due to a particular reason.

Good luck and hold tight...:)

Hi Steph,
I agree with your supervisor-it is hard. And you have to have the sort of determination and quiet persistence of an amateur marathoner, someone who knows that they are only going for a personal best-they are not necessarily going to be a top place-holder in the main event.

However, it does carry career benefits as well. I recently applied for and gained a job starting next year, which is a real promotion in terms of responsibility, a pay increase and other things such as autonomy and leadership, and doing and making progress with this doctorate really gave me the edge with regard to my competitors. It certainly wasn't the only criteria they were looking for but it really helped.

It helped extrinsically (I was better qualified than all other applicants-in term's of actual qualifications (including units that I had completed as part of my 3+1 Phd-which is part-time so double those figures!) but it helped intrinsically as well-in term's of persistence, understanding about data, evidence, thinking logically and with regard to managing knowledge. Don't give up...it can be done/