Hi IMe, I can't offer advice about where to do a cross disciplinary PhD in Europe and who offers them.

However, I can speak a little about how it seems that PhD's work, based on my own understanding from working on one (I'm a year into mine by full time standards and work output-although I am doing it part-time).

No matter what topic you do and how interdisciplinary its beginnings were-you will find in the PhD that you will still need to go very in depth in this one topic, question, area or hypothesis.

The PhD is like pouring a mixture of liquids down a funnel and distilling them into a very distinct and refined essence. So even if you began from a topic that stemmed across three or four disciplines, you would have to finally end up with the one thing that you are going deeper and deeper into. It may start off being very broad but the depth of knowledge about this one issue or question is what ultimately results from your PhD.

So saying...it is also true that even if you begin your PhD from a distinct discipline and body of knowledge, you will also find when really beginning your research and trawling through stuff for the literature review and when refining your topic, question, plan and approach, you need to read broadly and be open to many possiblities. And you can find yourself reading literature from a variety of disciplines and areas, even if your topic sits very firmly in one discipline only. So for example, my topic is in education and a very specific form of education but I am still reading psychology, sociology, policy documents as well as educational research and I'm reading more sociology and philosophy when it comes to methodologies.

Knowing that, rather than thinking about a cross disciplinary PhD-perhaps start thinking about some topics of interest or questions-analyse where these might fit -in term's of a major discipline focus, and start from there? Disregard advice if it doesn't seem to help though-it's just a thought.

kgail, I support Hazy Jane's advice. Not all Master's thesis are 50,000 words so you need to check with your faculty and read the fine print regarding what they specify exactly for their Masters degrees (the type of Masters you are doing specifically) It will be written down and documented and should be accessible online, so you can down load it and go through it really carefully.

You also are a month away from completion AND (have not mentioned requesting any extensions yet) can probably put in for a small extension without too much of an issue.

Even without an extension as Hazy Jane mentions, you have not finished your time allocation yet and still may complete to deadline.

Your supervisor's actions are really unfortunate and sound quite unprofessional. Once you have had a few hours to get over the shock, put your mental armour on and go into bat for yourself. Your supervisor needs to outline clearly what your alternatives are at present and she needs to outline what provisions she has made to help you complete. If she really can't help you (for whatever reasons), then someone else may be able to.

The only thing I can think of that might contradict this is, for example, if you had 30 000 words of a lit review and had not yet collected any data and your thesis was one that relied on data rather than being a critical exegesis or something similar. In this case one month to collect and interpret data might be unrealistic.

However, even in this case and when funding has run out, people have been known to self-fund, get work, take an extension and submit at a later date. They have still been awarded their degrees. Once the horrible emotions have died down-look at it coolly and rationally and brainstorm your best options- support through the uni counselling services, family and/or friends might also assist with this.

Good luck Ginga, hope you do pass your PhD. Just as a side note-noting how much you would love to continue to research even though you are also working as a professional in the system- today I observed the following:

The theory (from the doctoral study) really gallops past the practice doesn't it? With respect to knowledge and the application of theoretical knowledge. It is a bit frustrating because as a professional, you follow all these protocols based on current best practice yet you might know (really know) that these protocols are ineffective and there is only so much you can do from within the system. You can do some things-but it isn't a lot and you can't just spend your time arguing with people and being antagonistic (sort of like a 'House' or someone).

The knowledge often impacts on your individual practice but it is a lot harder for systemic change...requires a bit of patience. Sometimes, at least with research, you feel like you are being honest and seeking something that goes beyond this...

Hi Ginga, sorry about the slight change of topic but I was just wondering if Tehepikduc did his/her second PhD full-time as well as first and were these separate degrees fairly shortly after each other or was there a bit of a gap between finishing one and starting the other.

I know, first hand of one person who was on their third when they interviewed me for some case data in my day job, a semi retired history lecturer who embarked on a second, after retiring from her faculty and another teacher who completed one full-time on a scholarship, went back to teaching for a few years and then retired to complete another in another area.

They were all successful people who were basically using the PhD to follow a dream or support a later life project of interest. I think they applied for scholarships on merit and because the university wanted to fund their projects, they received some funding (wouldn't know how much though). Might have been just for the actual research and not a living stipend as I believe all would have had a separate retirement income.

There are also other people on this forum with a PhD, who are now applying for professional doctorates, which are quite similar in many cases (even though the universities say they are a different beast). So I think you need to think of all of the different aspects before making a decision Ginga.

But it could be that in doing the second one, you are missing out on some vital work related experiences. If you want professional work, not necessarily in academia, a second PhD is not necessarily going to be seen in a positive light-unless it is a psych professional doctorate or something.

Thanks Psychresearcher-I'm going to aim for 12 and then keep refining it and adapting while I do the data collection, etc. Cheers, P.

Thanks Charliebrown, that's really helpful. Ive been trying to find this reference for around 24000 words and am beginning to think that I was seriously deluded or had simply read too much that weekend. 10-12 000 sounds more realistic and makes me feel a lot better about what I have done.
If I can find my 'horror' source, I'll post it later. Now its off to work, far, far away from literature reviews...

Just interested in how long people's literature reviews are-esp. in social sciences? My thesis is supposedly going to be around 80 000 words and will follow a very traditional structure:
Chap 1 Intro to topic
Chap 2 Lit Review
Chap 3 Methodology, etc.
Chap 4 Results
Chap 5 Analysis and discussion
Chap 6 Conclusion
Given this basic structure and a qualitative methodology, I was wondering if people might share how many words they are giving or have written in their lit review? One author I looked at, suggested around 24 000 words...what do others think?
(Im currently only on 5000 so know I have a way to go, but will be going on with this throughout the year, while I collect data, still would be good to have a sort of ball park figure in my head to look at).

Congratulations on completing your Masters and receiving such good results! Hope you are doing some spectacular celebrating at present.

Not sure how common it is to get distinctions in the UK, but I would apply to the Universities, that you genuinely would like to attend (without just assuming that the top drawer ones will give you a PhD scholarship or placement based on current results). Your results are great , but there will always be a few people out there who have higher and/or who have publications as well and it is pretty competitive these days. Nothing to stop you applying though to a few universities and then choosing the best offer made. Just make sure you apply to universities you genuinely would like to attend.

I found that I needed a break between my Masters and starting the PhD (like you I teach full time and study part-time), simply to give my brain a little bit of recovery time before it started going back into overload. I ended up with a six month official break between acceptance from my university of choice and actually commencing but as I was trying to write up Masters into article-it wasn't really a break and in retrospect, I would have taken longer and perhaps made it a year. However, you may feel very differently-I know I did at the time-did not want to lose momentum. Good luck and have fun celebrating....

Hi Fatbunneh, I loved Saatchi's advice. It seems to have really hit the mark with you, so this advice is not really advice meant to supersede Saatchi's-it is probably adding more of an insight that might help you with 'reframing things to yourself', while you work on not worrying too much about what the younger students are doing.

While what the girl's do might be mildly bitchy, ( and sometimes it might hurt like hell!)...I wouldn't take it personally. It's pretty common. I work in a secondary school and see it all the time with students (and staff-some not so young as well). I used to take things like this myself personally when it happened to me, believing it had something to do with an essential part of myself and didn't happen to others as much-but it isn't really.

It's more about the girls, their own issues and how they are trying to cement a friendship and feeling of truly belonging, and using exclusion to do so. But perhaps not really in an intentional way.

The other thing I believed was that (in my arrogant youth!!:), if you were 'intelligent', then you wouldn't behave in this way. So it was only high school students, girls and young women who weren't really 'thinkers', who would do this. So WRONG again! I've seen it happen in so many situations and the behaviour occurs in all sorts of groups, levels of education and ability.

However, I found that once you don't take it personally, viewing it as a social behaviour and don't worry too much about what is going on, it really loses its power to bother you or define you. Interestingly enough, you might find then that the girls will also move beyond this behaviour, and while you might not become their best buddy, etc...you might become someone who they trust and work and connect with in a mature way, that is actually far more satisfying and realistic. (Hope this doesn't come over as either 'grow up' or 'get over yourself'-not intended in that way at all. Know just how much it can floor one at times).

Hi Galgani,

Can you take any leave from your workplace-even say four weeks to give you a good run at analysing data and writing up analysis. It might give you that head start you need. It really is hard working full-time, managing your family (esp. when children are young and really need lots of attention) and completing a PhD. But it isn't impossible. However, what might be helpful, is realising that while you can do what you have to in 9 months, lightening your current load in some way will help you to do this. Do you have kind parents who can help with children...look after them some weekends, etc?

Again, just for this final year (or almost) it might be time to have a look at all of the supports and strategies you can legitimately muster together and put them into place so that you have a run of time (even if this is periodic rather than sustained) to get some major tasks completed. And it isn't as if this is forever...it will be over by the end of the year.
Best wishes, P.

Hi, I had forgotten about this thread, and just reread old messages and new and thought about some things.

I think there is a difference between 'achievers' and 'very high achievers'. (I always hate the term 'overachievers' but perhaps that is because my PhD topic is on 'underachievers'-academic underachievers to be precise). I know with my own topic, the definitions are multiple, contentious and not always very clear. I think 'over achiever' tends to be used by another to downgrade someone's personal achievements.

I agree with Delta's earlier comments in that hardwork and perseverence will get you the PhD in the end, but if you think of a bellcurve and average intelligence being around 100 IQ points, then no, I don't think this 'average person' is going to get a PhD no matter how hardworking they are. In fact, the way the rules work in Australia, generally to qualify for entrance to a PhD, you have to have a H1 or H2a in your honours or a Masters equivalence of those results. And to get those sorts of results, you have to work hard but you also have to be pretty smart-at least within the subject area you are studying. But you don't have to be an Einstein.

I think there is a difference between the majority of people on this forum-who probably qualify for 'high achievers' or 'achiever' status. After all, most of us would hate to believe that achieving our PhD is going to preclude us from also having a house, sound relationships, children, professional work and the possibility of contributing in some way to our community. These are things most of us expect to achieve-and the PhD is simply a course of study for those who qualify, so they can enhance academic or professional status and do a type of work.

It's healthy to be awed by very high achievers-genius, outstanding contributions, your Barrack Obama's or award winning scientists, who have also led outstanding lives of contribution-these are our heroes.

No Sez, but I have often thought about it and researched the pathway. You know, you mentioned your age is 24 and you have one degree and a PG Dip but really want to go the Psych route. What is stopping you now?

One of the reasons I have chosen not to do the conversion course is to do with my age and circumstances. I am 49 (so old from your perspective-but I don't feel that way), and a 'mid career' teaching professional, mother of three grown children. I found later in life that I absolutely have a passion for psychology, but didn't do it in my undergrad. I first struck it properly in my Education qualifications and postgrad course work units, and found out my passion for it then. Since then I periodically want to toss in my PhD and do psych and start again-but I don't. Mainly because, as Kean Bean and Pineapple pointed out, to use psych in the way many of us want to, you have to go through SO much training-and I am not prepared to do that on top of my present job right now and I am not prepared to toss in the work I have already done for my doctorate. I get myself through this, by promising myself that when I finish this doctorate (in about four years from now-I am part-time), I will either do some foundation psych courses, (just for myself), or train as a life line counsellor and volunteer to help out and be involved in counselling in this way. It will be both my reward and a way of giving back .

But YOU are 24. You have the time to try this out if you wish. Why not? If you don't like it, you can always change it. No one expects someone at 24 to know everything they want to do in life. Many of us learnwho we are and what we want, as we try things. Good luck, Sez, and go for it.

Good luck and don't worry if you feel like you are not writing fluently-just start writing, you can always go back and polish.

Perhaps also if before you started your chapter-you made a list or map of all the key things that absolutely HAVE to be in Chap 1-like a dot point list of key events, headings (or whatever), then just spent a bit of time on your intro sentence-the one that gets you into the chapter (but not too much time-don't polish it now), you can start elaborating on your dot point list. Sometimes, what I do is look at my word limit, look at my dot point list, and then allocate the number of words per heading and mechanically write roughly that number of words with a linking sentence to the next heading on the list. Very mechanical and not how I used to write, but it is a way to manage professional and academic writing.

I know you've been overloaded with good advice from many, so I'm going to stop adding to your load now but good luck with it all and have some belief and confidence in yourself. You can do it!

Wonderful news for you Dr Emma; well done!!! Hope the celebrations are helping to keep the moment alive and best wishes for future plans...and to have such positive feedback-that's really amazing and a tribute to your work. Now it all seems worthwhile doesn't it?

Hi Lilyme, it's been a while since my undergrad literature and history 'Arts' days-and now my area is Education and social sciences, so I'm not up on all the historical critical theory currently.

Has your supervisor spoken to you about this at all? Don't worry if not-my Masters supervisor didn't really either-other than to let me know I was doing case studies. I worked out myself that these were empirical and my basic analytic approach was sort of phenomemological. In fact I only know for sure it was, because my present study is using this approach, and I recognised that what I had done was what a guy called Moustakas outlines and it is the theoretical approach I am now doing for PhD. I think that my Masters supervisor tended not to be impressed by this sort of thing and figured for the length of thesis (25, 000) words, it wasn't really necessary. I think she was basically an empiricist overall.

In social science qualitative the approaches that might be similar or useful could be narrative inquiry, phenomenological possibly-not sure, (don't think grounded theory would work) as you are working from live data and building your theory and data sort of at the same time (in grounded theory that is).

You know just googling historical discourse and analysis approaches would probably give you some really good quick insights and then you can get some further research links and possible models from that. Literary critical theory might also be really helpful for history. Sorry not to be more helpful. You could also try work out what your supervisor's fave approach is (from their publications) and possibly use this as they might be able to provide some great references.