I would think that many universities offer a pathway to qualifying to apply for a research Masters or PhD if you have not completed honours, whether that is a Postgraduate Diploma or Masters with a combination of coursework research units and a minor or major thesis. They might call them by different titles though.

In the universities I have attended (or a friend has) in Australia, these have been called either Postgraduate Diplomas or Masters. The Postgraduate Diplomas have been the equivalent of what is the honours year in Australian universities (a fourth year after the initial degree, which roughly is made up of half coursework/research methods and half being a dissertation). Masters qualifiers are similar but set at a Masters coursework level initially for the first half.

If you achieve certain results in your Masters coursework units, you then qualify to enrol in the thesis component. If the minor or major thesis is graded at a 1st level or 2.1, then this usually is your entry to the research Masters or PhD. It generally means that you need to take an extra year to qualify. The Australian system is not identical to the UK but there seem to be a few similarities. I'd be fairly certain that universities in other countries offer similar pathways.

Do you think a way to start looking might be to research the universities, areas and disciplines you are interested in, and then inquire what these institutions offer? The websites usually will have this information available under the faculty page or research school page. Best of luck with it all :)

The word usually used is plagiarism Emaa, academic plagiarism.

Hi Earthquake, I don't think that there is one, definitive answer for this one. It really could depend on the discipline, country, proposal, faculty, institution and competition you are up against at the time.

Within Australia, most institutions will state that you need an honours degree (honours here is an extra year and qualification on top of your undergraduate degree for example). Generally institutions will request an honours degree with a 1st or 2.1, or alternatively, a research masters with an equivalent award, as a mandatory pre-requisite to any PhD study in Oz. There may be some exceptions in exceptional circumstances. However, this may well be different in other countries.However, you would usually need to demonstrate the capacity to engage in sustained and high level research somehow.

On top of that, if you are competing for scholarships, stipends and funding (which most of us are), you then might find that you are subject to a ranking of some sort, when these are considered and awarded. Sometimes also, having a potential supervisor or researcher endorse you (provide a reference) and a really interesting proposal in an innovative or niche research area can assist.

There will always be exceptions to the rule, but generally over here, these guidelines apply.

If positions and grants are competitive then any qualification or project that you can use to back your claim is an advantage. It costs the Australian government for example, around 60-80,000.00 to sponsor a student for fees over the 3-4 years of completing a doctorate. This figure does not include a living stipend. Once you add a living stipend of around 25,000.00 (or more) or so a year on top of this, you can see that quite a bit of money is invested in supporting a doctoral student to complete their PhD. This tends to make the process pretty competitive. Best of luck with it all.

I'd work and save money, read widely in my field (as once on the PhD your reading becomes highly selective and for some time it narrows to fit your specific topic), and enjoy weekends or down time while you can. Not that you can't enjoy some time away from your thesis when in the thick of it-you can-but it is always present in your mind once you've started.

Some terrific ideas from other posters on this thread as well, best wishes.

It can be both Linzedin.

Action Research refers to a specific type of project based research method, whereby you posit a theory or hypothesis, set up a response that uses this theory or method to inform a specific project in a specific context and you then carry out the project and measure the results. You may use or follow this process more than once while you are using an action research method. (Rather like a practical form of grounded theory in some ways although with grounded theory you are generating theory whereas with action research you begin with a theory or proposition and measure results in a sort of iterative spiral). This is a really simple explanation from the top of my head. You would find a more definitive and accurate definition in Creswell, J. (2005 for second edition but he most likely has some later editions by now). He writes about Educational Research Methods.

In the world of education, where I think action research is often found, sometimes it refers more to a style or way of doing things as well. By this I mean, teachers and schools often carry out action research projects without necessarily reporting formally on these or using them for a formal research degree such as a Masters or doctorate of some kind. So the principal of a school might say 'oh we are carrying out an action research project with the juniors, using this new reading instruction method to see whether it improves our literacy assessment results in Year 9 students with literacy problems'. The school would be measuring the results from using the new method by examining its Year 9 literacy assessment data after a trial period, but no formal reports would be made perhaps beyond the school newsletter or principal's report to the school board and discussion in staff and team meetings.

Hi Kahn, I think initially you need to see a doctor (general practitioner) and explain the symptoms you have described on your post and ensure that you are well physically.

Your doctor (GP) will be able to assess your symptoms and make recommendations from there. They may also recommend counselling to help alleviate anxiety and some other supports. This would be the first recommendation I would make if a student or parent raised this concern at my workplace. (I am an Assistant Principal with a major role in student welfare at a large secondary College and this is what we are recommended to do as part of our role.)

I do think there would be other steps you might take as well to help and I am sure other posters will provide much support. However what you describe in your post concerns me, and my initial thoughts and recommendation would be to start with a medical appointment and check up, rule out any physical concerns and see what the doctor recommends.

Your university may have a free health clinic or medical centre on campus that you could call into perhaps, that does not require appointments or payment. Please take the time to take care of yourself. If you do have supportive family near by or who you can contact, I am sure they would want to know that you are feeling this way.

Hi Coarvi, I think Helebon's suggestion for coaching is a positive way forward, and/or you could try your university's counselling support services, particularly to help with breaking the negative cycle of repetitive thoughts you are describing.

The content of the thoughts you have provided are similar to thoughts that many of us go through in the extended process of the PhD. Coaching sessions or accessing a counsellor to support you through this part of the PhD are both viable ways of moving forward, as these types of thoughts often gather a life of their own while we are immersed in them.

Would it help to join some university committees or postgraduate societies? This might assist in managing the feelings of isolation and need for community? Even a meeting once a week or fortnight with others might make a small positive difference that could help overall.

The other thing I would add is that it isn't that uncommon to find when you are quite a way through the PhD that you don't really want either an academic position at the end or to keep working in your particular field. However, there may still be value in completing the PhD, even if you decide that afterwards your goals have changed.

Agree completely with Tree of Life. The other thing to consider is that the final elements of a PhD, which occur after you have written your study can take some time. Eg, even if you believe all is well and you have done all you can or need to do, before submission you have to be signed off and this process can take some time. In my case it will easily be a month all up for this to occur. Then on top of that once you have submitted you have an average of 6-8 weeks before your examiners will complete their reports (this time is quite quick, sometimes they can take longer). You may have a viva or defence presentation to make either before (in my university it is a presentation prior to submission) in UK universities, I think you have a viva or defence afterwards.

Once the examiners have compiled their reports, you then have to do corrections. Not many people have their thesis or dissertation returned without corrections (even minor ones). You are given from between 1 to 6 months to complete corrections (depending on how extensive they are). Once you have made these corrections to the satisfaction of your panel, chair or examiners (it depends on the type of corrections as to who approves them), then your university will confer the award and slot you in to the nearest grad ceremony to confer your degree. So this process also takes some time.

The reality is even if you wrote a thesis in just over two years (which would be a real push but possibly doable if you were not using much new data but were doing a type of review of existing materials), the rest of the process would take you to at least 2.75 to 3 years anyway and, in many cases as Tree as indicated, closer to 3.5 to 4 years all up.

I don't know Barb, I would think that you need to include her name as a secondary author...did you have supervision meetings at all during this time and is the article on materials/content/data that comprise part of your PhD? What rule does your university have on publications and authors? Generally, the rule here (Australia) is that you do include your supervisors as secondary authors even if their contribution was just basic supervision of your overall project. Personally , I think I understand where you are coming from and why you don't want to include her but my thoughts would be that, even so, you would include her as a secondary author as you were under supervision at the time of the study and data collection.

Hi, I think on these occasions, being direct (but not rude of course) would be the way to go. Many people appreciate being told things directly and sooner rather than later where possible. Good luck with your new plans :)

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The only caveat I would add to this though BonsaiClouds is that some supervisors will take a particular focus when they read your work, despite what you ask for from them. You can have any number of conversations with them about what you would like them to support you with and you will still get what you get.

My second supervisor, for example, can't help herself-her focus will always fall straight away on any proof mistake or typo or formatting and presentation issue. She has a mind like an editor. She is an absolute guru on APA 5 (but hadn't updated into 6 last time we discussed things). So, for example, she is finishing reading 'the beast' (my pet name for the thesis), and I know, I just know, all the feedback will be on presentation. And I suspect there will be some APA 5 versus APA 6 issues (I'm using 6 and I am not going back to 5 so we may have to agree to disagree on that one).

Not every supervisor is like this and you are right, you need to ask, and if you don't ask, chances are you won't get. Good questions btw. Cheers, I'm now going back into a netflix binge, while I wait ...and wait...and wait...it's got to be sometime soon now surely. Hope things are going well for you Helebon.

Hi dotdottung, I'm worried when you say that you have been working from 10-10 everyday non-stop for months, and am not surprised you are exhausted. I think Tudor's point about your workload is very important. Do you ensure that you give yourself regular breaks each day also and regular opportunities to rest or do something that you really enjoy or find relaxing. Without this it can be hard to get a sense of perspective, both about your work and your pathway.

If you think you are ready to submit your proposal now, perhaps you need to let your supervisor know this and also know that you are exhausted. Supervisors are usually very busy people with multiple responsibilities so they don't always observe their impact on us. An example: my primary supervisor is a very sympathetic and understanding person by nature, even so, she only really knew about the times I was struggling when I told her about it. Once she did understand, she did not step in with solutions but she did listen and support the actions I took to help myself manage some of the really challenging aspects.

Do you think it would be helpful to acknowledge you have finished your proposal and have a conversation with your supervisor about this, so you can come to an agreement about submitting it very soon? Then, perhaps you could take a few days off before resuming your program.