Hi,

I quit my PhD a year and a half ago. I went straight into it after a good degree and hadn't done a Masters. I decided after about six months that it wasn't for me for a number of reasons. When you are thinking about quitting though all you can think about is letting people down - family, friends and your supervisor. My supervisor had hand-picked me and persudaded me to do it. So i felt a real debt to him and it was hard telling him, felt like I had very personally let him down. I was worried it would reflect badly on him.....the truth is that it did reflect badly on him for a few seconds when people first heard. After that though he is a first class academic who has and is helping others through their PhD. He will have been dissapointed but he will have gone home to his wife and children and not giving it another thought the very next day. Most importantly of all I know that if I saw my supervisor now at a Conference etc. he would be genuinley interested in how I am getting on and would happily provide an academic reference if requested. I think this would be the case in 99% of instances.

Quitting was very hard but I am now doing a PGCE and enjoying it immensely. The only person you have to justify it to is yourself. My prediction is there will be a low moment six months down the line when you ask yourself 'why on earth did I quit?'. But when you find your real vocation and your real passion you will only ever look forward. Good luck.

What I found writing my thesis was that writing something was always better than writing nothing. Even if the quality of the writing isnt there I would always suggest it is better to set yourself a daily writing target. What I did was set up a spreadsheet on Excel with words needed for each chapter etc and then an average amount of words to do per day/week etc. This way if I was having a bad day and I just needed the night off that was fine, but my average words required would go up for other days and across the week.....this was purely a motivational tool. I ended up getting rid of huge chunks of text later on that I looked back on with complete astonishment that I was capable of writing such tosh, but it helped me on a day to day basis. I also tended to start writing up very early, again mainly for motivational reasons. When I came to actually start my write up period I had actually passed the word limit, a lot of it was nonsense, but it was far better than starting with blank pages. That's the best thing I can suggest I'm afraid.

Hi, Thanks for everyones responses. I did quit in February and wasn't required to pay anything back. I am a lot happier now and have some job interviews coming up. I felt quite guilty about the money for a while but I came to realise that funding bodies factor in that there is a certain drop-out rate, its part of the process. I think I had realised quite early on that I wasn't cut out for doing a PhD, not on an academic level, but an emotional one. I carried on through fear of letting people down who had vouched for me family, supervisors etc. To anyone reading this who is thinking about quitting my advice would be that you have to try and cut out those natural feelings and think about No.1. Especially with Supervisors, they will be dissapointed for a day or two and then they'll move on to finding someone else, like they have done hundreds of times before. Also though, don't quit without asking for a break from studies which your university will almost certainly give you. Mine gave me time to clarify my thoughts and make sure they were as objective as possible.

My money comes directly from my University, but the project I am on is funded by a large grant from a Research Council. I have looked online both on the university pages and the research council and cannot seem to find anything there.

Hi everyone,

After a lot of soul-searching and option weighing I have decided it is best for me to quit my PhD. There are a number of reasons, but mainly it is not quite what I expected it to be and I do not think I am cut out for the lifestyle of a PhD student, the solitary work, the lack of direction etc. One of the factors in my decision was believing that it is unfair for me to keep taking funding that could actually be going to someone who would make a lot more of it than I am and will in the future.

I have a question about funding though. I am on a fully funded studentship and I was wondering if I would be expected to pay back any of the funding I have already received. I truly wish I didn't have to factor finances into such a decision but I am by no means a rich person after having had to fund my undergraduate course.
Further to this I have signed no form of contract or declaration regarding finances, the funding just goes into my account quarterly.

I would appreciate any advice regarding this, particularly from anyone who has been in the same situation.