Hi Gawel and Smilodion,

Although I'm meant to know this sort of stuff, I really have no idea exactly how much time committment I'm talking about to do a PhD. I read on here 10-15 hours part time per week. That sounds like a lot to me (small children being a particular problem!). I suppose it depends where the 10-15 hours comes from. I'm not in a position to ignore the family for 5+ years, so I accept it's going to be interesting...

I've spent the last couple months disentangling myself from other professional commitments (committees etc) so I can focus on the academic side of life for a while.

My proposed field is (medical) education. I'm doing some work in the field anyway, so I'm hoping for synergy between my day job and my PhD life. I love my job and don't really consider it work, and am hoping that the PhD will bascially be a spur to do what I should be doing anyway - learning about my field thorugh reading journals and studying the effectiveness of the teaching I do through research.

So I've got this idea in my head of a PhD actually being (kind of) fun, which obviously doesn't match with everything I read on this board! I may just be completely deluded, but I'm hoping that if you can find a PhD topic that you genuinely enjoy reading about then it might not be too much like work - at least some of the time :)

I'm 38 and have two small troublesome children. I have a bachelor's degree from when I was 23 and I'm hoping to start a PhD part time soon.

Status - not such a big deal. In your 30's you're doing a PhD becuase you want to do it. Status was more of an issue for me 10 years ago I think.

I'm hoping to keep working full time during the PhD so the financial side isn't such a consideration right now. I'm currently working in an academic type position anyway so I hope that I can combine both work and PhD together!

Good luck all,

Whitey

Wow...151 days since my last post and I still haven't started the PhD!

Got as far as organising a couple of supervisors shortly after I posted, who said yes - but the main guy kind of said that I needed to go away and actually think up a real proposal rather than just 'this is the vibe I'm going for in my PhD' :)

Went on holidays, my daughter got sick and after a month or two in hospital the PhD did sort of get put on hold. I've been back at work for a couple of months and doing some of the background preparation for teaching resources that I would actually be studying as part of the PhD.

Well...it's probably time to stop procrastinating again - 151 days and all has re-motivated me! - I'm still super-keen but I guess the PhD won't happen on its own!

Other option was to do a masters degree by correspondence (University of Dundee)...and then maybe go and do a PhD afterwards...decisions decisions....

Thanks Bakuvia for your answer.

The PhD books sound great - I'll definitely try and track them down.

My problem is that on initial enquiries it sounds like the university probably doesn't have any suitably qualified people in my specific area of interest. I've thought about this PhD thing for a bit now and I think I'm at the point of action. I've done a little research on the subject area in terms of what's published (via Pubmed) - but I think I'm ready to get into the lit review side of things big time. I think I'd do this more effectively if I was actually enrolled in a PhD rather than just thinking about it - hence the idea of just signing up now and finding a supervisor later.

I stayed up until 2am reading this site last night - I think that makes me overkeen on the whole PhD thing, but possibly it's a good prognostic sign!

My situation is a bit different from most of the people that I've read about on this board. I'm planning on doing the PhD part time whilst working. I'll be based a fair way away from the home university. And because I'm studying part time and working I don't need to apply for funding (I think, I don't know how much tuition fees are) so I plan on having full freedom to choose my PhD topic.

I am going to stick to the university in question - for logistical reasons. So it then really comes down to what you need in a supervisor. If you're reasonably self motivated and willing to learn everything there is to know about the subject area then what are you actually seeking in a supervisor? I was thinking of someone who understands how universities work and is easy to get along with. That's potential supervisor number 1 that I mentioned. Sure, he thinks my area of interest is pointless, but I think I could convince him otherwise given a bit of time!

Potential supervisor number two seemed a little bit interested when he was teaching a research unit I did last year and we talked about my area of interest. I don't think he has any expertise in the field, but I think he would be great at thinking clearly through problems, study design etc.

As for second supervisor at a distance - I guess it's not ideal, but if it gives me someone with specific expertise, it might be worthwhile.

At the moment I'm tending towards going with a supervisor who doesn't know my area (a negative) but who is not personality disordered like most of the supervisors I read about on this board (a positive). That just means I have to drive this project myself, which is cool with me. Of course, I've never done this PhD thing before so that may be a really, really bad idea - in which case please tell me now!

So I guess the question is : why does your supervisor need to be an expert in your area of reasearch? In a niche area, won't you become more knowledgable than anyone in the faculty after six months or so of thinking and reading?

Cheers,

Whitey

Hi Steve,

I'm also at the stage of wanting to do a PhD, so this is very interesting to me.

Unlike the poster above, I am afraid of hard work. I am defintiely planning to do my PhD part time, at least for starters. 5-7 years seems like a very long time.

I've done some university lecturing, and there wasn't really any formal teaching training given (the university did run a brief course on theory of teaching and learning, but I didn't go). So it's really make it up as you go - it has been very interesting for me trying to learn how to do the teaching thing. My wife is a highschool teacher and she is fairly horrified I think that I get to teach with no training!

Anyway - good luck with your PhD quest. There are teaching jobs without PhDs, but as I understand it PhDs are standard for most fields.

Cheers,

Whitey

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Hi guys,

First post, but I've enjoyed looking around this site over the past few months.

I've been meaning to get around to enrolling in a PhD for a few months now. Interestingly, I know suprisingly little about how this all works. I'm sure these are basic questions but :

1) Do you enrol as a PhD student in the Uni and then find a supervisor, or vice versa? The online university information wasn't very revealing in this regard. Can I just sign up and then find a supervisor sometime soon after that?

2) Does it matter if my supervisor doesn't know a great deal/anything about my topic? I want to do a PhD in medical education, focusing on simulation based training. I talked to one professor, but he doesn't have a PhD himself and although he'd be sort of willing to supervise, was not super-keen. This topic would be something he's not really into, but there doesn't seem to be anyone else around the university who really knows this area either. I know something about my topic, or at least will in three years time or so. We also talked about co-supervisors, one of whom might be in another state.

3) Is it normal to just phone around a few people and say 'will you be my supervisor?', particularly if they don't know much about your topic of interest. I know one professor who's pretty good at the research side of stuff (study design etc, which I don't have any experience in) that I was thinking of asking. Do people normally want to supervise PhD students?

Thanks for any input you can give me.

Cheers,

Whitey - super-keen prospective PhD student, kind of, I think.