Hi my names Ken and I'm new to the forum.

I'm in the first year of a second distance learning degree in Astronomy and am looking forward to my continued studies in the field (A life long interest). I already have a degree in Engineering (2:1) and a post-grad teaching qual and lecture at a local FE college in Sheffield.

My question is this, after studying for the Astronomy degree I wish to go onto doing a Phd in the area, I wondered how easy this would be if I were to keep part time hours in my lecturing (I have a wife and young family to support) and given that this would be a long term goal, should I be deploying any strategies now in order to move towards the part time research study?

This is a tentative question as I'm new to the forum, but any opinions would be appreciated.

Regards

Ken

Hi Ken,

I did my first degree distance learning and working full time. This was possible.

Now gone full time student for PhD.
I have found the work load is about 4 times that of the degree distance learning (although this was degree over the equivalent of 6 years not 3).
So anticipate to double your study hours for the same progress.

I also waited until my daughter was in secondary school before post grad study. By this point she has her own social life and does not want to spend 'quality' time with me every day. If you have a young family you will miss out on time with them so think carefully about when to do further study. I managed a BSc with a child in primary school but PhD study in the sciences can take longer hours per day because of the lab time (or in your case telescope / computer analysis time).

I am sure part-time lecturing / part-time PhD is manageable but make sure your wife is on board with this because I would expect more of the home responsibilities will fall on her shoulders.
I try and not do too much study at the weekends because this is me-time and family-time - however, for this my weekdays are either study, eating or sleeping. If the whole family will give you peace to work, and you also ensure you make time for them it can be done.