Hi human beings,
Another human being had provided me an unconfirmed information that around 1-5% of Ph D students in UK leave Ph D mainly due to funding reasons or to join some lucrative jobs.

Whatever the percentage might be, I think I am going to one of these who might have to discontinue Ph D due to funding reasons, and unfortunately havent found any lucrative job yet !!!

I request forum members to post their comment regarding the statistics, as well as any experience they have had regarding this issue. Have you come across anybody who have discontinued Ph D in UK for funding reasons, and or to join a job instead?

Individual aspirations and opinions will definitely be the decisive factor, that is why I welcome you individual response.

Thank you !!!

Hi humanbeing,

I do not know the exact figures but anecdotically I would think that most people quit based on being unhappy regarding the process. In this forunm it is frequent theme how difficult the Phd research is: lack of progress, lack of help from supervisors, lack of motivation etc. This makes that a lot of people seem to doubt whether they continue: they have funding yet these problems with the process.
Obviously without having some source of income everything stops, and it would be a good reason to stop!

Hi, humanbeing,
I have statistics about leaving PHD unfinished but always have wondered about the fact that despite the national average of the time that takes to finish a PhD is 4 years, funding, including from national funding councils, is usually given for 3 years only. How do they expect students to survive the last year? OR they expect that all PhDs either have rich parents or take up jobs?

Hi, I haven't known anyone who has left either for funding reasons or for finding a lucrative job. However, I'm a science PhD and very concious of the fact that funding is more available for science PhDs. I do have some arts PhD friends and they tend to be self funded. But haven't known them to drop out - generally they just take on paid work to get them through (becoming a hall deputy warden, doing lots of teaching work, working in a shop, etc.) It's tough though (I've had an easy time in comparison and I still find it tough!). All the people I know who dropped out was because of being miserable with the PhD itself & not being able to continue because of unhappiness.

I'm partially self-funded (my tuition fees are paid by my university but my living expenses are not). I've been doing some freelance writing work since the start of my PhD last October and I have managed to get enough money to live on working a reasonable number of hours. If the situation changed and I had to struggle to make a living, I think that I might switch to part-time mode and work full-time, or even put aside my PhD temporarily to work for one year and save money, but I don't think I would leave my PhD forever. The reason is that I am now very motivated about my research, things are started to take shape and I feel comfortable within my department. If my research were not achieving any results, or if my supervisor bullied me, I think however that I would be more vulnerable to financial difficulties, so maybe I wouldn't have the motivation to keep going if faced with a catastrophical economic situation.

Hi Humanbeing, I assume that you are doing the PhD in a social science subject? Obviously funding for humanities/social science is very scarce and very competitive. I am struggling writing up funding proposals and eventually I might end up with nothing. Even if you get it, is it also possible that they withdraw your funding after a year or so because they think your performance is not up to standard? The PhD is so costly and the employment prospects after the PhD might not be rosy--just a word of caution. So what is the point of doing a phD? Apart from the halo of a Dr title, academics don't get paid well enough. I'm thinking of giving up if I fail every funding application.

i am also considering quitting my PhD if all my funding applications fail. i do think not getting any money makes it easier to quit and harder to hang on in there. problems you are having with your PhD don't get better by not having any money.

Sorry everybody, do you mind answering my question: If you were offered a studentship for one year and it is renewable for another two years subject to "satisfactory" progress, what is the chance of withdrawal of money by the scholarship committee or the funding body due to whatever reasons?

no PhD without Money.

hm sourapple, that is a bit vague... normally i would say something quite bad had to happen for the funding to be discontinued (like you not passing your university's or department's minimal requirements for end of first year report).
but of course there might be political things going on and things you can't influence. i'd perhaps check out what happened in the past - has most everyone in that specific funding got the continued funds?
i guess overall i'd go for it!

Haha, thanks, Shani. Yes, you are right, the power relations and inter(intra)-university politics are quite tricky and beyond our control. Anyway, I'll go for it! Getting funded is a right, not a privilege.

My sincerest thanks to all those who have posted comments.

Sani, regarding the funding to be cancelled, it does happen for some "UNKNOWN REASONS" as well, and you should not call it vague.

You know some people are fortunate, and only when....one ends up in the unfortunate side does one realize........that shit just happens. Moreover, its also pretty sad that a lot of people, especially in university, think that Ph D students are just soulless selfless creatures.......who exist because they dont have anything better to do !!! Its really a sad scenario that research students who are supposed to be the cream of scientific field have got no say in anything at all.

Shani apologies about the missing "H" in sani.......and sourapple I am not social science student I am a Pharmacy student.......or rather Medical Biosciences as they call it these days.

hey humanbeing, with saying vague i was referring to the question. meaning, the question would have been more precise (less vague) if sourapples had mentioned, for example, in which field s/he is, who exactly decides on the continuing funding, why s/he has doubts about it, etc. there is probably not a general answer, so the general question is hard to answer!
as to the rest, i agree with you, that it is a shame how PhD students are often treated.