Has anyone heard of anyone finishing their PhD in 2 years? I have enough data to start writing up but have funding for three years so it may be better to carry on and try to get more publications before having to look for a job. Any opinions on this would be much appreciated.

To make it short and simple: forget it straight away. It will not happen.

Data collected or not..

Why do you say that Otto?

Experience. Observation of other PhD students. Narratives of supervisors etc.

I don't know when you started your PhD, but even if it's going well currently, the writing up process will ultimately take longer than you anticipated. Better be prepared to complete in more than three years. I think the average is three years and 7 months.

I don't want to sound too pessimistic and my original plan was to complete in two years either but it's just not going to happen and you will not find anybody (maybe one or two in the entire UK) who ever completed in 2 years only from their starting date.

just to add one point: what I mean by "completion" is actually the time between starting date and successful Viva Voce.

I have NEVER known anyone finish in 2 years. I've know people finish in three - most of my friends have taken 4 years, but the ones who have done it in three have usually worked as Research Associates who have been resigtered for a PhD simultaneously and their research work has counted towards it. And writing DOES take longer than you think. I did 3 drafts of my thesis befoer it was ready for submission

Otto is right to consider the viva as well. It can take a while to come round, so although completion correctly takes this into account, it is more productive to think about yout time in terms of from beginning to when you SUBMIT. Waiting for a viva is pretty much out of your control so there's no point factoring it into your completion time.

On short, I really wouldn't squeeze a PhD into 2 years. A registered MPhil can take 2 years, let alone a PhD.

well, a guy who in our first meeting with our supervisor annouced that he will finish his PhD in 2 years, did not pass hist first year report....:)) It might be possible, but only if you 1) have nothing else in your life for 2 years, apart from your PhD, including having somebody who cooks, cleans and does loundry and shopping for you; 2) if you have very clear idea what you are doing and everything goes very smootly (as it never does).

in most (or some) universities, unless you were registered for PhD direct, the minimum period for PhD completion is 3 years. I am registered for PhD direct, and I am in my 3rd year now. I was hoping to finalise my research in 2 years and write up on my 3rd (my funding is limited to 3 years) but it looks less and less realistic every day.

I think DJWickid on this forum finished within 3 years.. Here is the link to that thread: http://www.postgraduateforum.com/showmessage.asp?thread=5574&cat=4&keyword=DJWickid&newview=1&stype=U&category=0

You would learn a lot about your project, and yourself in that extra year. Remember that a PhD isn't just a hefty pile of paper you churn out at the end, it is an opportunity to learn a lot of personal, transferable and subject-specific skills to equip you for a job in industry or Academia.

By all means try to finish as soon as possible but do not make any hard rules such as "2 years". Just concentrate on your work for the moment and you will finish with better quality with much more concentration on your work and less stress to finish on a specific day or year. These kind of hard rules will only make your life a hell and have a negative impact on the quality of your research.

Im starting my PhD in October and in the timetable I have been given which includes when and how long it will take to complete the major aspects of the project, it says that the project including thesis write up should be completed in 3 years! With only 3 months to write up thesis. I think this is too ambitious, not sure if I will be able to do it all. Hope so

Planning your research (timetables etc) is clearly important. However, just because work is planned to fit neatly into 3 years, doesn't mean it's going to! It's hard to plan for the inevitable delays due to lab techniques taking longer than expected to get up and running, oversubscribed equipment etc and impossible to plan for broken equipment or sickness. And if your research involves people then you have ethics committees to get through etc etc. In short, there are a lot of things that can delay you EVEN though you might well be working as hard as possible. Getting a PhD completed in 3 yrs takes a lot of luck too (yeah, mine took just over 4, opps!! )

I agree with most of what has been said ... for the majority of people, it will take 3 years plus. However, I do know a couple of exceptional cases who managed to conduct studies/write up in less time (one took 2 years, the other 2 and a half - they didn't submit until 3 year deadline though!). BUT ... as I stressed, they were (very) exceptional cases!!!

Writing up is not straightforward/easy ... it gets harder and harder so will longer than you think!

You all make it sound like a phd is really hard. I am at a research institute (not a uni) and almost everyone does their phd in the 3 years. As long as you have good guidance so you dont waste time on un-needed experiments and write it up as you go it should be fine to do it in 3 years. Unless of course you are a complete novice and have never been in a lab or looked up research papers etc!!

good for you. The rest of us prefer to be realistic..