Dear all,

Suppose I start a full-time humanities PhD in September, can anyone please enlighten me with approximate dates assuming things go smoothly for
submitting my thesis?
viva?
qualification?

Does it ever happen that a supervisor would agree that a thesis is ready after only 2 years or 2 1/2 years rather than 3 years?

Thanks

A humanities PhD in the UK will take, on average, between 3 and 4 years full time. I think that the chances of a supervisor agreeing that something is ready after 2 or 2 1/2 years are minimal - actually zero. Not only for £ reasons (the university will want their tuition money) but also it is impossible to start, research, write, and defend a thesis in the humanities within two and a half years. I do know of some humanities PhD students in history who have do it more or less exactly in three but they are unusual and had projects that were very well defined and had been well trod in existing secondary literature. They had it written and examined in 3 years exactly.

So block out your diary for 3 years if you're an optimist and 4 if you are a realist. If you give yourself a two and a half year deadline you would allow yourself no time for research dead ends, procrastination, illness, relationships, and other life events of problems. It can't be done.

Thanks for your reply. In my case I do have a head start as the proposed subject continues from my MA and so I will have done a lot of relevant reading before starting the PhD. I realise that things can go awry so I was just asking about the best possible scenario - whether the best scenario transpires is of course a different matter. I guess I am an optimist and would definitely not want to go beyond 3 years. When people drift into a fourth year does this mean paying more fees?

Thanks

I would be cautious about assuming your reading will be totally relevant. PhDs have the habit of going off on tangents to your original proposal, or you read one article that changes your whole topic.

After 3 years a Pal had to submit a form 'intention to submit thesis' and had 2 pay 150GBP/semester for continual registration.

The fees are much cheaper at my uni. 90 pounds per year for a matriculation in continuation fee, for the writing up period after the initial (usually funded) 3 years full-time or longer part-time equivalent.

It seems that costs vary wildly.
My uni has just controversially put up the "writing up fee" for registering in year four to £500.
That didn't go down well.

I just asked about this at my uni. I'm an ESRC funded student and they said if I go over 3 years I have to pay about £3500! BUT if I am doing writing up, then its only £300. I was very pleased when he told me the second half!

Although I can't see how they can tell if you're in the writing up stage or not!

Don't think that's the case at my uni. There are several people here who are on their 8th and 9th year of their PhD. I'm hoping to have a fair amoutn written up by october, so fingers crossed I won't need to pay the £3500, just the £300!

Sneaks you are lucky.http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/gradschool/phd.html#registration
An excerpt is The normal maximum period of registration for PhD research students is 48 months full-time, 72 months part-time; for MPhil students it is 36 and 60 months. Extensions beyond the maximum will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances and if approved in advance by the Director of the Graduate School.

ah well, I'm ESRC funded and they require that you finish in 4 years otherwise I think they penalise the university/your supervisor - so basically my sup will demand that I finish in 4 years because it may impact her ability to get future funding from them. The people In know were on departmental grants, so I guess it is different for them. I was annoyed about that at first but I think you need a deadline. 8-9 years is far too long to be doing a project in my mind! And it must impact on the relevance of the research e.g. if you started in 2000 and you publish the work in 2012!

With the quality of the current supervision i can visualize myself graduating in after life anyway.:$ Poor Me. Just feeling so Unlucky.

Is this one of those which department is keeping from last 9 years...lol they must have eaten a fortune for em..sry

http://www.photopost.com/photopost/data/5/white-fat-cat.jpg