I started my PhD in October (humanities) and having now got going I really think that I have chosen the wrong field. If I don't take my upgrade I could just do one more year and finish with an MPhil, which I think is do-able as I am coping ok, I just really want to change specialty. My question is, how will this reflect on my application to a different programme in a different department (also humanities)? And what about future career prospects? Am I better just finishing the PhD and then trying to swap specialisms? I don't want to ask my supervisor about it as I think he will just tell me to stick it out!

======= Date Modified 21 Apr 2010 14:16:25 =======
Hi Jenny_Pepper,

Much depends on what you mean by your 'speciality' and hence what could be said about swapping 'specialisations' after your PhD. If you're doing a PhD in History, for example, or in Sociology, Linguistics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, etc. then yes. Once you finish your PhD you can conduct research on different areas. So if you specialised in, say, the history of the French Revolution, then you can specialise in the Rise of Nationalism, or Communism, in Europe after your PhD. With a PhD, you're either a Historian, Philosopher, Sociologist, etc. and you can expand your research area and change interests. Many academics work on areas not related to what they did back when they were doing their PhDs. This would constitute a change in the area of specialisation/research, but it's not a change of 'discipline' because you're still staying within the same discipline (i.e. History, for example).

If, however, you are currently doing a PhD in Sociology, but would rather be doing Psychology or Philosophy, then obvoiusly the swap after the PhD won't be easy (although not impossible; I was looking a few days ago at a faculty member's CV who was an economist and is now a historian because alongside his original position within an Economic Department, he started doing research and writing + successfully publishing papers on History. After a string of successful publications, he now works as an historian in a History Department). It's not impossible, but it's very rare; and so I assume that there must be good reasons why it's so rare. Change of discipline after a PhD is hard because each department who you apply to work for will require that you have a PhD within that discipline. So if you apply to work in Sociology you need a PhD in Sociology.

As for quitting your PhD, and how this will look on your application, again this depends on what you want to do later. Having an MPhil is no sin - it's a prestigious research degree in its own right. However, should you wish to then apply for a different PhD after you finish your MPhil, then you'd better have a good answer to the question: 'Why did you stop at the MPhil?' Recruiters are interested for various reasons to find out why you didn't finish your PhD. Not the least because MPhils are often (though certainly not always) awarded to those whose research didn't quite match the quality required for a PhD.

So here are your options:

1) Finish your PhD (and do reserach on other areas that you're interested in after you become a doctor, but which are still within the same discipline),

2) If it's your discipline you want to change (i.e. you're doing Finance or Business and now want to do Geography) then finish your MPhil, and apply after that to do a PhD in a  discipline you're really interested in (be prepared though, when you do apply again for a PhD, to have a very strong argument for why you've changed disciplines),

3) If you want to stop and start a new PhD, make sure you've already got a new research proposal in the discipline/field you're interested in, and you've already approached someone (a potential supervisor you're interested to work with) at another institution who's happy to supervise you and has given you the green light to apply for a PhD.

4) You might simply not be sure if a PhD is the right thing for you - its normal for PhD students to have doubts at this stage, and not all of them are well-founded. You might be just going throud 2nd year blues. Try and talk to friends and family as this may be just a passing phase.