Hi!!

I am hoping to do a part-time PhD in Canadian film at Birmingham Uni (as it is the only one that specialises in this area of research). However I am 30 and live and work in London and completely moving up to Birmingham as a part-time student is not really an option!! London has a great range of resources like the BFI, British Library etc so I think that I will be about to conduct most of the research down South. Birmingham is only 2 hours away on the train so I could get up there for meetings, tutorials, library visits etc...

If there anyone else out there who is doing a part-time arts/humanities PhD living away from their university, I would really love to hear from you about your experiences!

Thanks

Kate

I am doing a P/T PhD in UK and I am living away from my uni (I am living in Greece, to be exact).
I meet with my supervisors every three months and we discuss my progress. Between these meetings we have email contact and I am sending them whatever I write.
I like this system, as I am in control of my research... Well, as a matter of fact, it couldn't have been different, as I am workinh full-time here as a special needs teacher and I can't leave my job to study....
But, of course it can be done. Especially if you have access to libraries and matterial that may be needed to your research

I'm doing a full-time PhD in humanities and I'm about an hour away from my university which is very manageable. I wouldn't want to be much further away as it would prevent me being able to go in to teach and attend classes, research seminars etc without spending a lot of time and money in travel. From a research perspective definitely very helpful to be in London but you might want to consider realistically how often you'll need to go in: ask your prospective supervisors how often they'd want to see you in person, and anything else they'd want you to attend. We have research training sessions and I sit in on some classes (there are certain things we said I'd learn in my funding application which are generally useful for the subject, eg. languages). There's also a dept requirement to attend weekly research seminars and I try to get to as many of these as possible. Some depts also have a requirement that you live a certain distance from the uni in your first year but I don't know if this applies to Birmingham or if they would be more flexible if you're p/t. I don't want to put you off as I certainly think it's manageable, just thought you'd like to know what sort of things you might need to consider! :-)