Hi all,

I have enrolled on a part-time MPhil/PhD this January. I am being sponsored by my employer- and have just received an addendum to my 'work' contract regarding my PhD funding.

It states that my funding will be 3 years, plus 1 years extension- i.e 4 years in total. However, I am expected to dedicate 17.5 hours a week to my PhD (the rest of the week is taken up with my work duties). I know that at my uni, I the quickest one can complete a PT PhD (as part-time fees are almost half the full time cost) is 45 months, but can take up to 6 years (max). If most fulltime PhD's take 3-4 years, with students spending 30 hours plus a week on their project, does this time scale seem extremely unrealistic!??

What do you guys think? I haven't signed the PhD contract with my employer yet, so can negotiate-request re-wording.

I realise all PhD projects are different (mine is in health sciences/health professions), but how long would many hours would you expect to dedicate a week to finish in 4 years?

My intention is to tell my employer that their time requests are highly unrealistic, and for me to complete in the required time they'll need to allow me to have 25 hours plus a week to spend on my PhD, whilst cutting down my work duties....

However- perhaps Id be better of registering as a fulltime student and ask them to cough up more funding? The point is, they WANT/NEED me to finish as soon as possible- so its in their interest (as I'll be filling a much needed position when im done)...

How can I tackle this to get the best for me? (i.e. milk it, ultimately im the one doing the hard work!)

Thanks for any ideas...stars for all ,-)

Hi Phdee! Well it sounds like a tall order to me! I dedicate around 40-50 hours per week on average to my PhD and I am not expecting to finish until about the 3.5 year mark! So 17.5 hours per week for four years sounds a bit tough. Having said that, there are major differences between projects. My project involves working with people with Alzheimer's disease, and it is very tough to recruit enough participants. Thus my project can only move forward as fast as I can recruit. I could work around the clock to get all the written stuff done but I still can't make my project move any quicker overall than the speed at which I can recruit. So you need to factor in things like that too. However, some projects are based on already existing data, so are less dependent on recruitment and data gathering etc...it is more a case of just doing analyses on data that is already out there and getting it written up. Also worth bearing in mind are issues related to what you are hoping to achieve during that time- are you hoping to publish your work, present at conferences etc? That all takes a lot of time too. Is there some overlap between your job and your PhD? i.e. does your job involve doing stuff that will be part of your PhD or is it entirely separate? If it is entirely separate then I think what they are asking is a bit unrealistic and I would ask for more time to devote to your PhD, but other people on here might disagree of course! Best wishes, KB

Hi KB- 40-50 hours- wow!

I am a lecturer (undergrad), so my work is definately related to my PhD. However, Im registered as a PhD student at another institution, I will do most (if not all) of my data collection at the the institution that I work at (hope that makes sense !). Actually, my second supervisor is my boss/head of dept at my place of work.

It seems they want to squeeze all they can out of me i.e teach/cover required areas plus finish my PhD ASAP- but they have to understand that they cant have it all. I really hope to publish as I go, so you're quite right- thats added pressure/time factors.

I'll be meeting with my sponser/second supervisor/boss to discuss my concerns next week- I just wanted to have an idea what would seem a reasonable time to ask for- Im guessing 25 hours, instead of 17.5...

many thanks

Hi there,

I'm a full time lecturer too and completed my PhD part-time.  It took me 9 years all together although I did have a break of 12 months half way through. Other part timers at my institution who work full time take between 7 and 10 years to complete.  The reality is that it is very difficult to switch between PhD and your job even if your PhD is related to your work. I was given a day a week to work on my research but the problem for me was that my job tended to leak into that day and the weekend too. 

You need to be really tough with your priorities if you're part-time. I allowed my work to take over and I should have learnt to say 'no' sometimes.  In retrospect, it would have better to be full-time but I couldn't afford it.

Think seriously about going full-time if you can.
:-)

Hi there

Doing a PhD part-time in 4 years also sounds unrealistic to me. I'm in social sciences, and like KB, have also always put in 40-50 hours a week, more now that I'm writing up. I'll have done mine in the equivalent of 3.5 years full-time. It's even slower going when you're part-time and have other work commitments, as it's hard to get momentum - you need to get back into the head space of studying and thinking about your area each time. I do far more in 3 stright days that I could do in the same number of hours spread over weeks. Try and find blocks of time. Good luck!

Hello

Hmm. My answer will differ a bit..

I am a fulltime PhD student, absolutely on course to submit under 3 years. I work 3 days a week, of which 2 days are on pan-European and European multi-country research projects which have no specific time allottment. Plus I am very actively involved in speaking at conferences, writing papers, organising events/panels etc. Despite this, and depite my thesis-time being surprisingly 'bursty' although regular, things are on target. I have completed my fieldwork in the first term of my second year and have been writing and re-drafting throughout. I for one, have no idea on the number of hours I spend on thesis, for everything 'else' including the European projects feed into my PhD work.

I have a first draft due in September 2010 with an eye to submit around April 2010 to make the timing for a post-doctoral project that's under planning right now. I pay international fees (which I earn with my 3 days work every week and 4 days during vacations) and there is no feasible way for me to not complete within 3 yrs. It's going well and I think what you say above might be manageable depending on your working style.


I am a very bursty writer - i cannot spend days on end productively on just one thing I do bursts of writing here and there and things build up. For e.g. a conference paper of mine that just got accepted (this evening) at our field's biggest conference (also a version of Chapter x of my thesis) got drafted at a network meeting of one of the projects I work on, so technically it got drafted in 3 days when I was 'working' for money.

So, it's a question of style. I must mention, I am single, have no family to manage and can dedicate every day to my work and thesis. So that's another factor.

Thank you everyone for your advice. It certainly seems that to complete a PT PhD in 4 years you'd have to be putting in close to fulltime hours. I'd love to go full time. At the moment I have all of monday and Tuesday, half of Friday and weekends to commit to my PhD(but want to have some sort of social life, time with girlfriend etc). I'll have to meet with my work 'people'/sponsors and suggest I'd prefer total 'immersion' in my PhD, so can I have more time in the week and more money to pay the full time fees 8-)

I'm thinking a split of 10 hours of 'work work' and 30 plus hours PhD (hopefully as a full timer). I totally agree that you need a good few solid days on the trot to get going, there's nothing worse then having to stop for a day or two when your just getting in to a rhythm.

Will go practice negotiating skills in mirror

Dee
:-)

I will agree with Bug.
I am doing a Part-Time PhD and I am working full-time in Greece.
I am in my second year now, and I have finished with my research and have 3 draft chapters ready (2 lit. review and methodology).
Now, I have to analyse my results and write the whole thing up, which I will be doing for the rest 2 years.
My supervisors believe that I will be finished in 4 years. So, it is manageable.

(I am working 5 days on my "real" job, and every afternoon on my PhD and some weekends. I also have a personal life, although not the one I wanted)