Is it just me or is the current structure of PhDs out-moded, outdated and overly stressful?

The well-known phrase 'Novel and Substantial' has left me with a prescription for tranquilisers. It took me 2.5 years to teach myself the knowledge and skills needed to work on novel things. Now I have 6 months to get 3 years' worth of 'substantial'.

Then there's the gut-wrenching, lying-awake-at-night-sobbing terror caused by the fact that it still possible that I can fail to collect any degree at all! Wasting years of my life and thousands upon thousands of pounds of taxpayers money.

I work hard (min 45 hours each week) - but this is not assessed
I keep excellent lab books - these are not assessed
I have heaps upon heaps of raw data (all of it processed), which is not suitable for my write up - and is therefore not assessed.
I have developed my skills and learned (self-taught of course) advanced topics - this will only be assessed at the viva, and even then, not very much as they tend to focus on the basics (ie stuff I've known for years!)

What will be assessed is the fantastically difficult experiments that I have yet to get to work in a reliable manner, with each experiment requiring weeks of preparation.

Does the following not seem a better (more productive and less stressful) way of doing things...

1)Make a PhD equivalent to 540 credits at PG level (180 credits each year, MSc/MA - then MPhil - then PhD)
2) Feedback to students that if things do go pear-shaped, they can 'fall back' to their last 'degree point' and graduate with no further work
3) Assign credits to things like quality of research notes, storage/filing of raw data, presenting research to professional/lay audiences, undergraduate teaching, etc

Any Thoughts?

I agree with you, I wish things were easier and more structured so we had options if things start to go wrong. Equally I wish we were assessed more on our practical skills as researchers!

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time, if it's any consolation I know how you feel, as do many others on this forum! You can get it done, you just have to be pragmatic about how you write up. Not most academic's favourite word I'm afraid, but it can be done. You might want to check out the three month thesis website (some guy wrote his up in 3 months and passed!) for some tips.

I think someone once said on this forum that PhD stands for permanent head damage... I think that sums it up really...!