Hallo,

this is a general question. What are the possibilities for doing a PhD in relatively short time (1 to 2,5-3 three years)? Having worked at a research institute, I know that usually it takes 4 or 5 years. On the other hand I know that some corporations (e.g. McKinsey) get a some of their employees in special programmes which take only an year. What opportunities have you heard of?

On point that I have noticed is that usually a PhD student spends 30-70% of his time doing teaching and/or industrial related projects. These are not always relevant to his topic. What are the possibilities to cut save this time?

A little background: I am interested in doing a PhD in applied science (most probably a combination of quantitative finance, computer science, and/or math). I have work experience in these fields and plan to finish my M. Sc. by the end of the year. Target institution language: I get well with English, German and most Slavic languages.

Do you happen to know a suitable university/programme?

Thank you in advance!
an optimist

That will let you do it in a year? Not a chance. The minimum registration period is 3 years.

*hysterical fits*

A year? No way. A year, even full time, is just about enough time to do a literature review and start to get a feel for your sources, material etc.

hi optimist,
as far as i understand, in britain you have to be enrolled for three years, no matter how much you have already done before you start (so even if you have been doing a PhD for two years at a different university, and are simply changing uni, you might very well be asked to enrol for the full three years again).
in other countries things are not that strict however. you could try germany or switzerland. as you stated, in these countries some PhDs take a long time because people teach and do research support work for their professors. but this is not a necessary requirement - particularly if you are self-funded, you do not have to do this (although, academic job chances post-PhD are reduced if you do not).

I think (in a science PhD at least) you have to do a minimun of 2 years lab in the lab

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education/courses/research/mphilphd.html

How this translates into other types of PhD, I'm not sure?

but I think 1 year is unlikely

S