Hi Everyone,

Sorry if this is covered in another thread, but I couldn't find anything that matches my particular predicament.

I'm one of those mythical beasts: the fee-paying phd student. My School is strapped for cash (they tell me) and can't offer funding to every student. They are so strapped for cash that they also can't offer any teaching hours to students who aren't already receiving funding and therefore teach for "free". Each time I ask my supervisor about getting any hours at all, even for free, he tells me there's nothing he can do. So I'm midway through my second year and getting ready to do my fieldwork. Am I wasting my time? I can't imagine I'm going to have much luck in competing for jobs with phds who have been teaching for four years.

Frustrated.

Thanks.

Whether you are wasting your time or not depends on your motivation for doing the PhD - if it's only to try and gain academic employment then you do need to have a long hard look at how many jobs there are in your field versus how many PhD students and see whether it looks realistic or not. If as I suspect you are in Mod Lang (username) then I think you do need to be very very hard-headed about this as given falling undergraduate applications. If on the other hand the project is something that fascinates you and you feel that however things turn out job-wise that you won't regret doing the PhD then no you're not wasting your time (even if others think you're crazy). On the teaching hours, you're right teaching experience does matter increasingly especially in humanities and social science. Have you sent your cv to nearby universities, who offer courses that you could teach, asking to be considered for any hourly paid teaching they have available? It's worth a try plus if you are in mod lang, it's worth trying continuing eductation programmes as they often offer language classes.