I am currently on a funded PhD as part of a Doctoral Training Centre, however I am looking into working part time to supplement this income as an hourly paid college tutor. I would only be working a few hours a week, and I know of other people doing the same PhD who give private music/subject lessons in their own time.

I am concerned about what the repercussions may be if I do take an extra job - any ideas or past stories to tell from similar situations? Would it be more of a problem working for an institution like the college rather than cash-in-hand work? What's the worst case scenario?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Green_pixies

I wonder if this might be of any help?

http://www.findaphd.com/student/funding/Funding-3.asp
(Extract from: Your PhD Companion. (How To Books) by Stephen Marshall & Nick Green)

Hi Reenie,

Thanks for this, however the job I have been offered is at another college, not my university. I've read some details about getting lecturing work etc whilst doing a phd, and this seems fine to do. But, I thought I had also read somewhere that if you are on a fully funded course that if you work a part time job too there is some problem with taxes? And possibly getting kicked off the phd/having to repay money funded? I just wanted to see how true these stories are, and what I am risking if I take the job.

Cheers again!

Hello,

I know at my University that FT funded PhD students are allowed to complete up to 18 hours a week paid work alongside the PhD. It might be worth checking the guidance offered by your University.

PB

I asked this question myself a few months ago prior to starting my fully funded phd, to find out if I needed to quit. What I can tell is that my uni had no real guidlines on this so I emailed my supervisor to ask about it, as he already knew I worked part time as it was on my CV when I applied. The response I got was that it didn't matter but that a full time phd should account for a minimum of 35 hours put into it each week, outwith that he said no one checked and it had never been an issue for students to give up earning a little extra money while the studied as long as they were still putting the work in on their research.

I worked on and off during my (fully-funded) PhD doing a bit of teaching. It wasn't regular hours though, just the odd day here and there. I did tell my superviosrs when I first took the job, but I'm pretty sure they forgot all about it and I just didn't tell them when I was working. At times I was doing 16 or so hours a week, at other times none for a few months. I can't imagine you would get kicked out for it, the absolute worse that could happen would be that they ask you to quit the job. As long as it doesn't have a negative impact on your PhD I'm sure you would be fine. In fact, my uni actively enourage students to take up some demonstrating work etc as it adds to your experience as a student and looks good on the CV! The job I took specifically asked for current PhD students and they regularly hired people from my uni, so obviously none of these students had a problem with working alongside their studies.

In addition to my previous comments, I have just had a quick look at my students handbook from the research council that funded me (BBSRC), and they state that I cannot work for more than 6 hours a week OR one full day a week of teaching. As I said before, I did a bit more than this occasionally, but the average hours over say a year were much less than this, and I didn't work at all in my final year as I was too busy writing up.