Hi, I have been offerred a funded PhD and will be starting it this October. How does it work with time off from University? Do you have a set days of leave? I will be moving away from home to a different country...would it be possible to arrange to be working at home (e.g. when you are writing up, or doing literature search for periods of time e.g. 2 weeks at Christmas, Easter etc or something of the sort?...(I understand I need to be at the University all the time during experiments)...What is the situation with yourself?

Thank you

hi ailicec CONGRATULATIONS!!!
are you excited? :-) :-) :-)
I guess it also depends on the funding; I'm funded by the university, I'm considered a student and do not have any specific set days of leave. Yes arrangements can be made when you are writing up etc. When I go somewhere (whether its a few days or a few weeks) I always inform my supervisor. As long as you maintain communication with your supervisor (your first port of call), it should be ok.

love satchi

It depends a lot on your supervisor and also whether you're doing a lab subject, which I guess you are from mentioning experiments. Usually there will be an official number of days stipulated however it's usually pretty flexible. It's certainly worth asking your supervisor when you have your first meeting what their expectations are about it - I barely saw my supervisors over Christmas and uni Summer holidays as they were often away so they weren't really that bothered whether I was at Uni or not.