I am a third year (international) PhD student, but I have been thinking whether I should finish as a master and do my PhD at the more prestige university. When I stared my Phd, I did not care if the university is prestige or not, but now after attending conferences and meeting other academics, I came to worry how the name of the university may affect on job hunting and other things in my academic life. So, I am thinking that it would be better to get a PhD from a prestige university even though it will take longer than getting a PhD from my current institution. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

books, i would not drop out/change university for just that reason. instead, give some thought to how you can make your degree from the less prestigious institution count. for example, get the best external examiner. this person is very important - if he/she writes references for you, and is very prestigious, nobody cares about the name of your university. or, make sure you get some top quality publications. the extra time you'd invest if you'd start your PhD anew at a new uni is better spent in working on a really good publication, if you ask me.

I would think going to a more prestigious uni gets you more attention when you start out in your academic career.But ultimately your goal as a researcher is to diseminate the results of your research to your peers in order to progress the state of knowledge in your feild and to get recognition for your hard work.

If you publish quality papers in well respected journals, you should be able to get research positions at prestigious universities after your PhD.... but you should consider that the best research group in the particular topic you are research may not be at a so called "prestigious univeristy"

I went to a Uni that is arguably one of the most prestigious universities in the world and many postdocs and lecturers at this uni seem to have come from not very prestigious or well known unis

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate your suggestions. Those are very helpful. I will think about it again.

Hi

If I were you I would carry in with what you're doing concentrate on the quality of your work rather than the reputation of the university - however, if you want to do a different PhD in another field then going back and doing an MA can be a helpful way in. If you're happy with your subject and you're in the arts though, I've been told that getting the PhD under your belt as soon as possible is the best idea... you'll gain your own reputation afterwards once you've spent a few years working... and the uni you went to will seem less important as time goes by.