Hi guys,

I have recently had a part time PhD accepted and due to start in April. However recently I have been thinking of whether I can do it full time and want to know how many hours a week would you say defines 'full time' study.

I am lecturing full time at college at the moment and am considering significantly reducing my hours to two days a week next year. This will leave me at least three week days a week to focus and study on my PhD.

My question is: 'Would three days a week focussed on my PhD be enough to enrol and study on a full time basis and look to finish in a 3-4 year time frame'? Or would you advise 3 days a week to study on a part time basis? Maybe someone who has been through this or is going through this can help?

Many thanks for your advice

======= Date Modified 07 Feb 2010 22:44:39 =======
Hi Neo,

I am a part-time PhDer and am an hourly paid lecture in HE, so maybe I can give you some insight. I think three full days a week on the PhD could be ok for 3-4 year finish, I know people who have done that - but I also think it depends on your individual PhD and how you work, and how much of your weekends you can give up for study. I think you would have to be careful that your job didn't leech into your studying time to and be strict about that - from what I see around me two days per week lecturing in HE does not translate directly and people usually end up doing more than that. I think what you teach also matters, if your teaching feeds directly into your reseacrh topic that would help, but that doesn't always happen - I teach a million and one things that are not my research areas and that makes things harder.

Are you lecturing in FE or HE? Because I think if you're in HE it would be worth considerng staying full-time and PhDing part-time, it's hard to find a post when you have finished the degree.

Hi Neo,

Im in the same boat as you. Started a PT PhD in jan, and have dedicated 3 days plus bits at the weekend. My sup says its very possible for a under 4 year finish (the quickest you're allowed to finish as a PT student), but Im not so sure if its possible.

However, I asked a similar question on here a few weeks ago, and also have spoken to some other PhD students- and the message is 'if you can go full time, go full time'. I lecture 2.5 days a week, but want to strip it down to 1.5 (10 hours a weeks) and transfer as a full timer. It's a financial pain, but think that total immersion will be the most efficient and also the most enjoyable...

At my uni you can switch between Ft and PT, you could try going PT for your first year, then FT during data collection...

Good luck

:-)

There's a few threads around like this, so do a bit of a search and see what others have said. Yes, it does depend on your discipline and how you work, how fast you can write, how many conference papers and journal articles you also want to get published. I started off part-time, found it too hard to keep juggling between work and study, and didn't get enough momentum going, so I went to full-time. This is much better - total immersion is the way to go.

I've always worked about 50 hours a week as a full-time student, more now that I'm writing up. I'm not the fastest writer and am doing lots of rewriting, and have also done lots of conference papers etc, which has slowed me down a lot. 3 days wouldn't be enough for me to do a full-time load, but there are others on here who seem to be able to manage it.

Hi guys, thanks for the info so far.

I'm teaching in FE at the moment however that does entail some HE hours at Foundation degree level at the college where I work. I just feel I'd prefer to do this full time if I can and complete in 3-4 years and so I'm willing to take the hit financially as far as possible by working as minimal hours as possible to pay the bills and keep afloat.

However on the otherhand I don't want to enrol on a full time basis and find that three days a week isn't enough, however the big advantage I have is the holidays I will get also.

Hey Neo, as the others have said, it really depends on your PhD. I couldn't complete mine within 4 years on 3 days per week and do everything I wanted to do within that time (publishing, conferences, supervising MSc students etc) but then I spend a lot of my time out testing patients which pretty much has to be done between 9-5 on weekdays, and everything else has to fit around it. I usually work 9.30am-6.30pm ish on weekdays and usually do extra at the weekends too, though not always. I anticipate that when I am writing up I will need more hours on top of this, so part time simply wouldn't be an option for me. However there are people in other departments who don't have the same sort of restrictions on when they have to do their work, so it is possible in some cases depending on your subject. Personally if you can, I would go full time, but I guess it works differently for different people! Best, KB

Thanks for your info, I think I'm leaning towards full time after your advice. I completed an MSc (by research) whilst working full time in a year and so I think if I set my mind to it I can do it. The field will be within sport & exercise science and will have testing dates probably every 6 weeks or so and so will not have constant contact with testing.

I think at my uni you can switch from PT to FT or vice versa and so will see what they can do.

Thanks again guys, you've been most helpful