A friend of mine has suspended their PhD for at least 6 months on medical grounds. She's expressed the wish to continue working on her PhD throughout this time however, which I told her was kind of defeating the object of suspending in the first place. She had health problems before she suspended, so she had a few months where she didn't produce anything for her PhD, and wants to 'catch up' on that. I have checked in our university regulations, but it doesn't say anything in there about this.

Does anyone know if the work she does over her suspension will be allowed to be included (as her supervisors know what stage she's at right now), or whether there could be any other consequences? She is aware that she won't get any supervision during this time, but is determined to do it anyway.

I am currently on a suspension of studies from my PhD in order to work as a research assistant on another project, with my supervisors blessing. Before I started my suspension I asked my university if I could include the extra research in my thesis and they said yes. I think their attitude was they wouldn't know if I did the research during my PhD or during the suspension, so they might as well allow it. It also helps I am still talking with my supervisor regularly. Your university might be different but they might have the same indifference as mine.

I took a suspension for a few months during my PhD on health grounds. I did do some work on the writing of chapter and papers- on the days that i felt like it ( which were very few). My superviser argee that I could do this but there was no pressure to, We also argee that I would send one of them an email every two weeks to check it and to keep them infomred.
If its a lab based project, I doubt she will be able to on health and saftey and insurance grounds. I know I wasnt allowed into the lab. If her supervisor know where she at, that must be willing to let her catch up when she back. If it was me I would take the time needed to get better and when they arrive back have a mangable plan of action on how they will complete the needed work.

My university is pretty hot on making students use their suspension time for recuperation rather than work, so that the student can hit the ground running when they return. She has a pretty poor relationship with her supervisor, so I doubt she will willingly keep in contact during her time away.


I've told her that there is no expectation to do work while she's away, but as she had a period where she was actively enrolled but did no work, I think that's eating away at her more than anything else. Her problems are pretty severe (mental health related), it's got to the point where she is so unwell that she has no choice but to suspend. I don't think she has great insight into her difficulties, so I don't think she has a clear idea of how she'll spending the next few months and what she needs to do to recover.