Dear all,

I am looking for some advice from people who have taken a leave of absence on their PhD.

I am in my 3rd year and final year of funding, due to submit this November. I am completely stressed out, nowhere finished etc and feel completely depressed. I know I wont be finished this year. I want to take some time of and have some me time over the summer and get my health back on track and get the will to love back again.

Main questions are:

Is it a problem to take a leave of absence on you final year?

When I take the break can I come back and resume the length of time that has already been paid?

I also get a bursary which comes in on July, if i take my leave of absence before this am I still entitled to it? I couldn't work through my gap as i am totally depressed and in need of some time off.

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated

Hey peeps

I really appreciate the feedback and comments there.

I understand and will take on board the pros and cons of the situation and come up with a viable option. IF i decide to go all out and work from home for a while I will discuss and get approval from my advisors first.

thanks again

hi guys and gals....

i was wondering if somebody could chime in here and pass on some words of advice if they can.

I am nearing the end of my second year phd and to a certain extent i am quite happy with what i am doing and have a fair idea what i want and need to do. However, I have a few small problems which really bug me.

1: In the morning I only live about 15-20 miles away from the uni, but at the mo traffic works are a real nightmare and its take me well over and hour, sometimes a lot longer. Then when i come in for my days work at uni, im in a foul mood because of the traffic and it takes me an hour, maybe more to calm down with a coffee and try and get some work done.

2: Our research facility area is complete BS (sorry for the language) but it is. I cannot keep concentration one bit, I am in main thorough fare of people comiing and going. I can hear everybodys conversation and it just reall realy distracts me. Ive tried music etc but doesnt help.

I have spoken to my advisor regarding a desk move to a corner out of the way so that i can get slightly more done, but currently that move hasnt happend.

So question is, would i be better to invest a few pounds and get a good set-up at the house with all the utilies i need and require. I'd roughly safe about 15-20 hours per week on travelling and wasting time.

Also has anybody sucessfully undertaken one from home?

Any words of encouragement or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Hi Arunsam

I have been published in different books and journals from extractions taking from my work in my BSc, however, it was my lecture/supervisor who did the publishing. So i cannot give feedback on how the process went.

I cannot see any reason why your work would not be accepted and published.

Best advice would be to get a paper or an article drafted up, look around for magazines etc in the same field and submitt to them. They can be really helpful and give you really good feedback.

All the best with your furture publications

NeoMagic33

Thats everybody for your helpful and informative replies.

Ill be taking everything that everybody has said on board and putting it into practise.

Many thanks

NeoMagic33

Hi peeps,

I have been registered on the forum for a while but i have never posted a message, I am more of a reader than a writer.

Anyhow, heres my dilemma.

Ill try and give you's as much details as possible and then ask a few q's at the end.

I am currently 13 months into my PhD and did my upgrade to full PhD level about 4 months ago, up until then I was completely motivated and knew what I had to do to achieve this transfer to full PhD. However, since then I have been completely and utterly unmotivated to do anything, I completely hate reading anything and just cant get that urge or spark back to do much. I kind of think its mainly due to having do stick to deadlines. at the min there is none

I have started implementing my proposed framework (original contribution) but cannot decide specifically which angle to tackle.

I have three supervisors, A, B, and C.

Supervisor A, my main supervisor is always on my back about not being uptodate and i should have more done and have made more progress, if i take a day of hes ringing me to see where I am. Which is actually very nice of him, but when we are in uni hes very little help, if i give him anything he says its very good and no problems, but when i give it to the other two they go through it with a fine tooth comb and fine faults and mistakes everywhere.

So questions are:

is my supervisor A actually reading anything and depending on the other two to sort of do his work for him??

Hes full of great ideas but at times i dont know if hes just bluffing me.

Do i just decided what angle to tackle, sit to and implement?

Basically i want this thing over and done with ASAP, which may not be easy, but to speed the process up would i start writing some chapters of my thesis now in conjunction with my framework.

I may need to spend alot of time extra per day, but to get this over and done with im willing to put the time in.

Or do i just kick the bucket and quit?


Any advice would be greatly appreciated peeps


NeoMagic33