Hey Bewildered,

Thanks for your advice. Re: minimum candidature, I've checked, and the min. registration period in my situation is 3 years, which is what I'm aiming for anyway.

As I'm presently located off campus, I no longer see my supervisor face-to-face. We communicate over email. So I wonder if the "net" amount of supervision will remain the same seeing how there are no office hours I can make use of. In fact me being off-campus is one of the reasons why I rather not pay full fees - I'm not there making use of any of the resources in person, so why should I!

Thanks Yve! Yes, absolutely, am going to talk to my supervisor. I just wanted to go into the discussion with a general idea of how the part-time/full-time courses of study differ.

Hello,

I'm presently enrolled in a full-time PhD programme and will be finishing up my first year in Jan. A job opportunity that's related to my research has come up, and I'm now thinking of switching to part-time study. In reality it'll be more like 3/4 PhD, 1/4 job, but I like the idea of paying half the school fees, since I'm self-funded.

Is there anything I should consider before doing the switch? Will the level of supervision continue to be the same?

Thanks!

Could you consider using the case-study methodology to narrow your research focus down? As a dear friend reminded me recently, "scoping is everything!" If you don't clearly demarcate your research boundaries, you will feel overwhelmed very quickly. The case-study approach gives you a reason to just focus on one research site, as opposed to many.

A PhD doesn't have to be pretty, just done. It doesn't have to answer all questions and cover all bases. Don't be too ambitious. Do the bare minimum to pass, but do that well. That's my philosophy now.

I think writing your concerns out and speaking to your supervisor about them will still help. You need an objective opinion about your concerns.

Many recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stylish-Academic-Writing-Helen-Sword/dp/0674064488

I've yet to read it (sadly, not a priority at the moment) but the blurb says it's for all disciplines. Don't have a recommendation for something specific on scientific writing, unfortunately.

It depends at what stage of your PhD you're at. If you're in your first year, I think it's normal. If you're into your second or more, the loss of confidence may be temporary. You might just need a break from thinking about the same thing over and over and over again.

I think the best thing to do is to write down why you're unhappy with your research topic, and speak to someone else about it, preferably your supervisor. Sometimes all you need is some perspective and hopefully reassurance.

Also, perhaps you should have a look at how you've phrased your topic and research questions. Personally, I find it helps tremendously if you can list your research questions point by point in plain English. A mass of ambiguous text, written like an abstract, can cause a lot of worry and anxiety because it's easy to conflate the time taken to understand what you're trying to do (ie. read and process what the jumble of words is about) with a lousy topic. Of course this may actually reflect that you don't know what you're doing, but it could also mask the value of your project.

So, try to be as specific as possible. Cut to the chase. It's harder than it looks. You'll need to write many drafts. But I think it's well-worth the effort as the process will help clarify your thoughts.

Use these three questions to ask to guide you:

1. What am I trying to do?

2. Why am I doing it?

3. How am I going to do it?

I'm like Eska. I just can't work on anything for too long. I guess the only way forward really is to break what you need to get done into smaller pieces, and more importantly, just focus on those individual pieces. Do things one at a time. I find if I try to multi-task I freak myself out as multiple problems start coming out from the woodwork, distracting me and causing unnecessary worry.

I think it's important to accept your physiological limitations. I just need more time to do work. I'm envious of others who can work 15 hour days but try as I might, with all sorts of techniques, my body just can't work like that. It got me down for a while, and made me insecure, but I'm slowly coming to accept that's who I am, and I have to be kinder to myself. Such pressure to be "better" is counter-productive.

That said, it's Sunday, and I'm in the library between 2 sniffling undergraduates studying for their exams when so many are out in the sun. I do plan on going for a walk later on at a nearby park, though. Eska is right - just getting out into a park, even for a bit, can make a big difference. A change of environment can work wonders!

Thanks HazyJane!

It's an internal committee. They meet each month. As far as I can tell, I need to submit the application to just one and they'll sort it out for me.

I suppose it's better to see ethics as a process that involves many drafts rather than a one-off affair of submitting the perfect application the first time round.

Hello,

I'm just under 6 months into my PhD programme on a low-risk social science qualitative study involving mainly interviews. My supervisor has suggested I start drafting my ethics application form and send it off as soon as a I can. I had a look at it and it asks for fairly detailed information. I've not finalised my research design so I don't really have all the details I think I need. My supervisor seems quite keen that I get approval ASAP, though.

Is there an advantage doing ethics now, as opposed to later when I have a better idea of what's feasible, and what's not? I suppose one might argue it's always better to have approval now as it's easier to request for an amendment subsequently if necessary, but is that really the case?

When did you guys (working on a low-risk topic) start applying for ethical approval?

Thanks!

I don't think there's anything wrong with you, but you have missed opportunities to make friends and it may now be harder to find them now. It's generally easier to make friends early in the programme when more people are in the same boat as you are, rather than later. It's not impossible, but you'll have to stick your neck out a little more and go out of your comfort zone. You'll have to go out of your way to create the opportunities which, early on in the PhD, may have presented themselves more often.

I don't think people will be averse to welcoming you into their social circles, it's just that they will no longer go out of their way to do so because they're already part of one. The signals you may be getting (that they don't care about you, think you're weird etc.) could be mere indifference because making new friends isn't a priority anymore. There's little incentive, or perhaps time and energy, to do so now. Also, people generally like to stay in their comfort zones.

Don't beat yourself up over this. It's the nature of the PhD - the structure doesn't lend itself conveniently to making friends. Also, you have other friends, which is good. I'd be concerned if you had absolutely no social interaction.

If you really want to, you can remedy the situation with a bit of effort. But I really wouldn't sweat it now, especially at this late stage. My advice is to just treat the PhD like a job now. You have a life outside of it.

Thesis Whisperer (the excellent blog) had a recent post on time-management tips by someone who's doing her's part-time.

Glad you found it useful IntoTheSpiral. If you're familiar with therapy and CBT, there's nothing really new in the book. But what makes it brilliant is it's specifically for PhD students, so the anecdotes and ideas will speak directly to you, and in some instances, very powerfully so. The practical exercises will, at the very least, give you an idea of how to actually move ahead when you feel paralysed.

When I'm feeling down with self-doubt I like to thumb through the earlier sections to remind me that how I'm feeling isn't abnormal and to get some perspective on my thoughts and feelings. I think the isolation of independent research is a huge echo chamber for insecurities so being connected to the experiences of others, either in person (fellow PhD students who are honest with you) or virtually/textually (online forums like this, or books like Finish Your Dissertation), can really, really help you feel better. Just talking and commiserating with others about the woes of your research and finding out you aren't abnormal really helps! In fact, "troubles talk" among PhD students as part of the PhD experience has actually been researched and presented on!

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0158037X.2011.585151#.UadO19KG2uI

I'm sorry to hear so much has happened ... life can really get in the way. And the length of the PhD can really wear you down. It can eventually become like Groundhog Day where each day just repeats itself. But chin up, you can make it if you take a step back, breathe and plan.

You need to break your PhD into as many micro tasks as possible. Such planning will be tedious, even scary, but once you have a time-line of what needs to be done and it becomes a matter of just checking the boxes, it'll be easier to begin with work. Paralysis often happens when you know you have to get something done, but it's just so completely overwhelming that even looking at it makes you sick.

Try to get your hands on this book. It'll tell you how exactly to come up with that plan. I mean it'll literally take you through the process step by step as though you had a therapist by your side (it's the only PhD book of its kind that I've come across!)

http://www.amazon.com/Finish-Your-Dissertation-Once-Psychological/dp/1433804158

If you're really tired, give yourself some time to do this. It's better to be generous with yourself now and produce a plan (you'll also warm yourself to working in that process) than to force yourself to put in the hours without getting anything done.

Hang in there!

Hey!

The first year's always a bit of a mess, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I'm 5 months in too and I wake up every morning freaking out.

One of the unpleasant things about a UK PhD is the tradition of being thrown into the deep-end of the pool. It's the whole "you-are-an-independent-scholar-so-get-on-with-it-by-yourself" attitude. This is supposedly changing with more foundation courses, more avenues for recourse and more support in general, but the change isn't even across the board.

I think you need to focus on your first year report/upgrade. Don't look beyond that for the time being. Just focus on what you need to do to get upgraded, and work backwards to come up with a plan. If there are obstacles which you can't overcome by yourself, for example, the lack of lab assistance, you have to let your supervisor know in no uncertain terms that this is holding you back and this has to be fixed.

One of the personal challenges in doing a PhD is developing really think skin and being comfortable with standing up for yourself. It's really hard if it's not in your personality (like me), but start pushing back. Be very specific in your correspondence (this is my plan, I can't move forward because of XXX therefore I need YYY) and keep a record of it.

It takes a lot of guts to do this but put yourself first. Push back! Ask for what you need. I'm trying to become better at this too rather than keep quiet because of self-doubt/fear of judgement. You may not be the smartest person in your lab, but you've got what it takes, otherwise they wouldn't have accepted you.

Good luck!