Joseph
Is 50% of a standard work week sufficient for a part-time PhD?
I'm starting out on a part-time employer-sponsored PhD after spending a few years in industry. My employer has given me 50% of my usual work-week time - ie about 19 hours a week (flexibly scheduled to suit me, not a strict pattern)- to work on the PhD research work, with the expectation that the PhD is spread over double the full-time number of years. I know PhDs have a reputation for long hours - although I don't know to what extent this reflects the workload coming in fits-and-starts vs a steady workload; how much is down to poor student time management leading things to be packed in last-minute, and how much this reflects the workload *actually* being higher.
Averaged over a year, how many hours a week is typically actually needed for a PhD? Is my work allocation enough, or do I necessarily need to put in outside-of-work hours to ensure I complete in time? If so, roughly by how much should I expect to need to put in?
1 answer
Karin P.
Karin’s Answer
How much time you need to commit for a PhD (and how flexible that time commitment is) depends a lot on the field and also on your supervisor. STEM majors tend to have a much higher time commitment than e.g. humanities. Many STEM topics are also much less flexible because you need to make best use of e.g. instrument time or suitable seasons for field work.
The time commitment also depends what you want to do with the degree: Do you just need a title for further promotion in industry? Or do you want a career in academia? In the first case you might just be interested to get through with as little difficulty as possible. In the latter case you may want a challenging topic that can lead to many publications and form the foundation of your future career as a researcher.
There is no one-size-fits-all to this. I would recommend that you have some frank discussions with prospective supervisors so you are on the same page with regards to expectations. A supervisor in a competitive program at a very research-intensive university will probably expect a much higher time-commitment than someone at a lower tier institution. Someone with supervising experience and a track-record of getting students graduated on time might be better suited to make sure the topic is well defined and doable.
Time management is certainly also a factor. Being a more mature student with industry experience can be a big advantage there.
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
Thanks for the answer - I figured probably "it depends" is a fair assessment. I'm in physics, and at a fairly good university with a good reputation for the subject, so imagine it will be on the higher end from that perspective. In terms of motivation, it's partly needing the title for advancement, but also about building research skills - not strictly for a future in academia, but certainly for tackling research projects in industry - so I'm partly looking to get through the process without too much hassle, but also aiming to upskill in all the right areas too.
Joseph