Career questions tagged doctoralstudies
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?
Advice for a mature student part-time PhD?
Having previously finished my studies at Masters level and after spending a number of years in industry in operational technical roles, I've started doing more research work and found myself underqualified for research positions, having not originally completed a PhD. I'm fortunate that my employer has been able to support a part-time PhD to rectify this - however, as someone coming back into University as a part-time mature student, what change of mindset from my current industrial work approach do I need to be successful in a PhD and in research work?