PHD Abroad

cagefan

Hello,

I am considering doing a phd in the UK and was wondering from your own experiences would it be possible to be based away from the university for part of each week say come back to Ireland on Thurs evening- to monday morning. I know each Phd is different but just in general!!

thanks

El Siglo

What are you thinking of doing your project on? I would say it's very possible actually, a few lads here in QUB only come into work maybe once or twice a week and stay home and work the rest of the week. If you've lab work it might be a different kettle of fish, I know those two lads have a small amount of lab work which they do come in for a continuous period for.

cagefan

thanks El Siglo. so Im not sure what lab work is really involved!

El Siglo

cagefan wrote: »

thanks El Siglo. well its on ocean acidification and carbon dioxide so Im not sure what lab work is really involved!

Sounds like an interesting project, I would say (and I'm only just guessing here) that it would involve a fair bit of lab work. I'm doing delta sediments but will be starting the lab work some time this month. It all depends really, the early months of the PhD can be just reading, and site visits. I ended up doing field work and getting cores within the first two months but I know other people that have went out late in 1st year, early in 2nd year, so it can be highly variable.

djpbarry

cagefan wrote: »

I am considering doing a phd in the UK and was wondering from your own experiences would it be possible to be based away from the university for part of each week say come back to Ireland on Thurs evening- to monday morning.

I'd be surprised if a prospective supervisor would be happy with you being away so often - it's going to put severe limitations on your time, not to mention a severe strain on your finances!

cagefan

Thanks, that is something I'd have to consider alright, although I probably wouldn't advertise the fact and just play it by ear. Altho I wouldn't want it the project to suffer because of it tho.

postgrad23

If you have funding you probably won't be allowed to work four days a week because you'll be being paid and not putting in the hours. Most of the funded PhDs in my dept do 6 days in the lab a week. The thing with lab work is, you can't take a "reading day" every week because you read during the day, while you're waiting for experiments to run.

If you are funding it yourself and through teaching, you can take as many years as you like to finish a PhD. I know people who've taken 7 years, so it is allowed.