PhDs and working part time

kellyi3

Hi all,

I'm midway through the first year of my PhD and am slowly but surely running into financial difficulties. The PhD was advertised as fully funded including fees and a stipend but a few weeks before starting (and a long while after accepting) I was told this was not the case. Although the college has informed me they will pay my tuition they did not tell me this until after I had paid my tuition. They said my name had slipped through the administrative cracks. This has not really helped me out as I didn't actually have the fee money in the first place so I'm caught in a vicious circle so to speak.

There is a glimmer of hope though, a part time opening has come up in my old job that has been offered to me. The catch is, I'll have to take the post up at the start of February. The job is demanding but the pay is good and would leave me financially more secure than if I had to rely on IRCHSS. The only issue though is that I have two taught modules that I must take until the end of April and I don't know what days these modules are scheduled for. I do know the days I would have to work and if I knew both I could hopefully work a compromise out. I have applied for other funding and grants but nothing has come out of it and I am aware that some of my fellow PhD students are working part-time to stay afloat.

What I'm curious to find out if anyone has done a full time PhD while working part time and what your experiences were? I'm well aware that working part-time will likely impact my PhD, in fact I'm pretty sure it will. My concern is that I will not get IRCHSS funding as my topic is not exactly 'sexy' or 'current' and from speaking to people who have applied to IRCHSS in the past and reading threads here I have come to the conclusion that IRCHSS is as much luck as anything else. From my experience of applying for a fully a PhD that was advertised as funded I think it is safe to say I cannot rely on my getting an IRCHSS scholarship.

Again I would just like to hear from anyone who would have any insight into my predicament. I'm aware that I may sound like I'm trying to have it both ways but I'm seriously concerned regarding my financial stability and the ability to do a PhD in the long term without some kind of income especially as the postgraduate grant will now no longer be automatic and if universities budgets are being cut to the bone.

Any words of advice would be welcome.

Thanks

stinkle

Hi there,

I didn't do any part time work myself, but I know a few people who did. All would have been doing lab-based PhDs too, so it would have been like two jobs really! Plus it can be hard to schedule lab stuff (it always takes longer than you think!!! Especially when you have to be somewhere at a specific time) They managed though. Make sure your college doesn't frown upon it though - some places don't like "moonlighting". Also, see can you get those tuition fees reimbursed to you, with the way funding is going you're better off getting it back asap if you can! SU might be able to help, and if your college has an assistance fund, then contacting the SU could help you apply for that if you need it if the job doesn't work out. Good luck!