Length of PT Phd?

eclectichoney

Hi

I am working FT at the moment so am interested in doing a PhD PT - in the area of human/social sciences. The prospect of 6 years seems very daunting though! I am generally someone who applies themselves pretty well though - would it be possible to complete it in say, 4 years if you really worked hard (e.g using annual leave, and most weekends, as well as maybe a few days study leave you could get from your employer)? I know it is incomparable - but I completed my 20,000 word Masters thesis in 2 months so am not afraid of hard work.

Thanks!

Mardy Bum

Most people just about get a Ph.D completed in four years doing it FT never mind PT so Im not sure if it would be possible. I don't think completing a Master's thesis is really comparable either in terms of research and expertise involved.

Dubwat

I did my PhD (science/fulltime) 15-odd years ago and I think the limit was 7 years from the time you started your PhD? I think you could get extensions past the 7 years but you needed a very good reason. Might be different now?

Apart from self-motivation, I'd say your biggest problem will be funding it.

Tom Dunne

Yeah, 6 years is normal, part time.

I've just started mine, also in the social sciences (education) and it will take me 6 years, at an absolute push, 5, I've been told.

And I get 4 weeks study leave from my employer, along with 6 weeks annual leave.

eclectichoney

Thanks guys - that's what I thought. I guess I have just heard several 'stories' of people getting it done in 3 years PT in the social sciences! :eek::eek:
Also I was obviously not making any comparison between a masters and a PhD, just using it as an indication of my willingness to work.

Powerhouse

eclectichoney wrote: »

Thanks guys - that's what I thought. I guess I have just heard several 'stories' of people getting it done in 3 years PT in the social sciences! :eek::eek:
Also I was obviously not making any comparison between a masters and a PhD, just using it as an indication of my willingness to work.

I would presume that a fair bit depends on the discipline, the topic and the nature of the sources. It is hard to imagine that all topics magically take exactly the same time e.g. 6 years PT.

Also something must count in relation to prior knowledge. For example, if someone is proposing to do, say, a History PhD on a broader topic where they have already completed a Masters' dissertation on a narrower aspect, they must surely have an advantage in knowledge of many aspects of literature, sources and archives (if the latter is relevant) and in many cases in the relevance of research done - especially if they have done their Masters' research with one eye on the future and harvested relevant material so they do not have to revisit every archive.

And a lot must surely depend on the time you have and your personal application to the process. I know people who have taken years to do PhDs but they have included an awful lot of downtime in that. I would say that clarity of topic and purpose from the outset would be an enormous help to the eventual outcome.

I'm throwing that out in a devil's advocate spirit and am happy to be taken to task on it but I just am sceptical of the view that there is a linear relationship in terms of likely duration between FT and PT PhDs or any other endeavour. And also find it hard to credit that all PhD theses will necessarily take the same time to complete irrespective of subject, content and nature of source material.