It varies by individual course so you will have to make detailed enquiries about the courses you're considering. I took a part-time Masters several years ago, and it was structured around weekly afternoon seminars/lectures, one day a week. More recently my course has changed to be taught in the early evening, to make it easier for full-time workers to attend.

As for PhD funding I self-funded my first PhD year (after deciding very late to go on to a PhD) and applied for AHRC funding for the rest of my part-time PhD. I was successful, even though only about 1 in 5 of applications are. I don't consider my part-time status to have put me at any form of disadvantage. Would you be aiming to study a PhD part-time though? In some subjects availability of part-time PhD is much rarer.

What about the possibility of the Aberdeen expert acting as a second/supporting supervisor? You could travel up to Aberdeen occasionally to see him. It's not that long a train journey ;-) As for your PhD dissertation being an extension of the undergrad one that shouldn't be a problem, and would mean you are well grounded in the basics. But you will have to develop it considerably both in depth and quantity of work to raise it to PhD level.

Good luck. By the way my first degree was in computing at St Andrews, before there was a separate computer science building. Many of my computing lectures were in the Maths building, and the 2nd year and honours computing labs were in the basement there.

I'd recommend contacting any universities you're considering and asking them straight out what their idea of part-time is. I studied a part-time Masters and it was based around an afternoon session each week. There were people who were working in the class, but they had to adjust to slightly less than full-time to fit in this session every week.

I took a 5 month medical break in 2007 and returned to my (part-time) PhD afterwards. I found returning fine: once I'd drawn up a list of things to be getting on with I could start to tackle the items that looked most appealing, and built up my confidence and working pace. I've since written almost all of my thesis, and am close to finishing, though I have a bit more research to do to plug a gap, so am not quite at the end yet. Go for it! And look after yourself.

Hi Heifer,

Re 'To what extent should you let the development of ideas and approaches come through in the thesis, and to what extent should you write it as though you knew what you were going to do and say all along?' I think it varies by discipline and also supervisor. I used to be a science (computing) PhD student and was much more expected to write about the process. Now over a decade later and I'm writing up a humanities PhD I've been advised very much against this by my supervisor, who says I should write about my findings rather than the journey. I've had to rewrite quite big chunks of my chapters to suit his requirements, but I agree that in my (now!) field this does seem to be the standard approach. This doesn't rule out my having a lengthy discussion about the journey with examiners in the viva.

Also good luck Rubyw with pushing to the final draft. I'm currently writing my conclusions chapter 7, and revising chapters 1-6 - all meant to be finished by March/April. But I have just over 2 years left (part-time) and know that I need to complete a bit more research to plug a gap. So I'm not aiming at the finishing post yet. But I wish you luck with yours.

Bilbo

If you will be funded by a named funding council the information would often be available on their website, perhaps in a downloadable annual guide for award holders. Or you could ask the council what their regulations are.

I quit a full-time funded PhD over a decade ago. I didn't have to pay anything back, though I might have quit just at the point I was due another stipend payment, which took care of things. There was a consequence for my department: it reduced how many future funded studentships they would receive. This was very sad, but I couldn't continue. I'd developed a serious long-term illness (progressively incurably so) and since going part-time wasn't an option (I'd pleaded with the funding council to support this to no avail) I had no choice but to quit. It was a very difficult decision, but one of the best ones I made. Good luck.

Well I must be doing a PhD by research then. No coursework for me :) But you still need to allow time to do a meaningful amount of research, and then the thesis writing. I think 2 years is very impractical.

I'd agree with Rubyw about possibly going for a longer break. I took a 5 month break on medical grounds in 2007, and really benefited from the chance to recharge my batteries and recuperate (I'm long-term ill) before returning to the PhD. I doubt that a much shorter break would have done me much good. I plumped for 5 months in the end (it was my choice how long I took off) because it tied in with returning to the studies at the start of the academic year in October, and my funding council will only allow a total of 12 months of break during a PhD and I wanted to keep time in hand for later in case I needed another break.

As for arranging the break it took my funding council a while to approve it, so much so that we had to chase them on the day I was meant to be starting the break to say whether I could start then or not. It also had to be approved by university authorities, but that seemed to be a formality. I needed a GP's letter to negotiate the break with the funding council (my bunch only allow breaks for medical reasons or maternity leave) but everything was simple to sort out.

Good luck!

I don't have a choice in this matter: my university specifies double-spacing in the regulations. But for day-to-day editing I prefer single-spacing because it gives me a better overview of the chapters and their content.

The amount increases each year.

A grant runs for the duration of the PhD, or at least enough years to complete it all going well. I had an EPSRC grant over a decade ago.

Congratulations Rah! Wonderful news.

It really does vary by subject, and also university. I'm humanities too and must aim for between 80,000 and 100,000. Which is hard.

What is your subject area DoingPhD?

Huge congratulations Sarah! I've heard of a few people lately who were referred at their viva but got through in the end. Stories like yours are very encouraging because I'm not expecting my viva to be plain sailing by any stretch! Nice to know things can turn out well in the end.