Hello everyone,
I'm a 28 year old architect working in an architectural firm in India.My boss and I have been collecting information for about a year on a subject.We would like to do a PhD together (preferably part-time/long distance)and present the research as an academic paper.But the catch is,that we don't know if there are universities that would allow us to do a collaborative PhD.Has anyone heard of two persons working on a PhD together?Pls advice me.Thank you!

hi rndtransform
welcome to the forum! I have not heard of a collaborative phd --- but I think it is possible -- you first have different aspects in each other's phd -- and then combine them. Phds are supposed to be unique and contributory to knowledge :-) I think its a great idea! Have you identified any potential supervisors, as you'll need some guidance as well.

good luck!
love satchi

Dear Satchi,
Thank you for the response.We have drafted out our proposal outlining the various aspects we'd like to separately focus on (the research involves vasthu shastra & temple architecture among other things).I'd identified PRASADA of Cardiff University under the guidance of Dr.Hardy.But unfortunately, two persons cannot pursue the same PhD in Cardiff and I might end up being a research assistant.They also told us that no university accepts 2 students for the same degree.That's why we wanted to know if such a thing was possible at all.Do have have any idea?
Regards,
Sheerja

No it would not be possible for two people to earn a PhD for the same piece of work. There would need to be two discrete projects even if they were looking at the same site. There would need to be no overlap at all between the written content of the theses. Universities are going to be wary of this proposal because of the risk of collusion and potential plagiarism between the two theses. A PhD is meant to be a qualification showing that the degree holder can carry out research independently and I think they'd be concerned that one or other of you wouldn't be doing that. There's nothing to stop you doing the research and writing a paper together, but as a plan it's probably not suitable for PhD study.
To avoid confusion by the way, the term collaborative PhD in the UK usually refers to a PhD that is a collaboration between industry and the university: a PhD candidate would work on a project important to the industrial partner, and have an industrial and an academic supervisor. So you might see the term but it doesn't mean what you were wanting to do.

quote]

Thank you bewildered!It's true that from the point of view of the university, it's impossible to know each individual's contribution towards writing a paper.I think there's no option but to either publish this research as a book or that one of us ends being a research assistant to the other. Also, I was curious to know if there has been a case where a PhD was awarded to someone for having published a paper/book (without enrolling in a course, I mean)[/quote]
There is something called PhD by publication but it requires a lot more than one article. It's also often only available to members of staff at that institution. I think some Scottish universities are more open to letting others go this route but I think it would need to be a series of single-authored publications in high impact journals / or a book with a top academic publisher. I'm also rather dubious that anyone would be allowed to gain a PhD for work where a portion of the research had been done by a research assistant. I think you might have to choose between your plan to do some research together and your desire to get PhDs out of it.

hi nathaliephd,
Like you said, PhD by publication is a route that we could consider. I've heard of only one university in the UK that accepts this (Roehampton). Answering your question, we have been collecting this information, initially to present it in a conference (although it was just info collected from various sources), then we thought of writing an original research based on the ideas presented in the sources and developing on them and testing them on a built form (in this case, documenting a temple).