Hi all,

I'm currently doing an MA Education and am considering doing a part time PhD afterwards. My question is will my MA give me any exemptions on the expected 5 years for pt? I've read in various PhD handbooks that the first two years of part time (1 year of full time) are probationary and if students have a masters in a related field them this period can be excluded, is this standard practice?

Cheers

Only if your PhD topic is an extension of your MPhil research topic.

I think that bit means that you could be registered directly for a PhD rather than having an initial MPhil registration and going through upgrade. It doesn't mean the overall length of the PhD would shorten and TBH 5 years is very optimistic for a part-time PhD - most people take longer.