Hello
I'm a full time academic in my early 50s, currently an undergraduate programme leader, with some masters teaching load in addition. I am also a full time single parent (widowed) with two children in secondary school. I have no family support to call on - nearest grandparents are 2 and 1/2 hours away, in their late 70s.

My employer is requiring/coercing all academic staff at .5 and above to undertake a part time PhD, and has alluded that failure to gain a PhD will be taken as evidence of not performing to contract.

It is difficult to find information on total hours a PhD takes; I have come across 'total' figures from 6500 hours upwards. The figure of 17.5 hours a week (some 4500 total) on a part time route has also come up.

If I look at my working week with rosy spectacles, and everything with children, household and work going to plan, I can imagine getting the children off to school at 7.30, and making a start at 8, scheduling teaching commitments to start at 10, and getting in 2 hours a day. I can also try to ring fence a day a week where I get my head down in the library, and avoid emails and my students.

If I were able to stick to this religiously, and not get sucked into emails, teaching prep and meetings, this would give me, on the face of it, some 4200 hours over 6 years part time. Of course I'm aware that many things are likely to erode this, but does this sound remotely doable?


Much as I enjoy research, and am willing to undertake a PhD, I am, frankly frightened that the workload and stress this will bring will impact on the health and well being of both me and my children.

Any thoughts, observations, ideas would be appreciated.

honestly, I haven't met any academic people who can keep a work-life balance.

My supervisor even told me- "if you want to stay in academia, say good bye to work-life balance".

I would be interested to know whether there are odd cases though.

Thing is, you have to work around the PhD not the other way. As a father of a 16 month old, I go to sleep when she does, wake up at 3 and whatever time I get between then and when she wakes up is my guaranteed daily research time. Since I am full time I do get more done, but if I were working full time as an academic with papers to correct, classes to prepare for etc...I'd probably have to sit down with the wife and start with

"Honey....just because you don't see me, does't mean I don't live here..." LOL

But seriously though, why do you want the PhD? Unless you absolutely want to be a research academic at the bleeding edge of your field OR you want to consult for the private sector, I say think hard about it. The pay OK..but not much more than what you can earn teaching like you are. Im interested to hear your motivation.

I'm actually really surprised they are trying to force you guys to do a PhD. That is crazy! Even if it's a 15 hour per week commitment, it sounds doable - but for 6 years?! That's a ridiculous expectation in my opinion. You have to really want to do a PhD to be able to stick to doing one part time. Employer coercion does not fit into this category.

Hi toggle,

from the little experience I have, teaching takes away a lot of time. Together with having a family, I can tell that your day is pretty full already.

Part-time PhD students tend to do their PhDs as part of other research projects they are already involved (and getting paid for). I would suggest the alternative "PhD by publication" if it is an option in your university: normally requires 3 journal papers, and an introduction and discussion chapter that brings everything together. I think it is less time consuming than a traditional PhD, and to my opinion, more useful for the academic community.

Other things you need to consider is get some help at home, which will free up some time. (A person coming once a week and cleaning, cooking in bulk, ironing etc.) If you can work on your PhD the weekends and one day per week, I think it is doable. Good luck.

Hi toggle,

I've heard a few places are doing this and sadly you probably do need to take the vague threats seriously, as performance management seems to be the new university HR term for bullying until you resign. Particularly so if you are anywhere where there's any threat to the viability of your subject area, as the PhD seems to be the basic entry qualification for any full-time academic post these days. And let's face it, universities are not renowned for treating their staff well these days.
I think it is possible but unlikely to be particularly pleasant. Can you give us a sense of what sort of subject area you are in? Would you need to do experimental work or field research for example? Or visit archives? Those are the more difficult things to schedule around a full-time job. The type of PhD that is most appropriate might flow anyway from that sort of consideration, but otherwise what are the normal research expectations for your post? Are you in a department that is returned to the REF and so expected to be producing REFable publications as well? If so, find somewhere that will let you do it by publication. If you're regularly turning out 3* work then that's the best route to go. If your university doesn't offer that option then one of the Scottish ones (Stirling??) does. You still have to register there for the standard period, but you may as well kill two 'research output' birds with one stone. If you've not published much and / or feel less confident about your research then maybe doing the standard PhD might be better. If you are going to have a supervisor though, I'd suggest registering at another university even if it means paying fees, as a supervisor from your own department, especially if it's someone you normally outrank has the potential to be horribly awkward.

Hi there. I think it can be done but it is really understandable to have concerns about work/family/life balance and how you will manage it.

The reality is many many people have completed PhD's while working full time, some with families, etc. But that doesn't make it easy and you do need to think about how you will manage it all.

Your plan sounded really good to me. I am just coming up to 3 years, and with regard to work load am about half way through my part-time PhD. I will probably take up to another 3 years to finish it. I work as a Deputy Principal of a large Catholic College and my day job is very very full. But I use my holidays to maximum advantage, use long weekends when they happen, spend roughly a day of each weekend working on it, and in peak times, I also spend a few hours in the work week transcribing interviews or doing little admin or reading tasks.

I still have some time off for other things (but not a lot), I run 2-3 times a week and try and squeeze a gym visit in once a week. My children have now left home, so in this I do have an advantage, and I see clearly why you are concerned about managing given that you have teenagers and not much family support but it can be done. I have a fortnightly cleaning service and monthly gardening service to help me with upkeep to home. I still go out for dinner or lunch at times, manage the social events that are work based and keep up with friends and family-but obviously not to the same extent that I would have if I wasn't studying. Things have had to be put off and choices made-and this still bothers me from time to time. Weighing against this, is the fact that this PhD won't last forever and while 6 years seems daunting at the start, from my perspective half-way through, well I can see an end point now and I'm glad I'm doing it. I will also be glad when it is over. It will be a useful qualification and it will make a difference to my career-but in a professional sense-I won't be an academic at the end of it and I am okay with that.

If your employer insists on this, (and as Bewildered said, it is a common expectation of academics nowadays -not teachers or others but academics-yes) and you are full-time, can you negotiate some time from work to complete the doctorate? As in, are you able to drop some other commitment -or will your workplace pay for fees and costs? Also, will they allow you, given your difficult family circumstances, to commit to this but to delay the start for a year or so-that might help with managing it a little.

Best of luck-I think you could do it and I think your plans are very reasonable, but I also understand very much why you have reservations. However, these reservations may be able to be overcome in one way or another.

Is there anyone who knows about employment law on here? I'm not 100% sure they can legally dismiss you for not doing a PhD if the qualification wasn't required when they made your employment contract. I think if they want to change the terms of contracts to say all staff need PhD they have to consult with the Union as they'll effectively be terminating the original contract to state the new terms and conditions of the post?

Good point wowzers - although having worked in HR myself, a 'good' HR person (from the employer's perspective) could use the 'any other duties as required by the employer' clause if it's there. They may have trouble justifying it as being reasonable I expect. It would be good to hear what the contractual perspective on this is.

If my own contract is anything to go by, then the vagueness works massively in the employer's favour. It reads something like perform duties in teaching, research and administration as required by the head of department. So if the OP's university management has decided that they want to increase the number of staff with PhDs, then that might well become a research performance expectation. I'd imagine if they've made it an expectation for new staff to be employed, then it would be reasonable to extend the expectation to existing staff. Performance management university-style means we will set a variety of constantly moving targets and reserve the right to get rid of you if you ever fall short of any measure (even if it's one we hadn't told you about). For recent examples, see KCL and their current efforts to fire a lot of their medical school staff, or Leicester on consequences for not being submitted to the REF, or Surrey on teaching evaluations. To be honest, given what some universities are getting away with otherwise, an expectation that those staff who don't have a PhD gain one, is at the milder end of the spectrum.

They definitely can if the job description is non-specific or says things like "reasonable qualifications" since that can e interpreted to be whatever they want, if they wish to change the rules.

I have to say though, I have been in a job where they made working towards qualifications mandatory retrospectively and it was really wasn't (unless it was explicitly stated in the contract, as was the case for some more senior roles). As long as the staff were meeting their other objectives, it was fine for this one to be missed. In cases where the staff members weren't very good however, this was used as an easy dismissal tool.

Many thanks all for your comments, ideas and support.

Much of what you have said confirms what I have suspected, particularly in terms of the changes in academic culture, legalities of employment and so forth. I think my best stragegy is to go forward willingly, having put down a marker or two about my concerns regarding family health and well being, and try broadly to work to my plan.

The research area (forgive me being cagey here - I'm sure you'll understand I'd rather not be identifiable) will require some field work, but I think the nature of the study will allow me to let it coincide with school holidays, and it will be much easier to manage. Some further exploration this week has opened the possibility of PhD by practice/portfolio, which seems both attractive and appropriate to my field.

I'm afraid I don't have any REFable track record, and the institution expects publication to refereed journals in addition to the PhD. (I do have another, different area of research with good momentum in an innovative area, which might yield some REFable publication; however the area is very fast moving, and I don't have the confidence in being able to access the level of IT support it requires for me to hang the PhD on it.)

It is frustrating that my subject requires a seven year track of higher education to achieve my professional qualification, yet this stands for nought within the institution; The vocational nature of the profession also means there is very little tradition or culture of research at doctoral level.

Thanks once more; I feel more confident and less scared at the end of this week than I did at the beginning.

Toggle, just while you mention it-given that your area of expertise has a strong vocational element, are there any professional doctorates that fit within the scope of your discipline/area?

I ask this because professional doctorates are usually designed with the mindset that those who are completing them are already employed in professional work and will largely complete these part-time while continuing within the profession. They are often also a little more flexible with regard to how you complete your research.

For example, one Professional Educational Doctorate I was strongly drawn to (but didn't end up applying for), was comprised of 4 big course work units, that helped you frame your study and gave provided advanced research skills. Once you had completed these, and the units allowed you to design and scope out your study as part of the course component, you could then complete a portfolio of action/research type studies (up to 3). The reporting of each would be around 20 000 words and you then could write a 10,000 word linking theoretical paper and submit this portfolio for your professional doctorate.

The reason I didn't take this, is that the university offering it was a considerable distance away, and having competed my Master's thesis at a distance, I was reluctant to do the same for my doctorate. My current university's understanding of professional doctorates was not as advanced at the time of my initial application (and it was not as expertly structured) and for that reason I believed that completing the PhD in my local state university would be of more value to me.

However, had I lived closer to this other institution (it was many hours and at least two flights away-I'm in Australia-distance matters here), I would undoubtedly have chosen this particular option. It was designed specifically for professionals to complete part-time while continuing in high level professional roles.

Very glad that you feel so positively now about completing this-good luck.

Hi
I'm in 2 1/2 years into a part-time PhD and can honestly say just go for it. I said to my wife at the start that the depressing thing is I'll be 50 when i finish it. She said what's the alternative? you'll be 50 and won't have a PhD... wise-words

For practicalities you have to know yourself and know how you work - for me I do nothing for weeks at a time and then binge, doing weekends, nights whatever until I've solved a problem/written a chapter/whatever the current issue is. For other people slow and steady is the way.

part-time is tough as you'd expect but as an anti-dote for everyday corporate life it's a fantastic journey. At the end of the day you are out to prove that you can be a researcher and know all that that implies. if you've worked in Academia for a long time you have a head start