Hi,

I'm giving serious thought to quitting my PhD after three years and five months, and wondering whether I will be able to leave with at least an MPhil and sanity intact. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've made so many mistakes: wrong topic, wrong university, wrong supervisor, wrong habits. I knew after a year or so that it wasn't really working out, but I managed to pass through my mid-point progression (at eighteen months) and convince myself that I would pull my finger out and get the work done.

My supervisor is nice but lazy and not the brightest, and has never set me any proper deadlines. I'm not self-motivated enough to make that arrangement work, and he has very rarely contributed anything of any worth to my sham of a thesis.

I had a real desire to quit shortly before the 2 year mark, but my girlfriend, parents, and friends convinced me to stick with it, as it wasn't long left and I'd already spent so much time on it. Not really true: I've become utterly depressed with my lack of progress. Weeks pass with nothing to show. The enthusiasm for academia has completely left me.

Everyday is an attempt to rouse my spirits and shake myself into writing, but nothing comes. I'm in a writing up year now (after being granted an extension) but spent October to Jan working full-time in a well-paid job in financial services to support myself as my 3 year studentship has ended.

I dreaded the thought of returning to the PhD, but now I have, things are cranking up and my supervisor is talking about booking the external examiner for my Viva. I'm not even close to submitting - still a big case study and conclusion to write up, not to mention editing the rest.

I know that I would not regret quitting as I detest my PhD, but would like to know that I will at least come away with an Mphil.

Very unlikely unless you submit a thesis of the MPhil level. You still need to go through the viva. Some universities may give you an MA or MRes if you finish part of their research training at the early stage.

Malcontent still needs to submit a viable thesis to be able to qualify for MRes / MPhil and from what he says, he'll still need to edit the thesis and complete conclusions.

Malcontent, it may be you still need to look at the case study to generate a viable thesis for MPhil. This you would have to cross-check with your supervisor. If you've still a similar amount of work to do for both then I would aim at the PhD. For me, the extra study would have been two extra sub-sections within the methodology and discussion chapters, another 3,000 words.

The way I read the above, you've significant extra work to do to generate this viable thesis for either qualification so I would combine the extra case study to go for the PhD. The alternative is you quit now and have nothing to show for your 5 years.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

As others have said, if you want to obtain an MPhil, you would have to go through that formal process.

Another consideration is that, given that you have already passed the upgrade from MPhil to PhD point, you might not actually be eligible to be granted an MPhil any more. You should check your uni/faculty policy on this before giving it any further thought.