Hello there-

I've been reading about 'work' PhD students are expected to do for their supervisors, and how they have to be at the 'office' most of their time. A bit confused on what exactly are the responsibilities of a PhD student ? What is exactly the "contract" between student and institution?

I thought you spent time doing on your research, and met supervisor to support/enhance the quality of it -- am I missing something?

How normal is it that students spend most of their time at the university, and doing things that are not related to their research?
Do PhD students also do any teaching assistance work ? (btw, PhD in History)

I'd love to hear your experience on it!
Thanks,
Sofia

It varies by department and university, and also how much teaching your own supervisor has to do, and how much of that they want you to do (to take work load off them).

Most science/engineering PhD students will be allocated a desk within an office/lab. There is often some level of expectation of daily attendance Mon-Fri. Actual contact with one's supervisor during that time will be infrequent (once a week/month/term/year!)

SophiaK, as you are doing history (like me) you will (sometimes) find some differences between the replies you receive here and your personal experiences. Most people here seem to be science-types ( :P !) and I get the impression that office time = lab time -their research is in a laboratory, whereas yours will doubtless be at (for example) Kew. So yes you will have a couple of hours a month (say) contact time with the sup, with most of your work being done elsewhere... library, say. But even so in your last year you might be offered some lecturing work (on a piecemeal basis), really just cheap labour for the institution, but cunningly presented as an opportunity for you to augment your CV. Hugh is also correct, in broad strokes.

Edit: Just realised you have some time before you have to worry about it in any case!

Hi! This will differ between uniersities. I'm doing a science PhD, so what I do might be totally different from what you might be doing.

But if you're interested, i'm expected to complete 100 hours of teaching and learning activities for the department (requirements of my studentship). This can include: acting as a teaching assistant (uncommon), supervising practical sessions, marking schoolwork, open day volunteering, peer reviews, organising shadow classes/seminars. I'm working as the schools exam invigilator :)

I have an office with a desk and computer but I only use it 3-4 days a week. On Wednesdays I work in the library because it's quieter. Just let your supervisor know what your planning. For me, as long as i'm working ~37.5 hours a week then i'm earning my studentship, so where I work is not necessarily a concern.

Hope this helps!

me, humanities (not history). you're not expected to do any work for your supervisor. science is often different that the supervisors design their phds for them so it tends to be far less independent than what we do and they have far less freedom.

i had to transcribe some old documents for mine at some point and got paid for it. it wasn't a crazy amount, a few hours every day for a month, and it was nice extra money. so if they're nice they give you odd little jobs here and there. since this is britain, nepotism is key, however.
you might want to watch out when they ask you to do work like this: don't do this kind of stuff for free. you get paid a pittance for teaching as well, while eds is right, it's cheap labour for the institution, it's not stupid to do some teaching. just do it once or twice so you can tick that cv box. don't teach tons. they will also send you to a teaching intro course. not stupid to do this either, even if it is probably boring.
then there might be a chance to organize a conference, depending on everyone's experience with this kind of thing this can be a lot of work or a piece of cake. the university might or might not pay for this kind of work/assistance. on the continent i got paid, in the uk i didn't. you might want to insist to be given a slot at the conference so you have a chance to present something.
there might be little things like being present at open days and such.
if the supervisor is editing some volume it might be worth looking over their shoulder while they're at it. they could give you some work related to that. ask for money if it's a lot. ask being mentioned in the book as co-editor if you're really doing a huge amount.

My funding conditions tied me to kerping full time office hours and stipulated that I take no other work. So for me it's been all PhD, papers and conferences.

Surely '1st year of MA in History'...?

Eds -- I am a mature student, have a MBA, and started the MA in view of moving onto to PhD, so researching a lot about it because I'm uncertain yet I am capable of it. Even though I got a 83 in my essay, the experience of the MA was much harder than I imagined.
I just found this forum, hence all the questions.

Ah.

Thanks everyone. It makes sense now -- science labs would have "stuff" to be done, hence the office.
Sounds terrible though, how many nasty teachers are out there. I always thought academia was different or "safe" compared to the corporate world. It seems one has to watch out every step of the way.
Eds - Windowswill - that's good advice, thank you! I'll keep those in mind if I ever that there...

Massive differences between the expectations of different fields. I'm so glad I was able to devise my own project (OK I had to fund it therefore) which fascinated me. Wrote two papers with my supervisor because I wanted to, but there was no expectation.

I've not experienced any nastiness in my academic life and can only think of two people I know who have experienced difficulties that they have related to friends (and one of those was an admin issue where no students were paid for their teaching until January despite teaching a significant proportion of a bachelors degree between them).

That isn't to say that there haven't been some 'robust' or 'frank' moments when kicks up the arse have been delivered. If I've experienced difficulty its in the relentlessness that can come, there is always something due, rather than proper hostility.

Doc and Hunt - interesting experiences, thanks for sharing. I suppose it is about results at the end of the day, and it depends on each institution to provide the right framework, so everyone can do what is expected of them.
I was thinking about having a chat with some PhD student in the university I'm planning to apply for.... is it normal to do that ?
I know the professor of the department, and could ask her if it would be OK to contact the student to have a coffee over "PhD life" etc. Or would that be completely inappropriate ?
This is all being very helpful - many thanks!

Well; it could either a) be hghly conducive towards a profitable set of working relationships and a fine-tuned work-life balance, or b) get you busted for stalking. Tricky one! ;)