--- layout: post status: publish published: true title: Finishing a UK Ph.D. within 3 years wordpress_id: 1985 wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=1985 date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNDo1OTozNCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNDo1OTozNCArMDEwMA== categories: - Academia tags: - PhDchat comments: - id: 6653 author: Raine author_email: wildrain@mail.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNTo0NjowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNTo0NjowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! 'Very good advice. All PhD students start by saying ''I want to do it in three years'' very few do and I can often tell in three months who stands a chance of doing so -it''s the ones already working 12 hour days and driving me insane with (good) questions. I did my PhD in three years around three school age kids (the youngest was only part-time at school when I started). I did not have such a clear idea and background knowledge as you Martin, when I started -what I was prepared to do was work my arse off. I did reading and writing while sat at swimming lessons, rugby matches, waiting to see teachers at parent''s evenings -every second was utilised. The only things I would add is that the delete button is your friend. And never cut and paste. Two simple rules that force you to improve and constantly rearticulate your ideas. Well done Martin -and good luck for your Viva!!!' - id: 6654 author: Martin Paul Eve author_email: martin@martineve.com author_url: https://www.martineve.com date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNTo0OTowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNTo0OTowMCArMDEwMA== content: ! 'Thanks for the luck! Feeling nervous already! I think your point just reinforces a sentence that I almost wrote: to do the Ph.D. in three months, you have to live and breathe it. Ph.D. dreams are probably the sign that you''re doing it at the right level. Very impressed that you managed to do it with three kids; I''m "fortunate" in that respect in that I don''t have any little bundles of joy to distract from my thesis (I suspect they make up for it in other ways).' - id: 6655 author: Sarah Robins-Hobden author_email: '' author_url: http://twitter.com/SarahR_H date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNTo1NjowMCArMDEwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNCAxNTo1NjowMCArMDEwMA== content: LOVE the advice for functional reading. So simple, and clearly so many benefits, not least of which is maintaining focus. Wish I had done this - and I have made a reminder to do so in all future projects! Thanks Martin. S - id: 6656 author: Susan Oregan author_email: susan.oregan@cit.ie author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNSAwOToyNTowMCArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNSAwOToyNTowMCArMDIwMA== content: Excellent advice. I worked on my topic for a year before registering, and I would recommend anyone to do that. Also, regular thinking on the page/screen is a really productive habit. My PhD took 5 years, without taking time out from full-time lecturing and family, etc. I had a year-old baby starting out as well. Daunting, in terms of time management. All of my weekends, holidays, were taken up. I didn't give up tennis, but the house and garden took a step back in the priorities. Support from partner was vital as well! - id: 6657 author: Jason R Berg author_email: hyjrb@leeds.ac.uk author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNSAxNjozOTowMCArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNSAxNjozOTowMCArMDIwMA== content: As someone who is doing PhD myself I can't help but think that your advice, though obviously good for you, can't possibly work for everyone. Firstly, the initial two steps you described are both 'pre-PhD' but should be included in the calculation. Not sure if you can still claim to have finished your PhD in 3 years if you have, in fact, done months of work before you started it (should that time not also count?). Secondly, although working constantly is a great advice and you do need to maintain a 40'ish hour/week workload,  'treat[ing] your Ph.D. as though it's a highly paid job which you are expected to work long hours' is, quite frankly, horrible advice. The AHRC, after all, is not high paying and believing that in order to justify your salary you need to work 'all the time' at any job is going to burn most people out. I  know that the pressure to complete in three years is more often then not tied to funding concerns, however, allowing yourself (and your thesis) room for error and failed inquiries is only going to produce a better end product in my opinion. Enough of the negative stuff - your section on reading effectively is spot on advice and probably the thing I find the most difficult to do in my own research. In the end, congratulations on submitting in three years and I wish you luck in your viva. - id: 6658 author: reem author_email: xreemiex@yahoo.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNiAxNjowMzowMCArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNiAxNjowMzowMCArMDIwMA== content: During your PHD, did you get stuck? How did you proceed? - id: 6659 author: Katharine author_email: fletcherkf@gmail.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNyAwNjoyMDowMCArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNyAwNjoyMDowMCArMDIwMA== content: ! 'Congrats again and thanks for posting this very useful piece. I came at my PhD from a completely different angle, wanting to use it as a way of exploring something completely new to me instead of continuing with what I''d worked on at masters and undergraduate level. I even chose a different and unfamiliar discipline under the guise of an interdisciplinary project and then mapped out a ridiculously large topic. Needless to say I don''t think I will be finishing within the three years! There are good sides to doing something new, but I think it would be a better PhD, an easier and quicker experience, and leave me in a better position for an academic career if I''d stuck with familiar ground. ' - id: 6660 author: Rachael Stanley author_email: r.stanley@bsms.ac.uk author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNyAxNDo0MzowMCArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wMy0yNyAxNDo0MzowMCArMDIwMA== content: ! "Very well done Martin - what a great achievement! It just goes to show how different PhDs can be (and how similar). I think a lot of the advice stands even for laboratory-based PhDs, such as planning. Quite often experiments don't work or give you a result that sends you off on a new/different/improved path, but if you have several experiments planned that aren't dependent on the others working, this means that SOMETHING will work (well that is the theory). I spent months going into the lab everyday for a particular experiment that didn't work - not a thing. My lab books are full of dead ends! \n\nWell done on being so organised and focused - you are definitely not an average PhD student :)\nGood luck for your viva!\nRachael" - id: 6666 author: Gemma Tombs author_email: gemmatombs@gmail.com author_url: '' date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wNC0wMiAxOTozMjowMyArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wNC0wMiAxOTozMjowMyArMDIwMA== content: Well, now I don't feel so bad that I didn't finish in 3 years ;) 4 doesn't look like so much of a failure any more! ---

I've been asked, by Salma Patel and The Thesis Whisperer to write a post on finishing a Ph.D. under the UK system within 3 years. I have to confess, first off, to feeling slightly uneasy writing this. My thesis is yet to be examined. I will, however, have completed a work that both my supervisors feel will pass the Ph.D. examination, within a three-year timespan.

So, with the disclaiming preview out of the way, here's a few ideas as to why my project was do-able within this timeframe. I have also published six journal articles/book chapters and three reviews during this period. The following pieces of advice only apply if you want to do the project within three years. I appreciate that there are many good reasons for wishing to take longer. NB: my project is in English Literature.

Read

Pre-Planning

This advice will not really be of much use to those already mid-way through a Ph.D., but is worth considering before you start out. My project was extremely clearly conceived before I began. I spent a long time writing an AHRC funding proposal that clearly set out a structure for the entire work. I planned the focus of each chapter. I set a specific timeframe for each chapter. I planned a three chapter structure, with eight months for each chapter. I intended, next, to spend eight months examining the interrelations between the themes of each chapter, thus leaving four months for a re-write/contingency. With three months left to go, it's panned out bang on. The message of the story is: of course your Ph.D. will take you four years if you spend the first year searching for the right question; do the planning beforehand.

Pre-Knowledge

Again, more of a consideration for those about to start, but, make your thesis work the continuation of an extant research trajectory. If I had known nothing about my topic (Thomas Pynchon in relation to Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno), the project would have been a great deal harder. However, I was already familiar with Pynchon's work, having written an undergraduate dissertation and MA thesis on different aspects of his work. Furthermore, I had done some preliminary research on Wittgenstein during my MA and a course on Foucault during my undergraduate. The work is entirely new, but I had a great deal of background knowledge under my belt. This pre-preparation also substantially reduced the literature review work (the Vheissu database currently lists 3559 articles/books on Pynchon). Your thesis work is doable in three years if you know at least something about the topic beforehand.

Write constantly

I worked on a hypothesis basis. By this I mean that I started writing well before I was ready. I would write a speculative hypothesis based on what I thought from the current state of my reading. This would then be constantly modified as my thoughts changed and I read more. From this basis I was writing from almost the very start. The very first sentence I wrote on this project has stayed within the work, only slightly changed in the final version ("Perhaps one of the best reasons to begin a study of literary-philosophical interaction with work on Ludwig Wittgenstein is that he calls into question the very nature of philosophy"). Conversely, some sentences have completely vanished (thankfully: "It can be remarked, without much controversy, that one of Pynchon's enduring, and most frequently recurring, motifs is an incredulity towards cause and effect"). I wrote between 300-800 words every day. In short: write a lot, every day; do your thinking on paper/screen.

Work constantly

Perhaps unwelcome as advice, but true. If you can get it done in three years, you won't go crazy if you're working all the time. I'm an early-morning person, so I get up at 6.30 every day, do reading/admin for two hours, then head to the British Library. I work there until 5.30 to 6.30pm. I then come home, try and do some exercise, then go back to work to deal with the day's admin. I spend the commute to the BL reading peripheral material, either for teaching or general interest. I work every weekend. I don't watch TV (occasionally a film or a box set of a series that I already own). Try and increase your mental endurance by relaxing through puzzles; I'm a big fan of cryptic crosswords and the mental contortions involved therein. Sleep well, though; I go to bed at 10pm every night to get a good eight hours of sleep. I had to be especially aggressive with time management because I lose a certain amount of time for hospital trips and treatment for my rheumatoid arthritis. I have spent several days working on my thesis while on a Rituximab drip. In short: treat your Ph.D. as though it's a highly paid job in which you are expected to work long hours, all the time.

Read functionally

I have come to the belief, over the course of my thesis, that it is very hard to read academic material (and indeed, works of literature and philosophy) in any way other than functionally. By this I mean that we come to works with pre-conceived ideas of what we are looking to extract. This is highly utilitarian, but consciously making this decision will allow you to be more ruthless in your reading. In short: read for your current project, not trying to read so that, if you did another project, you wouldn't have to read the work again.

Enjoy it

Some days were very tough but, overall, I have enjoyed my Ph.D. immensely. Having the space to think and write has been a privilege that I know I will rarely, if ever, have from now on. Remember that when things are hard.

Featured image by Kevin Dooley under a CC-BY license.