Part-time study
Part-time PhD students have up to six years to complete the course. If you are employed on a contract with the University, there is a fee waiver scheme, meaning that if you were employed as a research assistant by a member of staff in the University, for example, you could carry out your PhD work in parallel and pay no fees. This would have to be carefully negotiated in terms of time management, but it is a route that has been successfully followed in the past.
Supervision
All students, whether full- or part-time (PT), have a set of timetabled meetings with their supervisor (and co-supervisor if applicable) and advisor. These meetings are scheduled over six years for PT students. Many supervisors are flexible with respect to the timings of these meetings and can accommodate evening appointments.
Flexible study
The training programme provided by the Faculty is very flexible with many workshops being repeated throughout the academic year. Web-based tutorials and workshops are continually being designed for both subject-specific and generic skills. Along with your supervisor, you are encouraged to plan a training schedule which feeds into your academic work efficiently.
You are also encouraged to participate in the postgraduate activities of the School, such as brainstorming, research group meetings, attending senior seminars, and social events. All students have to give talks and presentations as part of their training.
The research groups provide a friendly forum for presenting numerous aspects of research work, and there is a School mini-conference to which all PhD students are required to contribute. (See the section on Training Opportunities for more information). Even if you can attend only some of these events, it will keep you in contact with the postgraduate community, in addition to providing you with numerous sources of inspiration for your research work. A number of these events take place in the late afternoon or evening which, hopefully, makes it easier for students who are also working to come along.
Training
The MRes provides basic and more advanced training in a variety of research methods (including quantitative and qualitative) and statistical techniques for all PhD students. This is a modular course designed to be as flexible as possible in order to accommodate FT and PT students. Again, it is suggested that with your supervisor you identify classes and course units which may be helpful to you. The MRes handbook (including the timetable, and course module outlines) is available on the School intranet as are materials pertaining to each class.
Resources
All students (whether full- or part-time) have access to a desk and computer with up-to-date software, in addition to having access to School computer clusters, IT support officers and dedicated laboratories. Students also have access to numerous kitchen facilities. Buildings can be accessed out-of-hours with an electronic swipe card.
