PhD (at Durham)

FM2020

Hi guys, I was hoping someone could share their experience or give me some advice on this:

I’m based in London and I have received a studentship funding for PhD at Durham. However, the funding is barley anything so I wanted to know usually what does first and second year of PhD look like? Are you expected to take many PG taught classes and be on campus?

Reply 1

anthro_int5

Hi, Congratulations on securing funding for your PhD! What and how much does your studentship cover: does it include tuition and or maintenance costs? Further, is money a serious constraint for you to take up the offer? Furthermore, are you able to secure any other funding/ loan from elsewhere?

It would have helped if you'd mention your subject and/or discipline. For a humanities and social science PhD, you would normally be enrolled as an MPhil student in the first year of your PhD. You would need to attend some courses (methods training, ethical considerations, some theoretical courses important for your project) but these may not be graded. It is also assumed that most students would have acquired disciplinary training during their master's, so the academic load in terms of attending courses/ modules is minimum. What is important however is writing your upgrade thesis (anywhere between 10,000-25,0000 words depending on your institution and department) and passing the visa so as to progress to the PhD status.

The second year is typically devoted to research. So, if your project is social science based, you would need to undertake fieldwork. For a humanities project, you would need to visit libraries/ museums/ archives etc. The bulk of the PhD work gets done in the second year and you don't have to be based at your institution during this time, although maintaining regular contact with your supervisor is necessary.

The third year is mostly dedicated to writing the thesis and students return to their institutions for this. You can also take up teaching positions in your school around this time and present your findings in academic conferences in your department/ school or other universities.