Entirely Research PhD advice
I'm thinking about doing a part-time PhD while working and came across Cambridge University's entirely research option. Does this mean there are no lectures and I won't need to be on campus as much? If anyone has done something like this, I'd love to hear your advice. I've already emailed the support team and I'm waiting for their reply, but any tips in the meantime would be great!
Reply 1
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I'm thinking about doing a part-time PhD while working and came across Cambridge University's entirely research option. Does this mean there are no lectures and I won't need to be on campus as much? If anyone has done something like this, I'd love to hear your advice. I've already emailed the support team and I'm waiting for their reply, but any tips in the meantime would be great!
Reply 2
13
Generally speaking most PhDs won't require you to go to lectures as a PhD is a research degree, not a taught degree. I don't know if this is a Cambridge specific thing therefore as all PhDs in the UK (not including professional doctorates) are entirely research based. I'm doing a PhD not at Cambridge and it's an entirely research based programme here too.
Amount of time spent on campus would depend on what you are researching (e.g. I am collecting data from participants in-person, so am on campus quite a bit, whereas another one of my supervisor's students is collecting data with online questionnaires and is doing her PhD by distance learning so never comes to campus). Some funding bodies may require a small amount of taught components (e.g. my funders require me to do 20 credits of Master's level training over my PhD). You may also be expected to have done a Master's degree first before starting the PhD which might be a requirement of your funding body if you are funded or an entry requirement of the PhD. There is also potentially training you might need to attend in person in order to develop your research skills over the course of the PhD.
I think the main thing to consider is whether Cambridge offers a distance learning option (I'm not sure that they do) - if you aren't distance learning then you may still be expected to live near the university and attend campus regularly, have supervisory meeting in person etc. PhDs at most universities will not require you to come to campus for lectures because they aren't taught degrees, but there is still a difference between in-person study and distance learning and for in-person PhDs there is still likely to be an expected level of campus attendance.
Hope this helps, apologies if I have misunderstood you here and you're talking about a specific unique Cambridge course rather than PhDs at Cambridge generally!
Amount of time spent on campus would depend on what you are researching (e.g. I am collecting data from participants in-person, so am on campus quite a bit, whereas another one of my supervisor's students is collecting data with online questionnaires and is doing her PhD by distance learning so never comes to campus). Some funding bodies may require a small amount of taught components (e.g. my funders require me to do 20 credits of Master's level training over my PhD). You may also be expected to have done a Master's degree first before starting the PhD which might be a requirement of your funding body if you are funded or an entry requirement of the PhD. There is also potentially training you might need to attend in person in order to develop your research skills over the course of the PhD.
I think the main thing to consider is whether Cambridge offers a distance learning option (I'm not sure that they do) - if you aren't distance learning then you may still be expected to live near the university and attend campus regularly, have supervisory meeting in person etc. PhDs at most universities will not require you to come to campus for lectures because they aren't taught degrees, but there is still a difference between in-person study and distance learning and for in-person PhDs there is still likely to be an expected level of campus attendance.
Hope this helps, apologies if I have misunderstood you here and you're talking about a specific unique Cambridge course rather than PhDs at Cambridge generally!
As above most PhDs are entirely research in the UK as I understand (there's a few MRes+PhD schemes or similar but most are just standard research degrees). That said for example in most STEM fields that means you're going to be 9-5 in the lab or office doing data work. For humanities and social science fields I would expect a good chunk of time would be spent on campus using library resources and other collections depending on your specific area.
I imagine in all fields you'd also meet with your supervisor regularly, probably attend some seminars/journal clubs and similar regularly, your supervisor might also recommend you attend certain taught classes to audit them to fill gaps in knowledge, etc. If you also do marking/demonstrating/teaching work in the course of your PhD you'd also likely be doing this on campus.
Also worth noting in general Cambridge requires students to live within I believe for postgrads 25 miles of Great St Marys in the city centre, so you'd still need to be local to Cambridge unless given dispensation to live away (which would probably be more for e.g. fieldwork, time spent at a partner institution or industrial secondment etc. They may not give it if you just wanted to live away from the uni generally and conduct everything via teams or similar).
Ultimately though I gather a lot of it really comes down to what your specific research project is and how you negotiate the work you do with your PhD supervisor. If your project uses primarily or wholly digital material and your supervisor doesn't feel you need to be coming in regularly you may not need to go to campus that much. There may however be an expectation you are visible and present broadly in working hours as part of your research group or similar for example though.
By way of anecdote, I have a friend doing a humanities PhD (full time), and he doesn't have to go into the uni every day. However as he does teaching he does need to go in several days a week for that, and also to go up and attend specific meetings, or to get specific things from the library and/or return library resources he's no longer using. He also likes to catch up with his supervisor regularly so ends up going in most days as a result anyway even if he doesn't NEED to (but has the option to work from home if there's a delivery or a contractor coming or something). By contrast, a friend of mine who did a STEM PhD had to go into his office every single day of the week because he was doing stuff in the labs most days, or teaching/demonstrating, or attending journal clubs/supervisor meetings, etc.
I imagine in all fields you'd also meet with your supervisor regularly, probably attend some seminars/journal clubs and similar regularly, your supervisor might also recommend you attend certain taught classes to audit them to fill gaps in knowledge, etc. If you also do marking/demonstrating/teaching work in the course of your PhD you'd also likely be doing this on campus.
Also worth noting in general Cambridge requires students to live within I believe for postgrads 25 miles of Great St Marys in the city centre, so you'd still need to be local to Cambridge unless given dispensation to live away (which would probably be more for e.g. fieldwork, time spent at a partner institution or industrial secondment etc. They may not give it if you just wanted to live away from the uni generally and conduct everything via teams or similar).
Ultimately though I gather a lot of it really comes down to what your specific research project is and how you negotiate the work you do with your PhD supervisor. If your project uses primarily or wholly digital material and your supervisor doesn't feel you need to be coming in regularly you may not need to go to campus that much. There may however be an expectation you are visible and present broadly in working hours as part of your research group or similar for example though.
By way of anecdote, I have a friend doing a humanities PhD (full time), and he doesn't have to go into the uni every day. However as he does teaching he does need to go in several days a week for that, and also to go up and attend specific meetings, or to get specific things from the library and/or return library resources he's no longer using. He also likes to catch up with his supervisor regularly so ends up going in most days as a result anyway even if he doesn't NEED to (but has the option to work from home if there's a delivery or a contractor coming or something). By contrast, a friend of mine who did a STEM PhD had to go into his office every single day of the week because he was doing stuff in the labs most days, or teaching/demonstrating, or attending journal clubs/supervisor meetings, etc.
(edited 10 months ago)
Reply 4
Original post
by dwkeshariI'm thinking about doing a part-time PhD while working and came across Cambridge University's entirely research option. Does this mean there are no lectures and I won't need to be on campus as much? If anyone has done something like this, I'd love to hear your advice. I've already emailed the support team and I'm waiting for their reply, but any tips in the meantime would be great!
What do you mean by 'Cambridge's entirely research option'? Do you have a link?
Original post
by dwkeshariI'm thinking about doing a part-time PhD while working and came across Cambridge University's entirely research option. Does this mean there are no lectures and I won't need to be on campus as much? If anyone has done something like this, I'd love to hear your advice. I've already emailed the support team and I'm waiting for their reply, but any tips in the meantime would be great!
Hi, I've merged your two threads, please don't repost the same thread in different forums
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