Part Time PhD

It’s axiomatic that the older we grow, the more responsibilities we accumulate.  Likewise, as we age we see the advantages to that advanced degree when a few years ago we thought youthful enthusiasm and dedication (and maybe a master’s degree) were sufficient for unlimited professional advancement.  So now taking on the marathon challenge of a PhD program makes sense – but will it work on a part time basis?  Here are several factors to consider.

Funding

Many PhD programs provide full or partial funding for their students; tuition, a living stipend and work as a research assistant or a teaching role.  Will the school you’re considering provide funding support for part time students?  If part of your engagement with a PhD program includes working as a teaching assistant, will you be able to meet that obligation?

Your department must buy into your part time approach.  If funding is withheld or the school policy is geared solely to full time student participation, look for another enrollment opportunity.  Some schools that accept part time PhD candidates and make financial aid available also have a minimum residency requirement for the first portion of the program.  You’ll find a range of options available if you research enough schools.

Faculty Support

You’ll find bloggers on this subject who have seen a different approach to part time students among faculty members.  One of the issues is the social dynamic in a PhD program: students become a part of a mentoring program that involves professional and social contact with multiple faculty members.  Sometimes “talking shop” can lead to fresh ideas for a dissertation.  You’ll lose some of that contact if you’re part time, and some of the faculty members may lose interest in you.

You have a principal faculty advisor and a committee of faculty members that work with you and that will review your dissertation, putting you through the important and conclusive dissertation defense process.  These are people that you need to maintain working relationships with, even if you are taking an extra year or two to complete your research and writing.  This kind of contact is not something that can be completely abandoned in a part time program.

A Timely Dissertation

A PhD program is education that takes place primarily outside the classroom.  Successful completion of it requires that you turn out an original research project based on an approach to your subject matter that is at least nominally new to your faculty advisor, your faculty committee and to the published journals in your field.  If someone else comes up with the same approach and publishes while you’re still writing, you are back to square one.

One student who successfully completed a part time PhD recommends publishing a portion of your dissertation if you can get it accepted by a journal, in order to stake out your research turf.  For many academic disciplines publishing is a mandatory step in the completion of your dissertation; make sure the journals you are soliciting are acceptable to your faculty, especially if they are electronic journals.  Some schools will consider a dissertation complete when it has been successfully defended and filed with the university, but that does not change the requirement for originality which can be a time-sensitive issue.

Personal Tenacity

The second and most important half of a PhD program is in the hands of the student.  Your dissertation research, writing, presentation, defense and publishing are all solo projects under the tutelage of your faculty advisor.  Making that happen with the distraction of a full time job and/or time consuming family obligations takes a lot of dedication.  The subject matter for your PhD work must matter to you: if it is just another daily task you’ll find that on an increasing basis time scheduled for your school work is put off for another day.

Eventually that enormous and amorphous dissertation project becomes an unmanageable burden.  Completion of a PhD program is an open-ended process even for full time students.  If you are going to be a part time PhD candidate, it’s important that open-ended doesn’t become “whenever I have the time and inclination.”  Completing a PhD on a part time basis takes more dedication than is required of those students who are immersed in the process every day.