RESEARCH STUDENTS' HOME > PHD PROCESS

Program of study

Your main point of contact throughout your PhD studies will be your supervisor. You will work closely with your supervisor but you are expected to take ownership of your research by developing your own ideas, critical attitude and independence of thought. Each PhD is different and each student will require different kinds of support throughout their PhD. It is important that you are able to communicate regularly with your supervisor.

Within 6 months of starting your PhD you will also be allocated a second supervisor. The role of a second supervisor varies; sometimes the supervisor and second supervisor act as joint-supervisors. Usually the second supervisor takes a less formal role in the supervison. Second supervisors are useful to get another view on your research, to act as a sounding board for new ideas or to read drafts of papers or report. You should try to meet your second supervisor at least once a semester to keep in contact. If your first supervisor is absent from the department, or out of contact, for more than 4 weeks your second supervisor is expected to take over the supervision duties.

Although each PhD is different, all PhD students are expected to complete their studies within 3 years. This means that you need to plan your activities. A sample lifecycle for a PhD would be as follows:
Year 1
Months 0-2 Background reading and thinking about your PhD topic. It is also a good idea to attend the Research Methodologies course run by the Department.
Months 2-4 Pick a main topic and do more focussed reading. This will form the basis of your literature review chapter of your thesis, although the literature review will be continually developed throughout the PhD.
Months 4-10 Mini-project (and more reading). A mini-project is some activity to get you doing research early on; depending on the nature of your PhD topic it could be building a small prototype, running a small experiment or doing a detailed literature review.
Month 10 Prepare for first year defense
Month 11/12 First year defense

Year 2
Months 12-22 Main bulk of your research. Developing solutions, establishing primary results, writing implementations or applications. Also drafting chapters of your thesis based on this work. By the middle of your second year you should know what your thesis will contain and be able to draw up a plan for the remaining time that will demonstrate that you can complete everything, including writing up, by the end of your third year.
Month 22 Prepare for second year defense
Month 23/24 Second year defense

Year 3
Months 24-30. Finishing your research. Remember you cannot do everything in one PhD, you need to be able to recognise an end-point for the PhD and what will be counted as future work.
Months 30-36. Writing up. If you have been writing as you go then the process of finalising the write up may take less time but, even if you have been been writing the final write-up will take longer than you think. You also need to allocate time to allow other people, e.g. your supervisor to read your thesis. How long your supervisor will take to read your thesis needs to be negiotiated in advance. You may also be looking for jobs or post-doctoral positions during this time. This will also take longer than you think. You can go over the 36 months but it is best to avoid this if possible; having to work at the same time as writing up is not easy.

Common mistakes (how not to get a PhD):

  • Doing research on an area not doing research in an area. A major part of any PhD is reading the relevant literature. Alan Bundy discusses the issue of relevant in his researcher's bible. However a common mistake is to only read papers and to do nothing else effectively only researching on an area. This is a bad idea for several reasons; (1) it can make you depressed as every idea seems to have been thought of already, (2) unless you know why you are reading a particular paper then you will forget what it says, (3) only reading and doing nothing else is an avoidance tactic - it stops you having to think. Doing research in an area means developing a critical attitude, developing new ideas and research hypotheses of your own, trying out new approaches. It is a very good idea to start doing research as early as possible: doing research is the best way to get new research ideas and it makes it easier to decide what you should be reading and why.
  • Avoidance tactics. There are lots of these and they usually occur when you are struggling with a difficult part of your research. They include doing lots of clever coding that you don't really need to do, volunteering for duties that don't benefit your research or suddenly finding a new research interest that looks much easier. Research is difficult and there will be some parts of your PhD that are more difficult than others (or it would not be interesting research). The best way to get over these times is talking to other people. Everyone has experienced these times so you will realise you are not alone and you might get some new ideas by discussing your problems. Remember to step away from the computer at least occassionally.
  • Being unrealistic Each PhD activity takes time; writing research papers, preparing presentations, running an experiment all will take longer than you might think, especially if you need feedback. Make sure you regularly prioritise the main activities of your PhD and assess how much time you have given to each activity.
  • Leaving it all until the last minute. Don't listen to the people who say you can write up in six weeks.

    There are various research groups in the department. Most of these groups have regular seminar series which you can attend. It is is a good idea to participate regularly in at least one research group to hear about how other people conduct and discuss research. Giving research presentations of your own is a good way to practice conference presentations, it is also good practice for answering questions on your research before the viva.