Is there any way back or should I move on?

[SecondChancePhD]

Hi everyone,

I hope it's ok to post here. I'd really appreciate some advice from those in academia as I don't know any in real life, and it would be very helpful. I guess I just want to know if there's still some chance or if I should move on and find something else.

Background: First in my family to go to university, went to a top 3 uni in Scotland, graduated with a first class honours in History and German language and literature, and an A in my dissertation. I didn't start out very well but by my honours years, I'd knuckled down, got the grades and took my degree seriously. One of my degree years, I studied on exchange in Germany and did everything in German. It was very difficult but very rewarding.

Then I won a scholarship to study a Masters in History in Germany (a top 10 university). Started off very well. It's a two year degree and towards the end (3 papers left to write plus the dissertation, I got completely sidetracked by a family death, a missed miscarriage and then infertility. Mental health suffered and my studies took a back seat...here you can just stay enrolled in university even if you are not currently studying, if your degree isn't complete). I completed two papers in this time, got good grades. I eventually got pregnant after years and years of infertility through ICSI and then COVID hit. My friend then told me our degree had an end date and if we didn't complete it by this certain date, we wouldn't get our master. So in lockdown with a baby, I completed the last paper and my master dissertation. It was the worst two papers I had ever written (got a C- for the seminar paper and a C+ for the dissertation). I was very disappointed in myself. But I did the best I could do with a baby at home, in lockdown and interrupted nights. It brought my overall grade down to a German 2,2 (which is a UK 2:1). My dissertation however has the equivalent of a 2:2.

With these grades and with how long it took to get my degree, I gave up any hopes of going for my PhD and pursuing a career in academia. The university I went to is also in a small town and all the professors knew the students and it was very difficult to get noticed.

I love history, I love researching, I love writing papers, I love teaching. It was all I ever wanted to do. But with a rubbish master dissertation, no contacts for references and such a long break from it all, is there realistically any way back into it? My grades in my area are all As and Bs (except the master dissertation), I speak 2 foreign languages (important for history). If I redo my master dissertation on my time, would that help?
If I redo a master in the UK, could that be a way back in? (We are planning to move back to the UK in the next few years)
Or with all that's gone on, should I leave it, grieve it and move on?

Thank you in advance for any advice

What a rough ending to your Masters and congratulations on finishing it. You might well get onto a PhD programme, especially with a better Master's . But what's your end goal and how would you fund it? There's very little funding now in the UK and the job market at the end is beyond abysmal, with one year posts round the country being the norm (if lucky) postPhD, and a lot of redundancies. Languages are a great asset if you're in a field that might be supported. Can you hunt down an academic in your field of possible interest, someone who might supervise you, and ask them?

There are two requirements to meet that have quite different thresholds.

The first is to find a suitable supervisor and be accepted as their PhD student. You might well find you have already sufficient academic grades for that especially if you can click with someone on a niche topic.

The much bigger hurdle is funding - I just can't stress enough how competitive independent funding in humanities/arts subjects is (and you would need the support of your future supervisor). A distinction at masters would definitely help but is no guarantee. It's not common for supervisors in humanities to have money sloshing about for PhD subjects - that's more common in STEM. Some people say students shouldn't self-fund - I am agnostic about that as I see it quite a lot (I didn't but thought I might go PT and work if I had to do that maybe). It can lead to a rather loose approach though as funding has some structure and deadlines around it which keep everyone on track and offers some accountability.

My own trajectory has been a bit like yours and I returned to grad studies after a long gap having previously dropped out. I have been on contracts ever since though. The job market really is terrible and getting worse.

It's a big time and money investment, especially if you have a family (I had mine during PhD). I'm not sorry I did it but honestly it has been a rocky road - especially post-PhD because with a family you cannot just up and move for jobs. I get the wanting to do it for its own sake - but be clear that you can face hitting a brick wall at any particular crossroads (not getting PhD place, not getting funding, not getting postdoc/lectureship).

Teaching fellow type jobs are definitely on the increase - look out for these (jobs.ac.uk) - you might pick one up with what you have if you can fill a need in a niche. That would be a good way to build credentials or an alternative altogether. Think carefully about where you move to in the UK if you are thinking of teaching somewhere.

I agree with @Acinonyx2 I don't think it would be hard to get on a PhD programmed, especially if you self-funded. It's what happens next.

I self-funded a part-time PhD while working ft. I completed. But being PT and at a distance, I didn't get properly embedded in an academic community and wasn't able to use it as a springboard into an academic job (had gone off the idea anyway then).

I'm a AHRC-funded PhD researcher and feel like the last of a dying breed. The AHRC has hugely cut funding since I started and given that their money comes from government, and in light of the state of public finances, I suspect there will be significantly less funding in the future. It is notoriously difficult to get a job in academia unless you want to move around the country and higher education is facing huge issues in any case. The humanities tend to be the first on the block.
On the positive side, could you teacher train and look to work in a sixth form college or similar?

Yes, the AHRC will be cutting funding for PhDs imminently - the consortium model will end in the coming year. My university currently manages to get around 15 scholarships each year via its consortium; that's going to go down to 3. The university has made it clear that it won't be making up the shortfall as there is an oversupply of PhDs relative to jobs available (and, no doubt, it would prefer to spend the money elsewhere).

Yes that's what's happening with our doctoral training partnership.

as others have said, doing the PhD itself is not impossible (if you self fund / part time). but the big problem is there are zero jobs after the PhD. the idea of a career spent in a university writing books / giving lectures / reading stuff in archives may seem lovely but that job barely even exists any more. it is all short-term contracts or people are getting made redundant.

i'd look for other ways to put your interests and academic skills to use, whether that is secondary teaching or writing a book in your own time or studying history as an independent researcher.

I know a person who did an MSc in History after taking early retirement and then wrote a good solid history book just from his own research.

Absolutely, I think that there are lots of other options that would be good. HE humanities is in a state of disarray.

There's no issue about starting a part-time PhD. My place does them in your area, and distance learning too - we supervise via Zoom or Teams.

But as others have said, the prospect for jobs is not good. If you were able to develop good networks while a PhD candidate, you could probably look at some hourly-paid teaching in your Department, and then maybe go on to a Teaching Fellow post, or a postdoc on a project. But these are a matter of hard work (really hard work) building a network within and beyond your department & university eg going to the annual conference in your subject area, and having the ability and talent, and having that seen.

(A bit confused - in Germany, grades are usually 1.0 to 5, with 1 as the highest grade - what was your German grade?)