Does it matter where you do your PhD?

[HettyLou]

I plan to start a full time PhD in September and ultimately hope to pursue an academic career. I am torn between a distance learning offer from an excellent but far away university with experts in my chosen field or the local, respectable but not distinguished university that is 15 minutes from home (where I would have to compromise a little on my research focus).

Thinking ahead, will it matter to an academic career where I did my PhD? The Russel Group university vs the non-Russell Group university? My BA and MA are from top UK unis but I am now 40 with young children and am unlikely to move from the town where I live for many years to come. For this reason the local university makes career sense, but should I aim for the most well respected university I can get into? It seemed so important at undergrad level which university you got into, but is it the same for a PhD? Thanks.

(Also posted in Further Ed)

For my lab-based PhD done at very prestigious university and supervised by the best in my field, I know several people in the research group who didn't see him for the best part of 6 months. He was frequently out of the country giving talks, chasing money etc. We all knew if we wanted anything from him, we needed to catch him in the pub.

With my own PhD students (I got tenure at a different RG university), I had documented meetings with each student individually once a month and had an open-door policy for them the remainder of the time. I only had one-to-one meetings more frequently than that with students flagged as struggling. As a PhD student you are learning how to be an independent researcher, you have to be given some freedom to learn how to do independent research.

Thanks to everyone. I don't expect to see a supervisor as regularly as you might in a lab-based subject. My concern about distance learning is that it won't afford me the opportunities (such as teaching experience) necessary to have any hope of an academic career later.

My decision is complicated by the the fact that for the local, non-RG option, I will have to make significant concessions to adapt my research to the interests of the local supervisor. The distance-based supervisor fits my research interests exactly, but might not offer the career opportunities. That said, I believe both supervisors to respected in their own field.

How impossible is the teaching? Could you do it in a day?

If the university were able to schedule you classes for, say, 2pm it might be possible, and I supppose they might be able to - worth asking? Or if they couldn't promise, would it be impossible to go up once a week for a couple of terms?

If you think about it, it's only (probably) ten trips, some of which you could combine with supervisions, per year. That'd let you audit one class to learn how to teach, and teach two/three depending on how fast you completed - might that be enough?

Sorry if this isn't helpful.

Thanks LRD, its very helpful. I've not had any first hand feedback on a distance-based PhD and its great to hear that it has been such a positive experience for you.

There is also the point made by you and others, that at some point I will have to up sticks and move where the (post-doc) opportunities are. The same reasons that prevent me doing that now (family, kids schools etc) are not going to go away. Is it very rare to continue post-doc in the university where the PhD was undertaken? I suppose I thought a few sacrifices now in order to study locally might help me work locally later on.

I know people who did do post-docs at the same university, so obviously it does happen.

To be honest, though, I don't think anyone at the moment ought to be starting a PhD and banking on getting a postdoc. So few people do. I'm sure there are brilliant people who are actually pretty secure - and it might be you're one of them. But I know so many people, lots at Oxbridge, lots at Russell groups, who have gone through the PhD and published and taught and attended conferences - done everything right - who are not getting jobs.

If you can only justify doing the PhD if you're 90% sure of getting a postdoc at the end, I don't see how it could work, no matter how you do it.

That is very doom and gloom, I know. I don't mean it to be - there are loads of reasons to do a PhD other than to get a postdoc at the other end - it's just really, really scary in the job market right now. I'll shut up now so the grown-up academics can say stuff.

To be honest, fwiw, I think you already know what you want to do. I might be wrong, but from your posts I'd say you are trying to convince yourself that the local university would not be a compromise, but actually you want the project with the distance university. In which case, do it.

There is lots of reasons not to do a PhD and you may not achieve a sparkling academic career, but maybe you will. You won't know unless you try it. The main reason I started my PhD was because I wanted to know I could do one. (The main reason I finished it was because there was no way I was going to give up).

Good luck whatever you decide.

HettyLou Depending on what your field is... postdoc places are very, very competitive and also not very well-paid. If you really want to make a career in academia, you HAVE to be mobile. The ones I know of were even internationally mobile, and went to the U.S.A.

HettyLou: I was on the interview panel not so long ago for a nine month fixed term appointment in my department. This job was to cover some leave, and had absolutely no prospect of leading to another job. Yet we still had fifty applicants, most of whom were well qualified to do the job. We ended up by interviewing five people who were the most brilliant of the fifty, who all had published work in referreed journals, done innumerable conference papers, and had got contracts for their first book. That, sadly, is the level of competition there is now.

Sorry, but I agree. Do the PhD if you can afford it for its own sake, but not with the expectation of a job. Things are very very grim in higher education and not looking likely to improve any time soon. I would also say go for he RG uni if you do go for it. It sounds like you want to.
Good luck!

All excellent advice, thanks so much. Magrat, you've summed it up really, thanks.

I have really taken on board all the comments about the competitiveness of the post-doc environment and it is starting to sink in. I do want to do the PhD for its own sake; I've thought about it on and off for the last 15 years and feel its now or never. And if its for its own sake, the distance, RG opportunity is exactly the project I want. Tasmania, niminypiminy, Happyon, thanks very much for very helpful insights.

And if you do get a job you are expected to feel grateful and work all hours to be some kind of all singing all dancing individual. Academia has got itself in a right twist at the moment. It can be one of the most amazing and creative jobs but a lot of pressure as well.