funding for part time phd - discrimination?

[AnnabellaFagina]

Does anymore know if there has been any work done on this. I want to start a phd when my dd starts school, and had hoped to do it part time. However a lot of the studentships(funding) are not applicable for part time phds. Surely this indirect sex discrimination?

TDoE: Way back in the dark ages, I received my studentship payments directly from the research council (quarterly), but now the research council money is paid direct to the university and the university pays the research students; so the contract would be with the university.

It isn't salary though, it's a stipend; which I'm not certain of the technical legal details of, but there isn't a pension, and if you need maternity you transfer onto statutory maternity pay and the stipend would be paused. Likewise there's no sick-pay, so you'd have to pause the studentship and apply for state benefits whilst sick. However, being a stipend, it is tax-exempt and doesn't count against the personal allowance, so any earnings from PT-teaching etc would have to exceed personal tax allowance before income tax would be due.

LRD: Yes, if the project itself is definitely longitudinal such that 8years is absolute, then submitting that proposal for a 3yr studentship couldn't work.

Sometimes ideas can be a bit more flexible though, and as you suggested, it could be presented as PhD + post-doc extension.

Also if the funding specifically rules out transferring to PT, then that wouldn't be an option, but some funding is from more general funding pots and it might be worth seeing if the university itself precludes transferring to PT.

Yes, I agree - I just think it needs to be clear from the start what she's planning.

I don't think it can be called discrimination as it would affect both sexes if one could not do a full week for one reason or another. From what I've heard there is huge competition for PHD funding and it's quite difficult to get with a lot of previous sponsors cutting back hugely on the numbers. I think I'd look at the possibility of the full time onesonce your DC's are at school. Some can be quite fexible I believe.

There are part-time studentships available, here's one just enter the term part-time in the search box of the main site

I'm tied to a specific uni, because I can't move cities.

Can you not work long-distance?

It's worth asking them about it - I don't know exactly how it would work with your project, but often universities will accept long distance candidates if you explain to them how you will make it work.