updates to PT narrative

phd_app_advice.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ First a few salient details about our context here (in the UK at large research-
 - I meet with my PhD students on a monthly basis, 10 times a year (it is important to take breaks!). I generally expect that you will have written or revised a substantial piece of work for 4-5 of those meetings, and at least one of them will be conducted in the form of a group "laboratory" which will be a group supervision.
 - Given all the limits noted above, I provide special effort to "level the playing field" for PhD candidates with anxiety, depression, other mental health struggles or who are neuro-divergent. I am happy to chat more about this if you have specific questions about how you can successfully complete a PhD if any of these are factors for you (short answer: you can!).
 - You can matriculate for a PhD that is by "distance," e.g. you stay in your home country and we do supervision via videoconference on the same basis outlined above. I generally will expect you to have a good reason as to why remaining in your context will be an integral part of your research process and won't instead be a distraction.
-- You can also matriculate for a PhD that is part time, e.g. 5 supervisions a year on a bi-monthly basis over the course of 6-8 years. Again, I will expect you to indicate the specific reason why remaining part time is important to your PhD. Needing to work to support yourself or yourself and family is a very good reason, but we'll need to talk about how your PhD study won't jeopardise your financial security. It's generally my preference to supervise full-time projects, so while I understand the benefits of a part time programme, I'll generally prefer full-time unless there is a specific and necessary reason for doing things otherwise.
+- You can also matriculate for a PhD that is part time, e.g. 5 supervisions a year on a bi-monthly basis over the course of 6-8 years. It's also worth emphasising that the part time PhD will require you to consistently invest 18-20 hours of work per week throughout the year for up to 8 years. I have found in working to support other PhD students that this level of time cannot be stacked up with full time work or caring for the whole period of study without serious impacts on physical and mental health. So, I will expect us to have a conversation about the specific reason why remaining part time is important to your PhD. Needing to work to support yourself or yourself and family is a very good reason, but we'll also need to talk about how your PhD study won't jeopardise your financial security. An 8 year project – regardless of the amount of time invested each week - is a major undertaking and carries with it serious stressors which you'll need to plan to mitigate. This will require a certain kind of support network and meaningful solidarity from friends, work, and family. I do not mean to discourage anyone from applying to our programme in this way, but because I am seriously invested in your success as a researcher, I will insist on discussing these matters of self-care, pacing, work intensity and support.
 - Generally, the first 6-9 months of your PhD will be some blend of exploratory and constructive inquiry. By the summer of your first year you will need to have written a long-form piece of writing (8k words or so) and an outline of your proposed PhD thesis which will be submitted for a progress panel conducted by my colleagues. If your work is deemed insufficient, this panel can downgrade your degree to an MA or result in the termination of your programme of study, so this is an important milestone. In the second year, I expect most candidates to work on framing up chapters for their thesis and working on professional development (presenting at conferences, doing book reviews, networking, etc.). In the third year, you will be working to complete a final polished draft of your thesis, ideally for submission towards a viva voce examination by the end of Y3. The University of Birmingham does not provide any workload allocation for supervision beyond the third year, so whilst I will expect us to correspond and be in regular contact for the fourth year (if you have one), I will not provide regular supervisions and will need to book out time for reading drafts carefully, potentially avoiding periods which involve intensive teaching.
 - Finally it's worth emphasising that a PhD is a major undertaking and will truly take your full-time attention for three years. I know everyone has side-interests and various distractions, but it will be up to you to ensure that you have time available for regular meetings and are able to put in regular work reading, writing, and reflecting every week, most of the year.