This is true of me also. At the end of last semester I started planning to complete, and the argument really came together between then and now as I took the various chapter drafts and began to work out if they fit, and where.

As for having more time to do PhDs, I’d say that in certain of the sciences (anything to do with genetics, biotechnology etc especially) that could be counter-productive for the candidate given the pace of change in those fields. This is less likely in the humanities, and perhaps the social sciences. My feeling is that a ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn’t work (PhDs by Procrustes!). I’m conscious of having deferred broadening my knowledge in some areas that will be useful in research and teaching in order to focus on the thesis (languages would be the main one). We would be better off with humanists with a wider breadth of knowledge.

I’d also observe that a couple of my friends who took 8 and 12 calendar years respectively think that the process of engaging with intellectual work over a long period of time has distinct educative value compared to a simple straightforward candidature. But I guess they (and I) would say that! I still suspect it’s true though.

My food and rent have been provided by aforementioned partner since January (and until August, it seems, when I will be convening a course). Much to my relief she can actually run this place on her salary now, and not a moment too soon - last semester was a bit of stretch for us. I’m bringing in a hefty $60 a week tutoring high school English, which is a pleasure and a relief every Monday afternoon. It looks like I’ll have the thesis in about two months before my 26th birthday.

BTW I took your advice, Dr Cat, and had my student read ‘A Modest Proposal’ for her satire unit.

Quick, someone tell J*hn Gre**nf**ld. He might stop calling me Miss Hathaway.

Or not.

They’re about to put me on a proper footing now too, but I suspect it’s largely out of pity.

This is pretty much what I’ve done, but I don’t know anybody else who has.

*Puts up hand*

Mind you, that was two or three decades ago, and there was a bit of an interruption to drop out and be a (non-pregnant, ahem) teenage bride and other things that were de rigeur at the time, but I finally submitted my PhD thesis about a month before I turned 27. I was so terrified that the three-year scholarship would not be renewed even for the usual six months (standard at the time) — and that even if it was I would be stuck looking for academic work in the middle of the then-three-term academic year — that I finished the wretched thing on the stroke of midnight, as it were, before the coach turned into a pumpkin.

(For this I must thank my parents, who took me back into the parental home (marriage well over by then) and fed me and did my laundry and so on for the final six-month stretch.)

This is pretty much what I’ve done, but I don’t know anybody else who has. Even the younger candidates have done other things for a year or two here and there.

At least a PhD is covered by RTS, so you don’t get to increase your HECS debt doing it. If the APA/UPAs were extended to 4 years with the option of requesting an additional six months that would be a good step.

But getting back to slaving away as a casual or contract academic. There’s a lot of stuff written about how universities will face a workforce crisis when the baby boom retires etc. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. It should be seen as a tragedy for Australia that we invest so much educating so many really clever people only to let them drift off into other things (where they often make great contributions of course) and unable to do what they are trained to do - teach, research and write.

I did a Masters in my time in San Francisco, and also did the ABD thing (”all but dissertation”)- ie sat for the doctoral coursework exams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.Phil.

But I sort of got diverted into other paths, and then decided to come back and live here, and while I’ve done a spot of tertiary teaching, just aren’t prepared to devote four or five years to a thesis while trying to scratch around at the same time and make enough money to live on. Coz I couldn’t live on a scholarship - not with the sort of expenses that are associated with prosthetics, and other financial commitments I have.

To turn off your adblocker for this site (which I’ve just done), take a look at the bottom right corner of your web browser (assuming you’re using Firefox for the moment). Do you see the word “AdBlock”? If so, right-click and select the option “Whitelist this whole site”. Otherwise, do you see a red stop sign with “ABP” in it in the top right, perhaps near the search bar? If so, left click the little down arrow just to the right of the stop sign, and choose the “Disable for larvatusprodeo.net” option. Otherwise, try your “Tools” menu. You’re looking for options that refer to the entire of the site/domain.

HTH.

I’m also approaching the end of a PhD, and I suspect I may end up like Lefty E in terms of the scholarship and the candidature not ending quite simultaneously. With that in mind (as it increasingly is!), I was interested to see just how much you get paid for the ads. It looks like my humble blog gets something like a quarter to a third of LP’s traffic (which surprises me), so, extrapolating naively, I might expect to get a few hundred a month if I put ads on it. Which would be huge in my current financial situation! Something to think about, anyway.