Bert* is a doctoral researcher from the UK completing an online, part-time, structured PhD programme alongside his home-based research job.
*Bert chose his own pseudonym.
I am very happy with the choice I made to do this particular PhD programme and it has been a really enjoyable experience. So, my wellbeing is determined to some extent by my original choice and still being happy with that. I wouldn’t be able to study and study what I want to study if it wasn’t part time and if it wasn’t online. And the modular element of it, I think, is an added and a particular bonus within it, because the modular part has allowed me to understand various aspects within the field of study that I’m in and then hone in on the thesis in years three and four, which has been an incredibly positive and attractive process to actually do.
I don’t think I’d be in the same position if I was doing this 20 years ago. I say that because the process of doing a PhD can be an isolating experience because it’s self-directed study. What is problematic for me doing the PhD is the inherent uncertainty that occurs at basically every stage of the research process. If you have some kind of psychological issues to begin with, combined with the isolation and that uncertainty, then that can be problematic. But I think I’m at an age where I know myself, I know my own strengths and weaknesses, and so that hasn’t been a problem but I think if I was younger, it might have been. I think online doctoral work probably suits a particular type of person too and I’m not entirely sure it’s applicable to everybody wanting to do a PhD.
In terms of what the institution can do to support somebody’s well-being, that I think from the off, the student has to have that genuine understanding of what they’re letting themselves in for. When we talk about well-being and the things that the institution does to support somebody’s well-being in online doctoral research, then a fairly large degree of that is symbolic; the cross-departmental meetings, the meetings you have within the programme that are kind of academic, but also a quasi-social. But I think, there’s a responsibility of the institution not just to sell the programme from the off, but also to make it abundantly clear what the risks are in doing that type of studying and that you need to think about these things to make an informed choice. The majority of people don’t fail because there’s some kind of mismatch between the methodology and the method but because they haven’t got the resilience to keep on going. There’s some kind of study skill aspect to failure, which isn’t highlighted at the start of the programme. And I think that’s incredibly important to actually do, to be as honest as you can be, to the prospective students.
I think the culture at the institution that we’re at is also supportive and has a flexible approach. What I mean by that is people. When I’ve spoken to people on a particular issue, maybe needing an extension or further flexibility, people spoke to me as a human being, so I was made to feel valued in that sense that I was listened to as an individual.
The academics themselves, you’d expect them to be subject matter experts in what you’re talking about. They’re professors in their chosen field, that’s kind of a given. What was intensely, incredibly reassuring to me at the start of the programme was the people who led the programme were also subject matter experts in online education, which was incredibly reassuring to know that and to get their experience at a certain point in time.
A lot of people will be attracted to an online piece of doctoral research because it affords some flexibility, especially if you’re also doing it part-time, as you combine that with work and family life. Whether it is a subjective understanding of my own well-being, or whether it is objectively good for me or not, I don’t know, because work, family life and study sort of merge into one. I’m not entirely sure if that’s good or not, but it suits me, so I’m quite happy to do it. But that hasn’t been new to me as I have doing similar things in my day job, so I was pretty sure before attempting the programme that that studying online would suit me because I work in that fashion anyway.
One thing I have noticed in the past about my own particular way of being and of studying is a problem with timelines. I’m not in the process of setting myself artificial timelines and I have also had problems with procrastination in the past. I’m guessing that the dropout number doing an online doctorate would be probably higher than those in person and probably because the psychological pressures get multiplied in this online world if you don’t have that immediate support structure. But I’ve gone past that now and I know how to deal with it. I know the ways to deal with it, and I have my own support network outside of what I’m doing online. I think you’ve got to be self-reflective in the first place to know what the actual issue is and then to have a trusting relationship with someone that you can actually talk it through, verbalise the situation and what you’re feeling about. I don’t know how you would do that online, even if it was a mentoring type of relationship, if the institution set that up, how would you develop those trustful online relationships that are needed to have those kinds of discussions. For me, it would seem a superficial, symbolic thing for the institution to do. That doesn’t mean to say that it would be without value. If I thought the institution wasn’t doing that, I would be asking why it wasn’t. But you do need to be self-aware and recognise when you need to seek support, so I think the minimum that the institution should do is signpost where to get that support in those situations. I think it would be quite useful at the start to establish whether you have the existing support network in place to cover these things. You might have this great idea to do this particular piece of research but that’s only 20% of what doctoral research is. If you’re not committed to actually doing it and persevering through the parts that aren’t that interesting to do. You need to establish what resilience means to you. Consider if you’ve experienced adversity in the past and how you’ve got through it, whether you’ve experienced the online world before, understanding what it is you’re letting yourself in to before you begin.
In summary, it has been a positive experience. For me, doing a modular programme has been a really fantastic way of doing things as it has given me a broader understanding of the subject area before I’ve had to focus in on the thesis. Mixing academic life with my working life hasn’t been that problematic because I was doing something very similar in the first place. What the institution could more of is being more open and honest with people about the problems and pitfalls from the off. Just being honest, that’s quite novel in the first place.