I already have the certificate, in fact it came pretty much the same week I handed the purple thing over – which sort of makes a mockery of graduation, but nonetheless is useful to have.
I assume it’ll turn up in the SHU Learning Centre any day soon and at some point I will try and submit it for their electronic research archive (after writing the three articles/chapters and the conference paper I need to do by the end of June. And after marking is over).
The university asked me to fill something in with my ‘top tips’ for finishing on time, so here’s a copy-and-pasted (self-plagiarism ahoy!) version:
I think for me, finance was the key motivator, as I was self-funded and then research council funded, money is tight and I didn’t want to shell out more than I absolutely had to. I suspect people for whom money isn’t an issue take a lot longer to complete as they don’t have that impetus. Age also helped – I think if I was younger there might seem less of a push, and I think having worked for several years and then come back to study helped me be more motivated – there are pros to studying straight through but I think I was a better student for having not been one for a while (other than my MA which I did as a precursor to the PhD).
I think setting goals with your supervisors is also a good idea, and making sure you have supervisors you get on with and who will offer guidance but also allow you freedom – although I was lucky in that I got to choose my supervisors and examiners (in conjunction with others).
Picking a topic that is diverse enough to sustain you is probably good – my topic had so many facets (probably more than I would recommend for someone else) but that kept me going and something that was more straightforward would have bored me after six months or so.
Read some completed theses both early on and before writing up to know what’s in store.
