Do you know how long does it take to get a doctorate degree? Well, if you think that getting into a PhD degree programme is difficult, trust me, getting out is in no way less troublesome. I personally know quite a few students who couldn’t finish PhD degree within a pre-specified PhD program length. In fact, some even had to completely give up their PhD dreams. No wonder PhD completion and graduating on time is a dream of every research scholar. So the crucial question is how you can utilise your doctoral degree years efficiently in order to finish PhD and timely graduate?
In this post I’ll share with you some general PhD tips with a focus on thesis writing to assure you a timely graduation. Here we go!
Crucial Doctoral Degree Years
Your doctoral degree years form the foundation for your research career. You don’t just have to publish papers; you have to graduate as well! A PhD completion on time would allow you to start new research adventures. However, before you finish PhD get the “Doctor” tag prefixed with your name, you must fulfil all the requirements for the award of a PhD degree, including passing your PhD thesis examination successfully.
Official PhD Program Length
The duration of a PhD varies from university to university as there are so many factors. However, a normal PhD program length is expected to vary around 4-5 years if you are expected to publish at least 2-3 papers in good impact factor journals.
Thesis writing within PhD Program Length
How to complete a PhD thesis writing before the expiry of your PhD program length? I will tell you the mantra – the following paragraph is the most important part of this article-
Here is the thing- your PhD thesis should ideally have 3 technical chapters. If you have published three papers, they’d each constitute one chapter. That means, if you have published three first authored papers during your doctoral degree years, you shouldn’t have a problem in finishing PhD. In fact, from the very beginning of your PhD degree programme, you’d focus on publishing 3 first authored papers.
Related post – Tips For Writing A Good Research Paper.
The three paper guideline is a general suggestion and you’d find what constitutes optimal research achievement in your area of research. In certain disciplines (such as mathematics), there are more constraints to get even one journal paper accepted.
Again, if you have a Nature Medicine paper (Impact Factor = ~30), it might be better than 3 low impact factor papers. So it’s up to you to strike a balance between quality vs quantity.
Moreover, you don’t need to have all three publications in journals for the PhD thesis writing. For example, you may go for 2 journal papers and one conference paper.
Since the publication requirements vary from university to university, discipline to discipline, etc. – I’d recommend you to check with your university’s guidelines and discuss the same with your PhD supervisor. However, the main point is, while working on your research, you’d always keep in mind your thesis writing.
PhD thesis writing tips –Thesis structure
Remember, PhD is not awarded merely to a collection of research papers that you might have accumulated during your doctoral degree years. Rather, PhD is awarded for a submitted thesis (that is revised as per the examiners’ comments, of course). Obviously, the thesis is much more than a mere collection of papers.
So the question is how to write a PhD thesis? Fret not! Here I we’ll suggest a general thesis structure and you’d updated the template as per your requirements.
Let’s say you have three technical chapters in the PhD thesis, then your thesis may be organised as-
- Chapter 1 – Introduction (background, motivation, objectives, your contributions, thesis outline, etc.)
- Chapter 2 – Literature Survey (related works, data, modeling approaches, validation – mostly short essays)
- Chapter 3 – Technical Chapter 1 (Research paper 1)
- Chapter 4 – Technical Chapter 2 (Research paper 2)
- Chapter 5 – Technical Chapter 3 (Research paper 3)
- Chapter 6 – Conclusion & Future Direction
Thesis writing time
Remember, your publications are part of your thesis, but not the complete thesis! In fact, the thesis is the whole and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That means even if you have published papers, you need to present them neatly in the thesis – and that’s going to consume a good amount of time. Albeit good publication record, don’t take thesis writing lightly. I’d recommend that you should start writing your PhD thesis at least 4-5 month before the prescribed submission deadline.
While thesis writing you’d make sure that the flow of work between different chapters is diligently emphasised. The flow of work should look natural and consistent. For example, in 4th chapter you’d present the limitation and enhancements of your research work in Chapter 3.
What if you missed Thesis writing deadline?
Don’t panic! Stay cool and confident (if you have been sincerely working). You may have to pay the university fee (depending on your university’s rules). But keep working on your thesis writing. Meanwhile, try to find a part-time job (if you have monetary constraints) and submit the PhD thesis as soon as possible.
So How Long Does It Take to Get a Doctorate Degree?
It depends on so many factors and I’ll break ‘em down for you. Here is a rough estimate for a PhD completion (your actual PhD program length) in Singapore-
- When you will submit your PhD thesis (within 4 years in Singapore – usually/mostly/ideally)
- External reviews (after thesis submission) – 4 months
- Revision of thesis and internal review – 1 months
- Oral defence – within 1 month after internal reviewer gives a green signal (and subject to the examiners’ availability)
- Award of PhD degree – within a couple of months after passing the oral defence (not everyone’d pass).
So did you get the answer – how long does it take to get a doctorate degree? It’s going to take nearly 5 years (in Singapore). However, you probably can’t control point 2-5 as much you can control point 1. So try to submit your thesis on time. I know a few scholars who graduated within 3 years (including a guy from NUS). Yeah, that’s absolutely possible. But then, these students put a lot of efforts on research and possibly compromised the fun part of a graduate student’s life.
In prestigious US universities it may take up to 6 years to submit your thesis. That means your doctoral degree years would last for 7 years. 🙂
My PhD completion?
You might be wondering how much time I took to finish PhD. Well, I graduated in 5 years with 5 published papers- me first authored three of them!
That’s all for now about how long does it take to get a doctorate degree, and hope you’ll all graduate on time.
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Wishing you memorable doctoral degree years!
Rock on!
Last updated: Tuesday, October 24, 2017