Seven Attitudes Crucial for Surviving a Part-Time Doctorate Study

By Dr Goh Seh Kai

12 Dec 2021

It is challenging to pursue a part-time doctoral degree while working since one must juggle career and education. To be viable in the course, a doctorate candidate shall possess fundamental qualities besides academic knowledge, work experience and research and analytical skills. This article shares my views on seven attitudes crucial for surviving a part-time doctorate study.

Seven attitudes essential to surviving a part-time doctorate course

Perseverance: Once you have decided to pursue a part-time doctoral degree while working, you must prepare to put in great effort relentlessly and consistently to avoid dropping out.

Although there is no strict guideline on how many books and articles you must read and the number of citations you shall include in your thesis, two to three hundred references are usually a minimum requirement.

Since not every journal article is helpful to your research, you might require to search more and spend ample time reading them. And it is pretty usual to waste time on irrelevant articles, although you would find something beneficial to your thesis.

Also, you are typically required to write a minimum of fifty to sixty thousand words for your thesis. Hence, you shall pen down your ideas, edit your writings and rewrite the whole sentences or paragraphs regularly, which are part and parcel of your research journey.

The reason is when you read your drafts each time, you can always find something needed for improvement — concise expression, logical linkage, better arguments, words and citations, etc.

As a result of repeated reading, writing, editing, and rewriting activities, you will eventually improve the thesis’s quality to be ready for examination.

Moreover, you must also obtain your supervisor’s approval before submitting the completed thesis to the external examiners for assessment within a time frame (typical five years). Therefore, you need to persevere to avoid failure.

Endurance: During work, you might have to stay late after office hours or continue to work from home to complete your tasks. Consequently, you might not devote sufficient time to your course, which would affect your research progress.

To overcome this issue, you shall prioritize research work by allocating time to your daily study. It would be best to reduce nonessential activities, such as watching television programmes or indulging in other social activities. Moreover, you can use part of your break time or mealtime to read articles or write or edit tasks.

Also, since you have more time on weekends, you must fully utilize it. If possible, you should avoid disturbance from others — leave all household chores to your spouse or children and refrain from involving in unimportant matters.

Hence, your endeavour in attaining a doctorate while working is always challenging, demanding and lonely. However, no matter how arduous the journey is, your ability to endure the hardship will determine your chance of success.

Humbleness: As a doctoral candidate, you usually need to submit your drafts to your supervisors for comments periodically.

Your supervisors will place their comments on your drafts. For example, your supervisors might scrutinize your arguments, expressions, rationale, references, citations, sentences construction, data presentation, grammar, words choices, etc.

Depending on your supervisors’ effort, you may receive a lot of helpful feedback or simple comments that are not entirely essential.

Regardless of their feedback, they are opportunities for improvement before external examiners examine your thesis. Hence, it would help to accept all comments, even though you think your work is perfect and excellent.

However, if you think you are right, you can always raise your views, which your supervisors might neglect or not know. And it would be best to be humble in your interaction with your supervisors and maintain a harmonious relationship with them, as it might be unfavourable to your progress if the relationship turns sour.

Adaptability: Most supervisors have set some rules and regulations for their students at the beginning of their supervision. It would be best to adapt to your supervisors’ coaching styles.

Some examples of their supervision styles include — when and how you shall discuss your research progress and issues, where you shall meet with them, when you shall submit your drafts and resubmit them after their comments, etc.

Moreover, your supervisors might be straightforward to you in terms of their vocal and written styles of comments, which you shall feel comfortable with and don’t feel offended.

Besides, you shall always abide by the university’s guidelines — when you shall attend yearly symposiums (typically twice per year); how you shall present your work and progress, in which university professors and other supervisors will assess and provide their feedback for improvement.

Thus, your ability to adapt to your supervisors’ supervision styles and the university’s requirements will enhance your chances of success.

Resilience: From time to time, you might encounter some setbacks, such as sluggish study progress due to heavy office workload, multiple amendments required for your drafts, negative comments from your supervisors, etc., which affect your morale. Nevertheless, it is advisable not to feel demoralized and contemplate giving up.

The ability to bounce back and continue your journey is crucial to your success. Hence, instead of feeling demoralized mentally or emotionally, you shall strategize on revitalizing your ability– find ways to improve your research work by strengthening your physical and mental capability.

For example, you must understand when is the best time for your reading, writing, etc., and when is the best time to exercise, sleep, etc. Also, you should eat healthy and nutritious foods to enhance your immune system and cognitive power.

From experience, although most doctoral students are brilliant and possess academic knowledge and research skills for pursuing the degree, many fail because they could not cope with the stress and abandon their aspirations.

Hence, your ability to be resilient by overcoming setbacks and continuing to improve is key to your success.

Self-Discipline: You ought to be self-disciplined to fulfil your research activities, such as reading, writing, editing, data collection and analysis, etc. It would be best to use a timetable to schedule the activities and strictly stick to the plan.

Also, if you could abide by your plan, you would persevere despite any setbacks that might distract your concentration. For example, by following your timetable, you will not participate in unimportant activities, events or functions since they are not on your schedule. And sometimes, even you think it is the best time to sleep due to cosiness, you will resist the temptation and continue your plan.

Besides studying, you shall also plan when to meet with your supervisor, attend symposiums, exercise, relax, eat nutritious diets, nap, and sleep to uplift your physical and mental strength.

Thus, self-discipline through proper planning is key to success despite any obstacles preventing your progress. You can only be sure to reach your destination if you can progress according to your plan.

Confidence: Although there is no guarantee that you will succeed in your study, you shall believe you can achieve it once you have made up your mind to pursue the degree.

Confidence is crucial to your success since the journey towards achieving the degree is challenging as you have to juggle both work and study.

Although you might feel confident at the beginning of your course, your confidence might quickly diminish due to the hardship you would be experiencing and the long journey you have to tide through.

And if you lose confidence, you will feel unmotivated in your study and destine you to fail. However, if you are confident throughout your journey, you will be willing to put extra effort into your research despite the hardship. As a result of your confidence, you would have a higher chance to succeed one day.

In summary, it is challenging for a job incumbent to pursue a part-time doctoral degree. To be viable, the doctorate candidate shall embrace the seven fundamental attitudes — perseverance, endurance, humbleness, adaptability, resilience, self-discipline and confidence.

Thank you for reading, and your comments are welcome and appreciated!